The Cat-window

This is the house I lived in 62 years ago. That's my bedroom window on the upper right. I often had a practice of letting our cat, Pinky, out of my bedroom window in the early mornings. And... well often the screen landed on the front lawn to be collected and replaced at a later time that day.

My dad, getting tired of this routine and probably worried about the possible damage to the screen, made a 'cat-door' in the lower corner of the screen. The small door was secured with wing nuts and so I was able to easily let Pinky both in and out. Good solution. Everyone was happy. Story over, or so one would think!

Fast forward 62 years and a visit to my hometown this summer. On taking a drive by our 'old' house I was surprised to see the cat-door still in place. I thought about going up to the door and, without admitting that I had once lived there, inquiring just what the purpose was of that small square in the lower right of that upper window. I wondered what they would say, if they would have any idea of its original purpose.

62 years ago, in 1953, our churches were full, full of life, full of programmes, full of people. They were doing something right obviously. They were nurturing the generation of the times. They are still doing the same things, trying to run the same programmes, using the same materials that made them such a success back then in their 'glory-years ' but something has changed. There is not the life, the programmes or the people in them today that there were back then.

I suspect that the 'cat-door' has survived in a large part just because it was there. But I also suspect that it is not longer used for the purpose that it was originally made for. So to with our churches. The same things are there but they no longer are filling the same needs that they did 62 years ago.

It is time for us all to take a good look at what we do and ask ourselves just why we are doing it. If the answer is because that's the way it has always been, then that answer isn't good enough!

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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