Last week I had a visit from a young graduate student from Syracuse University. He has a degree in Architecture and expressed an interest in our uniquely historic and architecturally intriguing church building.
Many of you are probably aware that the congregation where I serve as minister, known as Oakhaven Church, meets in a renovated dairy barn. I have previously written about its spiritual implications. Read the piece that started it all here.
The architect, Doug, has a fascination in structures which have been reconfigured for re-use. Old barns transformed into Church houses are not all that common so his interest in our project was not surprising. I was delighted to tell him about the transformation process and as I was giving him a tour through the building, I pointed out a wall which is finished with materials reclaimed from an old granary which, at one time, sat next to the barn.
The granary looked like an old chicken coop and was originally used to store grain for the livestock. The granary was one of the most functional buildings on this property back when it was a working farm. This was back in the early part of the twentieth century. When our congregation attained ownership of the property, the granary was rickety. in shambles and looked worthless. I shared with Doug that we tore the granary down and salvaged what we could with the idea that some of those materials could be used in the renovating the barn. I don’t know that we were thinking “green” as much as we were thinking “cheap”. As I gave him a tour of the office area, I pointed out one old board in particular, which measures approximately 1” X 20”. That’s right, I said, one inch by twenty inches. By the way, don’t go to your local lumber yard and expect to find many one by twenties in stock. This old plank was from one of the sawmills of long ago when boards were turned out in varying widths and thicknesses. This old plank is truly one of a kind. 
“We saved these old boards….. and as you can see, they have found new life here in the office area” I said, as I pointed at the office wall. “Much of the lumber from that old granary could not be saved, but this one was salvaged and serves its purpose to this day.”
It was right about here in our conversation that my mind began reaching, as it often has, for a spiritual application in the sharing of the Oakhaven barn story. I have written about it before, but this time there was a nuance to the story I had never considered.
I considered that when we speak of being saved, I think we often take a shallower view of salvation than God does. By that, I mean, we frequently hear the word “saved” in theological discussions, to mean someone was living badly but found Jesus, got saved and started going to church and stopped doing wrong-headed, immoral activities and saved means escaping the “burn pile”.
Now granted, much of the old granary got put on the burn pile and subsequently got the match. But my story of the old “one by twenty” just hit me like a ton of bricks or a two by four upside the head. (Pardon the construction metaphor…but after all, this is about a wooden plank.) So the insight that presented itself relates to how salvation needs to be looked at as more than just saving someone from the “burn pile”.
It has to do with opening oneself up to being part of the on-going project of God to serve in His purposes and His work.
Thank God, we are redeemed and saved by God and his redemptive work in Jesus. Thank God that we are not saved from the “burn pile” only to be stacked in a warehouse with other planks and boards without a view to be utilized in some good purpose.
Indeed, as I directed my young architect friend to look at the old board which partially covered that office wall, I realized how sad it would have been to have saved the old plank only to just have it stored away somewhere on a shelf with no function, no purpose, no sense of glory. It’s a fine purpose to save something from being burned up, it’s a finer purpose still, to bring something to purpose, meaning and function.
Kind of like what it would be to have church members stacked on pews on Sunday morning. Saved from the “burn pile” but really having no sense of participating with God in His Grand Project of renewing a world, bringing about a new creation. The Grand Architect has a higher purpose. Being “saved” has far deeper meaning than it is often given.
