Church Basements
A quote from Marilynne Robinson’s most recent novel “Jack”:
“He almost left the church without asking after his hat, but he loitered a few minutes. The lady who had invited him to come for lunch, dauntlessly cordial, took him by the crook of his arm and led him down some stairs to a basement, more specifically, a church basement, which resembles everything of its kind and nothing else in the world.”
If you spent any formative time in pretty much any church, you are familiar with church basements. When I read Robinson’s description I thought, “Perfect! That’s exactly it.”
Church basements had a smell, they had a feel, they had old donated couches that I think were easier to bring to the church than to the dump. There were three church basements with which I was most familiar in my time as a pastor. In my years as youth leader, youth pastor, associate pastor and then senior pastor I helped arrange furniture, decorate, paint and move chairs without ceasing. I was part of smashing holes in walls (inadvertently, of course) and of managing multiple basement floods.
I remember the nursery in one of the buildings being about the scariest, creepiest corner of the whole structure. Myself (and volunteers) filled up and cleaned out storage rooms. We brought in old, terrible furniture that people had donated. Sometimes, as I carried in an old piece of crap couch to the church I would picture a couple having a conversation on the occasion of getting a new couch for their family room.
(As I pictured this I smiled)
”Honey, you think we could sell this old couch?”
”What?! Absolutely not! No one would buy that, and I would feel terrible about it if they did?”
”Well, we should take it to the dump then.”
”Wait! The church could use it. It’s better than most of the furniture in the youth room.”
”I’ll call Pastor Keith, we’ll get him to pick it up.”
And so it goes.
Sometimes now, when I drive by obviously worn out and troubling furniture left in the neighbourhood curb-side with “free” signs affixed, I say to myself, “Here’s another sign of fewer and fewer people going to church. They have nowhere to dispose of their severely used couches.”
Here are a few photos of church basements. Do you have any to share? Contact me if so.
I can imagine that anyone who has attended church will have a story to tell about the church basement. My story will be one of the best. My first conversations with my future fiancé were at a Toonie Lunch....in a church basement.