Death and Resurrection: A St. Mark’s Perspective

Below is a reflection by Curt Welty, the president of the board at St. Mark’s Church, concerning the church’s recent vote to pass on their property to Seven Mile Road. Curt has been a good leader at St. Mark’s and a good friend to us. I’m grateful for this brother who has served both communities well in this season. Death brings sorrow and resurrection brings joy.Curt reflects on the sadness of seeing his church die and reflects on the hope of new life through Seven Mile Road.

It has not been a quiet week here in my hometown. It has been a difficult week and weekend. But right now I just want wallow in the awesomeness that is God. To define wallow – according to the Free Merriam-Webster dictionary – is “to devote oneself entirely; especially : to take unrestrained pleasure.” This is what I want to do right now.

To get the whole context of my day and weekend, I need to start with this morning. I think I might have forgotten to mention that we had THE major vote of our church’s life today. We have now voted to hire a lawyer and to begin the process of transferring our church’s property over to Seven Mile Road Church. We, the tired old church, are giving our property to the young energetic church. Now I realize that some of you are thinking we are nuts [some people in our congregation would agree with you], but we are doing this. You may have heard many of the reasons before. We are old. Our finances are going down. Our membership is dying. Seven Mile Road has been using our property for basically a year now. They are energetic and full of life. Ajay Thomas, the pastor there and our preacher, has spoken way too many messages that have penetrated this hard heart and sleepy head of mine.

Since yesterday afternoon, I had been thinking way too much about this vote – almost every single way this vote could turn out. How each person could react to each way. How I would react to each way. Too much thinking, too much heart ache, too many tears.

We had the vote and we accepted the transfer which is good for Seven Mile road, good for me because that is where I am headed soon, and good for God because He can still use this property for His will. Bad for me, because I also lose a church. This church was and is entrusted to me as President of the board. I am a long time member since 1989 which still puts me in the younger half in terms of length of membership. But it still hurts and still disappoints that we have not been able to make a go of it. As the President, I still feel some responsibility of not continuing the name. So it was mostly a mixed emotional day up until the five minutes before starting this reflection.

Why the change of emotional status? Good question. Wallowing in the awesomeness that is God. Just hanging in out in the glory of God. Why should we do this, especially if our hopes and dreams have blown up in our faces? Because Jesus is our good shepherd. Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we have nothing to fear. Jesus with his death and resurrection has defeated everything we could fear. Sin, death, Lucifer – done, defeated, gone down in flames, whipped, blown out! Jesus’ rod and staff are our comfort. The rod can beat the wolves that want to come after us. The staff can help us out of places we should not have gone to. He leads to the still waters, the green pastures, so that we have everything we need. Not everything we want, but everything we need. I wanted St. Mark’s to remain open forever. I believe that God wants me to part of Seven Mile Road. Both could not happen. Jesus, the creator God, the holy other, the ultimate in goodness knows me. What other God in all of theology and the world religions dies for his people?

Wallowing in the awesomeness that is God. What more could we ask for as his people? We have every right to just be wiped off the face of the earth. I know I would have if I were God. But God is more than that. He is in our suffering. With every tear we cry, he cries a thousand more. He agrees life should not be this way. God ultimately does not want us to suffer – because of sin we suffer. What God does, he redeems our suffering. While he is there carrying us through our suffering, God redeems that suffering and makes it something more powerful than anything we can imagine. It took a child’s death, to create Mothers Against Drunk Driving and America’s Most Wanted. Sometimes it takes the death of someone so that someone else can live through transplants. Sometimes it’s closing a church that allows others to grow and be born. A church closed near Boston and out of that money, churches in LA, Boston, and ours in Philadelphia were born. Out of our closing, we have the chance to allow this brand new church to have something to build on so that they can center their energy on the mission and the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Wallowing in the awesomeness that is God. Wow, this was not even close to what I thought I was going to focus on. This was not even close to the emotional status that I was thought I was going to be dealing with. Worshipping in the middle of the storm can produce some amazing things. God is good. God is our Lord and Savior. God is full of glory and power. God has everything under control. God is God. Not much more you can add after that. Praise be His name.