My Church Collection

I have a church collection. I bought the first one in 1989 when I went to visit my seminary. It is pictured here. It is made of wood and has a wind up key that plays 'Amazing Grace'. While the song is playing the doors open slowly. There was a little bald man inside in black cleric clothes. Because I wanted it to be me as the pastor of that church, I glued brown yarn to his head making him a her. Eventually, I grew into being her!

Over the years, I added a few churches to my collection, the idea being to find churches made of different materials--wood, metal, glass. They are actually not that easy to find. When you do find them, they tend to have a Christmas theme and be made of ceramic.

Once I wrote an article in a church newsletter about my church collection, never thinking what that would trigger. Every gift for the next few years at Christmas was a ceramic church. They are all quite lovely, but I do have more than I can display in my home. Our current house does have a shelf above a set of windows, and that has been designated for my church collection. Probably my most expensive one is made of stained glass, and interestingly I bought that one the weekend that I graduated from seminary, quite a few years after the initial one. Most of them have a specific memory attached to them.

In much the same way, first as pastor and then interim pastor, I have collected churches into my life---big ones, little ones, country ones, surburban ones, small town ones, rural ones. They have been made of cinderblock, wood, stone, brick. They have been old and new, as well as some combination of those two.

And like my collection, no two are the same. They are all unique and have a different story. Just like the people inside!