A Bird’s Eye View of Church

By Barry Howard

My friend and fellow FBC Pensacola member, Bill Harden, went home to be with the Lord last week. A diabetic since the age of six, as Bill encountered mounting health complications in recent years he inspired his family and many of us with his cheerful humor, his durable smile, his positive attitude, and his artistic craftsmanship.

One of his favorite wood-working projects was building birdhouses. Although Bill invested most of his career in the travel planning business, as a retirement hobby Bill carefully constructed aviary residences in a variety of shapes and sizes. In addition to the dozens of birdhouses Bill gave to others as gifts, an assorted collection of birdhouses sit atop the mantle and around the hearth in the Harden home.

About a year ago, Dr. James Pleitz, our pastor emeritus, and I were each blessed to receive a unique birdhouse as a gift from Bill. Built especially for the pastor and pastor emeritus, these church-shaped birdhouses were built from the wood removed from the floor of our former education building, affectionately known as the old library building, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Ivan and eventually demolished a year later.

My birdhouse is strategically located in front of the chair where I have my quiet time early in the morning. As I have looked at it during my prayer time over the past several months, this birdhouse has become a wooden parable of how I understand church in the 21^st century….not the bricks and mortar of our campus…but our ministry…our mission…our spiritual family.

While most of the wood on this birdhouse came from the old church, Bill also incorporated new lumber into the birdhouse, creating sort of a two-toned effect, a phenomenon that reminds me that our church is a composite of the old and the new, a merger of our heritage and our dreams.

For the perch, Bill installed an oversized doorknob front and center, which reminds me of the importance of opening wide the doors of the church to welcome both new friends and old neighbors with Christian hospitality, else we will become cliquish and stagnant.

Above the door is a cross. Intentionally placed over the entrance in a location similar to the street number or family name on your home, this cross explicitly identifies the occupants as followers of Jesus above all else.

And finally, Bill went online and ordered a miniature spire which now sits atop the steeple pointing upwards, beckoning us to look heavenward to God for our hope and our strength.

My friend, Bill, is now at home with the Lord, but he left behind an ongoing testimony, a well-crafted story, a wooden parable which gives to me, and to us, a bird’s eye view of church.

(Barry Howard serves as senior minister of the First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.)