Last week at the conference I attended at the mega-mega church Willow Creek, I took a stroll around their massive campus. At one point I found myself walking across the back of their “old” sanctuary, worship center, whatever they call it, a room that has been replaced in the past few years by a much larger space (pictured at right, from my phone camera).A woman behind me, evidently a Willow member, said to her friend: “Oh, I haven’t been back in here for a long time. The young people use it now.” Then she added: “I miss this room. It’s so much warmer and more intimate than the new one.”

Folks, the old worship center must seat a couple thousand, and looks like nothing so much as a theater! Now you can see from my fuzzy photo that the new room is far from intimate. But what a lesson on perspective, on tinting the past with a golden hue.

I haven’t heard anyone complain about missing our old sanctuary, though who could deny it was WARM - 85-90 in the summer! But we all have to be careful about longing for the old days, for the way it used to be. We’re six months in to our new building, and the newness of change has worn off. Don’t let that fact gild the past.

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