Forget the Floors; Preach the Gospel

Over the last several years, we have done a lot of work on our church building. We have replaced heating and air conditioning units, repainted walls in classrooms and throughout the main corridors of the church, and we have installed new flooring throughout much of the church. In fact, the last piece of business we conducted as a church before I headed out on sabbatical for a month was vote on flooring to replace the dilapidated carpet in our fellowship center.

Discussing flooring in the local church is always an adventure.

Discussing flooring in the local church is always an adventure. I was once approached by a dedicated, longtime church member who expressed confusion as to why we needed to replace the flooring at all. She noted that our initial flooring was called Forever Floors and should therefore last forever. As it turns out, Forever Floors would more rightly be called Fifty-ish Year Floors as ours had become cracked and worn out from heavy use.

One of our stops on our sabbatical across Greece was the ancient city of Philippi. This city holds the honorable distinction of being ground zero for the arrival of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Europe and the home town of the first Europeans to come to faith. Acts 16:9-10 & 14 reads, “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them… One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” It should come as little surprise, then, that Philippi was home to what was likely the first church building in Europe, The Basilica of Paul.

This ancient church features an octagonal sanctuary, which is actually part of a church that was built on top of an older original. According to our archeologist tour guide, they discovered and identified the older church following an earthquake that revealed, of all things, ancient flooring hidden underneath the more recent sanctuary. The mosaic is incredibly well-preserved, given that it was originally laid over 1700 years ago! It includes several panels with theological imagery. The most significant panel, however, contains an inscription written by the Bishop Porphyrios that reveals the name of the church, The Basilica of Paul in Christ. It’s these words, preserved on this ancient floor dating to the 3^rd or 4^th century AD that reveal the nature of what this place once was.

The floors of our churches are only of value as long as there are people passing over them. The sanctity of our sanctuaries only remains so long as the gospel of Jesus is preached within them. Ornate, untouchable floors, walls, and buildings are of little to no eternal or immediate value.

It’s amazing that these floors are still intact all these centuries later. The floors still remain and are protected, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is no longer preached in that place. In fact, the theological and biblical significance of the church was lost on most of the people in our tour group. Most of them were more engaged when talking about the ancient Roman toilets than when talking about the ancient church that once stood next-door. It was a poignant reminder that the floors of our churches are only of value as long as there are people passing over them. The sanctity of our sanctuaries only remains so long as the gospel of Jesus is preached within them. Ornate, untouchable floors, walls, and buildings are of little to no eternal or immediate value. They don’t offer the help people truly need. What people need is the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ; They need to hear and experience the truth of God’s love in both word and deed.

I’m grateful for our new flooring at FBC. But, I’m even more grateful for the people who continue to pass over top of it to hear the word of God preached, to join together to worship Him, and to be sent back out to serve our community. It is the presence of their passing feet that wears out our building, but also enables the building of God’s Kingdom. Our floors won’t last forever. Our carpet, and the Forever Floors underneath, likely won’t ever be museum pieces that people fly thousands of miles to see. But, with God’s help, people will continue to walk in and out of our floors and experience the life-changing truth of the gospel.