A big Christian hard-core concert was held at Anchor last Sunday night. They usually hold concerts downstairs in our fellowship hall, but this was a Biggy Concert which required the sanctuary. After church, the worship team cleared our equipment off the platform and stuffed it all in a side room, where it remains (there’s a wedding tomorrow). We’ll go early Sunday morning to set everything back up (drums, drum shield, amps, keyboard, mics, stands, cables….).

I stopped by the church Sunday night for about 45 minutes. Hadn’t been to one of the concerts in a while, and wanted to see what was happening. Leadership had been turned over to another person.

There were maybe 300 kids, most wearing black attire. Lots of tattoos, lots of colored hair, but plenty of fairly normal-looking teens and young adults. Cars were jammed everywhere. I walked around the back of the church. Scores of kids were just hanging out, sitting on the grass or leaning against cars. All behaving nicely.

The sanctuary was packed with kids. All of our sanctuary chairs had been stacked along the side. A little moshing was going on. Kids were standing on our nice chairs to get a better look, their shoes no doubt wearing on the cloth.. Loud, loud music with totally unidentifiable lyrics. I think five bands played that night. Booths with merchandise (especially T-shirts) were set up in the back of the sanctuary (“…but you have made my house a den of thieves…”). Two off-duty cops patrolled the grounds, one staying inside, one outside. Neighbors called on-duty cops once, because a band was making too much noise outside in the street, but that had stopped before the officers actually arrived.

These concerts are such an interesting environment, particularly for an old fuddy-duddy like me.

Sanctuary windows have been broken in the past. This time, two windows were broken. A fellow standing on a chair accidentally fell into one window and broke it. Then some other kid, a jerk by all accounts, punched his fist clear through another window–actually, through a double window.

Yeah, this bothers me. But it also bothers me that most churches would never allow concerts like this, merely because of the threat that their pretty-pretty sanctuary might suffer unsightly wear and tear. And because they don’t approve of the music style.

I have to keep reminding myself: our building is a tool. It’s not a sacred shrine where God lives 24/7 while the rest of us are at work. We can have these wild concerts one night, then set it up for a worshipful service the next Sunday.

But I still wish they wouldn’t break windows.