Clutter

We prayed over every aspect of this building, but forgot to ask, "Lord please save it from clutter." It's been open about eight years. I just hate to see it get filled with clutter everywhere you turn. If a display (not a piece of art) is up longer than 2 or 3 months, it becomes wallpaper, and loses its message. Our missions display has an important message, but has been up over 2 years.

This is what it looked like in 2006.
This is what it looked like last week.
It must have been extremely difficult to attach these since there is no hanging system in the Narthex, so I suspect they will stay until the building falls down. I was in one of the classrooms behind this wall last week (after I'd taken the photograph) and said to another woman that I thought the wall in the Narthex was too cluttered with flags and posters (there are also flags representing the local schools). She had no idea what I was talking about. She had forgotten what was there and she attends church there every week. As I said, 2 to 3 months, and then it's wallpaper. I don't attend church at MR so I notice it when I come in, but not in a positive way.

I've never been sure why coat rooms have fallen out of favor in new public buildings, because free standing coat racks just turn the halls into coat storage in cold weather, or storage for empty hangers in warm weather. You can imagine what the halls look like when people are in the building on a cold day.

And it isn't unique to this building (The Church at Mill Run). Today I took some materials over to our Lytham Road campus and on my way out the door I heard some lovely music from the sanctuary. I slipped in and sat down in the back. The bright sunlight was dancing through the stained glass windows. When my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realized someone in the balcony was working with the sound equipment. But it was so lovely and peaceful I just stayed and listened. As my eyes adjusted I could see about 2/3 of the chancel--the other 1/3 was covered by the large screen dangling from the ceiling, as it is every Sunday worship. These ubiquitous screens appear in churches all over the country, blotting out the design, windows, altar or art of the front of the sanctuary or chancel. And for what? So people can clap or raise their hands. What about the eyes?