The Church as Permanent Warming Center



When Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie walked through the wardrobe in C.S. Lewis’ classic tale, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” they entered the frozen wonderworld of Narnia.  While they encountered many delightful characters there, it was a doleful world where it was “always winter and never Christmas.” 

We’ve had a bit of our own Narnia experience here in Galesburg this past week.  Prior to moving here, my wife and I lived in South Dakota for six years.  Our frigid conditions, including the flat front tire on our car this week, brought back not-so-pleasant memories of the frozen northland.  But on the upside, conditions like these can also bring out the good in people.  I’m grateful for my church, First Baptist of Galesburg, because we were able to graciously open our doors Tuesday night as an emergency warming center for six people, displaced from their home by busted pipes.  Fire Chief Tom Simkins made the connections and the Red Cross equipped our fellowship hall with cots, blankets, personnel, and food.  The displaced folks were very grateful for the care that they received.  On Wednesday morning, the Red Cross was able to move them over to the YMCA where Adam Sampson and his staff graciously received them into their warming center.  Interestingly enough, the Y’s historic mission was to provide a place of shelter and purpose for young urban men in the name of Jesus.  (YMCA stands for Young Men’s Christian Association.)  It was under the auspices of the YMCA that Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody began his world-changing ministry in the late nineteenth century. 

Using Lewis’ Narnia metaphor, all churches are to be a warming center.  Like Narnia, our world is a cold and forbidding place, even on the warmest of summer days.  We have all partaken of the “Turkish Delight,” craving after selfish power and pleasure and have come under sin’s icy spell.  In “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” the frozen spell of Narnia was finally broken by the great Lion, Aslan’s, sacrificial death on the Stone Table and his coming back to life.  Lewis’ tale is obviously in reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the antidote to sin’s deadly spell that has been cast upon us. 

The mission of the Church is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed.  The death and resurrection of Jesus is the only thing that can thaw the hearts of men and women whose lives have been frozen by sin’s awful curse.  The Church, which is the flesh and blood representation of Christ in this age is the place where hearts are thawed and restored to life as it is meant to be.  This Sunday, come in from out of the cold and go worship at your nearest church where the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed and celebrated.


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