Dear friends in Christ,
When I’m not traveling, I hang my proverbial hat at Christ Church Glendale near Cincinnati. In addition to Sunday morning duties, I lead a midweek Bible study.
This fall, as I was seeking the topic for our Bible study, someone suggest that we look at the Bible stories behind the stained glass windows in our church. I loved this idea, and we spent eight weeks looking at windows and talking about the related Bible passages. One of the members has done quite a bit of work on the windows, including reading notes made by the artisan who made most of the windows. It’s been a team effort.
I know that the Bible study has helped me notice things in some of the windows, and I just about always learn something new when I dive into a Bible passage. Just about everyone talks about their newfound appreciation for the windows that we see every week but not have seen fully. And we also have been able to make deep scriptural connections with the windows and our own lives.
This got me thinking. What else is in our church that we might have seen but not noticed? For that matter, it’s a good reminder that our world is full of delights if we slow down to appreciate them more fully. But churches are special places that are often rich with symbols and images. Sometimes churches make their point by the sheer absence of these things. But good art and architecture always teaches us something if we are willing to be students.
What about your church? Have you slowed down to notice the small and big things? Are you ready to learn from the beauty around you?
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
More from our ministry:
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Order your calendar now: Slow Down. Quiet. It’s Advent