Candlewax and Creativeness

I remember when I was very little, how in my old church back home in little Rush City we had in the front of the church an “eternal candle” (or whatever its technical name was). Day and night it burned. I remember how when one day the candle was growing dim and had burned almost all the way down, one of the elders brought me with him to take care of the candle. We carefully took the jar-encased candle out from its red-glass covering—all while the candle still burned. I was instructed that this candle represents the fire of faith brought by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, commemorating the eternal reign of Jesus the Lord who rose from the dead and sent us the Holy Spirit, and that the fire must not go out. We carefully transferred the flame from the old candle to a new candle in a new glass jar by means of a wooden wick. The fire did not go out.

You can imagine then my disappointment when I returned home one day from college to find that what once was a candle was now an electric light, plugged into the wall. From the church’s perspective was less expensive, more convenient, and less to worry about. All fine reasons for the switch.

But still…. There was just something not quite right about the whole business.

I know there is no inherent salvific value in a candle. I know that the candle did not in some mystical way keep the Holy Spirit in that small church. I know the candle was “just a symbol.” I know that the symbol was messy with melted wax that had to get cleaned out every so often. But that symbol still left the impression it was designed for, and the meaning behind the fire was not lost upon that four-year-old boy. To this day, I remember that moment whenever I light a white pillar candle.

This is perhaps the greatest weakness of the modern evangelical church: we do not have many, nor do we really know how to make symbols. We have got to get better at symbol making instead of being better product producers. Symbols often give meaning whereas production mostly gives entertainment. Any worship style or ministry setting can fall into either context any day of the week. We can be symbol generators or executive producers from coffee counsel to contemporary praise. We must get back to meaning making.

My beloved ministry partners across the globe, ask yourself this question every day: are we giving meaning or entertainment in what we do and who we are?
What simple, approachable symbols can we commit to generate for those whom we connect with every day?