“I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.” I Cor. 9:22
University students at Michigan Technological Universityin Houghton, MI built an incredible “Our Lady of the Snows” chapel outside their school. On Feb. 5, the 33×18-foot snow chapel was finished, complete with a snow altar, candle coves, and a pulpit made of ice. Later that evening, the community celebrated the inaugural candle-lit Mass with more than 140 people attending.
This is evidently the 6th year in a row that Engineering Students have accomplished this task. It takes 100’s of man hours and quite a bit of design, but they thought it was a good way to utilize the over 200 Inches of snow that falls on the campus each year, as well as work on their design & engineering skills…after all, it IS an Engineering School!
(I thought this was an appropriate place to start my article as we deal with 3” of snow here on the High Plains!)
The articles I read said that they did this to help celebrate their Winter Carnival and to hopefully have people think a little more about God as they prepared for the Lenten Season. (Ash Wednesday is actually this week…that is the beginning of 40 days prior to Easter/Passover) The idea of PREACHING from an Ice Pulpit doesn’t excite me…and I doubt the idea of sitting in Snow Pews would excite YOU! But it did get me thinking!
How are WE coming up with NEW and interesting ways to get people thinking about God? I’m not talking about AT Church…I’m talking about IN THE COMMUNITY! In 2014, we brought The “Tabernacle Experience” here and over 3000 people went through it!!! We have partnered with schools, with the Food Bank, with United Way and other organizations to LOVE PORTALES and to pour into people! We’ve bought meals, paid electric bills, used media and social media to focus on things we are doing! We’ve sponsored the XO CONFERENCE to encourage Marriages in our town…and we’re doing it again in a couple of weeks!
We’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: You are the only Bible some people will ever read! Are the words we are saying EXCITING people about Jesus? Or are we even pointing them to Jesus at all?
Our purpose needs to be at the fore-front of EVERY thing we do at Central: LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS! We need to point people to HIS LOVE and His Goodness in everything we do!!
I’m not ready to build a snow chapel…but I AM ready to DO SOME GREAT THINGS! Let’s put on our “Thinking Caps” and listen to the words of Paul that are quoted at the beginning of this article. He was willing to do ANYTHING to save some! Do we have that mentality?? Or are we content to just keep doing “the same old things?” Franklin said it powerfully last weekend: What we do at the altar should make a difference in our daily lives! If what we are doing IN Church or posting on our Social Media is NOT pointing people to Jesus…is it doing any good??
God is calling us to MAKE DISCIPLES…not be the “Chosen Frozen”! (Did you see what I did there??) Let’s not lose sight of our goal for this year: Every ONE Matters in 2021! Let’s make a DIFFERENCE! Now excuse me while I go put on my parka…thinking about an ice church has me shivering!!
Shalom & Noelle – Peace & Joy to your Family!
Don
