In every congregation I have ever worked with a constant source of complaining is with the thermostat. There is always someone to hot or to cold. No matter what approaches the church tries to regulate the temperature, some one is not satisfied. I often wondered how the problem can be solved.
A few years back, I traveled with a group of young people to help in the recovery after Hurricane Katrina. During that time, I had to privilege to worship with the Chalmette church of Christ. Most of their building was washed away from the floods following the hurricane. The church had continued to meet in the building as soon as they were able to get in the area. The members had begun the slow process of rebuilding. When we met, some new sheetrock had been installed but the church was still without doors or windows. A church of 80 members now only had 5 still able to live in the community. But many still traveled in each week to worship, some from as far as fifty miles away. On this Sunday two other volunteer groups including ourselves came to worship with them. Before service started, the meeting room was very stuffy from the crowd, when one of the elders got up and said “I better change the thermostat.” He walked over to one of the former windows and cut away the tar paper covering it to try to let in some air. He told us that the week before the temperature was around 40 degrees and everyone had been huddled around two small space heaters. But still the church was continuing to assemble each first day of the week.
In a discussion we had later in the week, one of our young women commented that when people will assemble in those conditions it shows you what really matters. Through out the worship, that I never heard anyone say anything about the temperature.
I guess they have figured out how to solve the thermostat problem.
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