The Monarch

I had lunch with a good friend of mine whose organization bought the Monarch Theatre in Medicine Hat today. My friend, George, showed me all of this theatre. This theatre is in a state of disrepair, but as he showed me all over the theatre, I felt like I was walking into the Phantom of the Opera. The theatre was built in 1911, and there are hidden crown molding that are the original moldings and plaster cornice still there almost 100 years later. We went to the "dungeon" where the original orchestra pit was. We saw the boiler room, found the old well and the original gas lights that operated 100 years ago. It was like a took a trip in Delorian at 88 miles per hour.

George asked me if our church could help him fix up the Monarch. He wants to turn it back into an operating theatre. For somebody who is not a Christian yet, to ask a church to help fix up something that will not benefit the church itself is a huge statement. You see, most churches are like ingrown toenails. They are ingrown, and they don't want to grow numerically, they want to grow deep.

George has seen how we are all about serving the city. And he has seen in us that we love our city and has the confidence to ask us to help him. What else can we say except yes? Our biggest thing in the church is serving the city, and this is a great way to serve, and for a community leader to ask us, a church that has not even had their first Sunday service yet to do this is quite amazing.