Tent Worship

Decades ago, many mighty works of God were done in outdoor services under a big tent. Those tent meeting revivals have their place in church history. Today, our worship most always takes place inside where the comforts can be more controlled and where weather makes little to no difference. But this Sunday here at Grace Church we will get a small taste of the past as we move both of our morning worship services (9:00 and 10:45) outside on our soccer filed under a big tent. Our nursery, children’s program, youth group and Adult Bible Fellowship classes will meet inside as usual.

Why the “blast from the past?” The answer really has nothing to do with the tent meeting revival days of years gone by. The answer is because our present auditorium is getting a much needed face-lift. Last week the 17 year old carpet was removed and the walls were repainted. My how this was needed. That carpet served us well but it was a real distinct eyesore in recent years. It is covered with every stain imaginable including but not limited to blood from athletes diving for basketballs and volleyballs as well as the stain that remains from the day a few years ago that we brought a horse into the auditorium as an object lesson when we were preaching through the book of James on Sunday mornings. We put all kinds of plastic down “just in case.” Well, “just in case” actually happened and we found out that this specific horse was not “paper trained.” I’ll never forget watching the front two rows of the auditorium clear out as that horse turned its large rear end toward the crowd and lifted its tail. Man, I still laugh until I cry when I remember that morning.

This past week work began to install a new floor. This floor will be far more multi-functional than the athletic carpet was. Because there will be no carpet, this will be an ideal floor for all of the athletic events that take place in our gym/auditorium for Lititz Christian School. At the same time, we can still do everything else we normally do in that room as an auditorium and have it look even better than ever. We don’t even need to cover the floor. We can set tables, chairs and other items right on it. The dimples that this causes in the floor will raise back to a perfect surface within minutes of these items being taken down. This is going to be one nice floor. But as a result of installing the new floor, we must be out of the auditorium for one Sunday which is this Sunday. Thus, the reason for the worshipping under the big top July 20!

The month of August will bring the final touches to the gym/auditorium remodeling project. Retractable basketball standards and bleachers will be installed along with a new scoreboard. There will also be large multi-media curtains installed that will cover all of this on Sunday mornings so that it doesn’t look like we are meeting in a gymnasium. Lititz Christian School has worked hard on coming up with these plans so that our entire ministry is benefited. And we are very thankful that Rick Bernhardt, our Senior Administrator of Lititz Christian School and Morningstar Daycare was also able to find a donor who is passionate about all of our ministries here at Grace Church and who is underwriting the entire project. We’ll be back in the auditorium on July 27, but for this coming Sunday, July 20, I’ll see you under the big top as we worship outside under the tent!