The view of Sleeping Indian Mtn. (Mt. Arkansas) from Climax at the top of Fremont Pass (11,318 feet) in Colorado. There was town there called Climax and a hospital and a church. After years of mining made the town dangerous to live in people simply moved “down” to Leadville and to a lower altitude of 10,152 feet! The drive down the mountain if memory serves was about 20 miles. The church that I went to in Leadville was meeting in a Union Hall/Bowling alley and we bought the A frame church that was in Climax and moved it down the mountain and if was quite an achievement. There actually had to be a road built to get the church to its final location.
I was a big deal at the time and it made all the papers. It was considered a great feat of engineering because the back wall of the church was all stained glass. After the churches journey I think only one piece of stained glass was cracked. There is a miraculous element to that I suppose but think of the movement of the church as the body of Christ throughout the world. The church is lead out by God to be his presence in the world and to witness to principalities and powers. By schisms rent asunder and by heresies distressed the church exists by the power of the Holy Spirit and relies upon her Lord for strengthen and guidance.
Buildings that can be moved up and down mountains or renovated and changed are the places where we worship but the church is the body of Christ that is an organic reality created by God. Not a voluntary organization but something that is called and gathered by the Spirit it can move mountains when empowered by that Spirit and living for and in Christ.
