On a walk today I was struck by a new parking lot design used by one of our local churches. Perhaps you can see it from my camera phone pic.
It’s one of those rare parking lots where 7 or 8 cars block each other in a continuous row. Why my sudden interest in parking lots? Well, I realized the only time you would use this type of parking configuration is when you expect everyone to leave within about the same 5 minutes of each other.
The church is a body. That means we know each other, we love each other and we live life with one another. How sad when a church has become so community-less that you can pretty much count on the fact that everyone will leave at the exact same time (when the service lets out). There is so little chance that someone might actually stay and chat that you can set up your parking lot like a drive through.
And perhaps a few parishioners grabbed a drive-thru breakfast just before they stopped by the church for drive-thru religion. Not exactly Paul’s vision for the interconnected, interdependent body of Christ.
A picture can speak a thousand words. Great insight.
Our church is on a very busy highway and it is nigh impossible to a make a left turn upon leaving. The county provides a traffic cop when services end but for only about 10 minutes so the longer you wait and congregate the longer you wait when leaving. Even so, the celebration of community is worth it for most of us, thank God.
Merry Christmas!