Running always involves a
route. It doesn’t always involve a plan,
but it does – eventually – involve a route.
I have several routes I take from our house downtown through the neighborhoods,
down to the riverfront trails, or up to various obstacles like the staircase at
the hospital parking garage. Usually, I
don’t pick the route I’ll be running until I put my shoes on before the
run. This past week, I had a route in my
mind when I woke up, and even though the opportunity presented itself to take a
different route at various times, I kept to this simple path.
I wasn’t sure why the route I was
taking was materializing in my mind. It
was just a simple run through downtown, across the 5th St. bridge to
the trails, a short jaunt back to the Botanical Gardens, then up 7th
back into downtown. It was only when I
got to the corner of 6th and White that I realized why I was
supposed to run that route, and it literally took my breath away.
The church I serve is 130 years
old. For most of our history, we were
located at the corner of 6th and White in downtown Grand
Junction. During the late 1980’s, it
became increasingly apparent to a group of FPC’s leaders that our historic home
– beautiful and unique as it was – would no longer serve the needs of our
congregation for the future. For one
thing, there were 13 steps from the front door of the church down to the
street, and those steps were increasingly difficult for our elderly and
disabled members to navigate. The
building itself was starting to come apart at the seams, and the investment
needed to make the structure sound again was more costly than moving to a new
facility.
In 1991, First Presbyterian Church
of Grand Junction made a very bold and risky move. We sold our home at 6th and White
and built a new home in the far north side of town, between the end of most
neighborhoods and the property line of the airport. The building at 6th and White
became known as White Hall and served as a wedding and event venue for several
years until it changed ownership again.
And again. Twenty years after we
sold the building, it was badly damaged by a significant fire. Most of the sanctuary was destroyed, and
since my family and I have lived in Grand Junction, that’s what we’ve seen when
we’ve walked or driven or biked by 6th and White – a sad reminder of
what once was a great place of worship.
I stopped at 6th and
White this week on my run because the entire structure was finally coming
down. Because of issues with finances
and ownership, the demolition took a long time to come together, but this week,
it did. White Hall is no more. I put on my brakes and stood beside the lot,
watching a single Bobcat bulldozer and one lonely digger pull down the last
parts of the building. Metal clanged,
dust rose in the air, and white bricks and mortar rolled down into various pits
and crevases in the earth. I stopped and thanked God for the people who called 6th and White home. I thanked God that gospel was proclaimed there, that people worshipped the Lord, taught kids about Jesus, and made the risky move to our current home many years ago. It was a powerful moment for me, not just because of our history at that location, but because it was a good reminder me that the Lord is in control. Our future belongs to Christ. He knew how to lead His people from 6th and White to our location on 27 1/2 Road, and He will be faithful as we move forward together.
Solo Dei gloria,
Travis
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