I like old things, old cars, old books, but old architecture likely is my favorite and this last weekend I got to enjoy some of the best. My daughter had reason to go to Chicago and we spent a few days walking the miles from south of the river to the north end of Michigan, the “magnificent mile” as it is known. For us it was more like the “magnificent mile and half” which we fully trekked multiple times each day we were there. There are a few buildings in that area I likely now know better than many of the locals.
The Fisher building on Dearborn was finished in 1896, the Manhattan Building in 1890, I road an old elevator and visited an old book store in the Fine Arts building on South Michigan that was built in 1885. On North Michigan I visited the old water tower and the pumping station which were finished in 1869. Two of just a handful of buildings that survived the Chicago fire of 1871. Near the old water tower stands the Fourth Presbyterian Church, compared to some of the others I mentioned it is a new comer to that area of Chicago. The old building having been completed in 1914 and other than the Water Tower it is the oldest building on Michigan Ave north of the Chicago River. The Fourth Church was founded I am told in Feb 1871 and its original building was destroyed in Oct of that same year.
More intriguing to me than the architecture of this building was that during the three cold days I was pacing the long distances in front of this building I noticed the old door was propped open. On my third day passing I decided I had to see the inside. To my surprise I was free to walk in find a seat, read, meditate, pray, and rest my feet. To my astonishment this building was open to use and it was being used. There were at least two others reading or praying, some homeless resting their body and soul while finding some relief from the cold winter wind off the lake.
The inside of this church was as ornate as the outside, stained glass, exquisite carpentry, and wonderful masonry, but more lovely than all was it the fact the building was in use. To the rear of the church has been added some more modern places to host other functions which were also in use while I was in town. On Super bowl Sunday the congregation held a Souper Bowl and fed some of their neighbors. As I walked by that side of the building one cold evening an unshaven, dingy, apparently homeless man invited me in out of the cold. I took advantage of his invite to see the more recent parts of the Fourth Presbyterian Church.
A brochure I picked up about the church didn’t say much about the building, yeah it pointed out some of the architectural features, but it talked more about how the church is a continuing work, and bragged if you can call it bragging, that more than 8 million people have attended church there.
This church has no parking garage that I saw. Its not a mega church with acres of parking, it’s not the easiest place to get to (unless you like to walk). The preaching service is in a dark stone building with hard pews that can make the most righteous uncomfortable. It’s not the First, Second, or even Third church and yet it has a membership of over 8,000 and ministers to over 2,000 every Sunday.
In this case old doesn’t mean dead, dying, or ineffective and I knew it the moment I walked in a priceless museum quality building on a cold Monday afternoon and found it open for business. Open to anyone, a curious stranger from out of town or the homeless man looking for a place to grab a peaceful warm nap snoring two pews behind me.
I set reading and smiling. Smiling because I was reading “they will perish, but you will remain; they will wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe: like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end”. Yes, out of context but I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of the work of this old church and the countless numbers who had walked through the large arched doors. Unlike some churches I think this one, if it faced another Chicago fire would survive even if the building didn’t.
I set reading and smiling. Smiling because I was reading “they will perish, but you will remain; they will wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe: like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end”. Yes, out of context but I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of the work of this old church and the countless numbers who had walked through the large arched doors. Unlike some churches I think this one, if it faced another Chicago fire would survive even if the building didn’t.
My Proverb for this week.
you need to be open when your customers need you and for churches that might be cold snowy Monday afternoons.
David
