Beauty from Ashes
Today marks a significant day in the history of Life Center Church.
Forty-eight years ago to the day, our church burned to the ground. It was a total loss. A building that people had met Jesus in. A place where people came to faith. A location that held marriages, water baptisms, baby dedications, Christmas celebrations, Easter gatherings…it was gone.
There was one thing salvaged that still remains from that tragic day: the cross that stood atop the former building.
It serves as a powerful reminder to this day, as it stands in our Gray Chapel. The Cross remains.
What should have been the ending, wasn’t.
That is the story of Jesus.
That is the story of Life Center.
That is the story for each of us who follow Jesus.
Because of the Cross of Jesus, beauty can come from broken places.
It is the story of the Gospel, and it is the story of this church community that I now have the joy to pastor. Here are a few reflections as I consider this day:
GOOD THINGS CAN COME FROM PAINFUL MOMENTS
There are moments that we face in life where we might say, “How can anything good come from this?” No doubt, this is what the disciples of Jesus felt as they watched their Rabbi and the One they called Messiah hang on the cross and die. But something beautiful and good was coming.
In a similar manner, Life Center was forced to adapt and meet in the gymnasium that still stood. This forced the church to embrace having multiple gatherings each weekend — a seed that would grow to be not just multiple gatherings, but multiple locations and multiple languages. People stood and offered financial and physical help to rebuild what was lost. And here is a beautiful thing: what was rebuilt was actually better than what had existed. This rebuilt building still stands as our Central Campus auditorium.
THE END IS NOT THE END
Many places do not survive chaos and catastrophe like a fire. But God had a different plan. That is the beautiful message of the Cross of Jesus: the end is not the end. What looked like the greatest moment of defeat, was actually the moment of greatest triumph.
Instead of closing up shop, the church pushed forward. Life Center has had multiple moments in its 105 year history that probably “should have” led to the end…but God had a different plan! All these years later, lives are still being transformed because of the Cross of Jesus.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE WHAT GOD CAN DO THROUGH FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE
Scripture says that Jesus was “obedient to death on a cross” (see Philippians 2:8). Through His obedience, grace is made available to all who would trust Him.
I think about the faith and obedience of the generation that committed to rebuild, even in the face of challenges. Forty-eight years later, there have been countless lives impacted locally and globally through Life Center and its ministries. I’ve been told stories of men and women who were so committed to what they believed Jesus wanted to do in Tacoma through Life Center that some mortgaged their homes to help build the new church! Talk about faith.
Forty-eight years later, we are still seeing the fruit of that faith.
And now, on our leg of the journey, I pray that we will be people who are shaped by the Cross of Jesus.
No matter what you have faced, are facing, or will face in the future — the cross remains. And because of that reality, there is always the hope of beauty from ashes.
