For some time now I’ve been trying to figure out where I fit in this whole The Twelve: Reformed. Done Daily. thing. When this blog began, we writers were instructed regarding the content: “the subject matter will be wide open and entirely at your discretion.” I appreciate that in the wisdom of the editors at Perspectives, it was recognized that to be reformed touched a variety of aspects of life (or even all aspects?) and they were intentional to be wide open to the possibilities. I’ve greatly enjoyed my fellow bloggers’ posts and can often—when and where I know them or have experienced them personally—hear their voices. But returning to whence I began, what is my voice and how does it fit here?

All of us speak from the context of “the church.” Certainly, I’ve not read a single entry that did not have a word to share from/in/for or to that perspective. But we also speak from a specific “church,” a certain vocational setting and particular location. For me, when I read The Twelve or Perspectives, my mind immediately wonders how it connects to my folks here at Trinity, where I serve, and the wider community of which we are a part.

I’m still not entirely sure how I fit in this entire The Twelve thing, but I do know that it has to do with the church where I work and live and worship and grow. The church, Trinity Reformed Church of Brooklyn, specifically is the lens through which I engage this blogging endeavor. For whatever it’s worth, Trinity is how I fit into this thing. As the Apostle Paul so beautifully said—at least when he was speaking the King James English—“for now we see through a glass, darkly…” I thought I’d share with you the view I have as I look out through my lens of Trinity, or through the glass, if you will, quite literally.

Thus, looking out the windows of Trinity, literally my viewpoint, a pictorial:

When I think of church windows, mostly I think of windows like this one, The Good Samaritan, one of many beautiful stained glass windows in Trinity’s Sanctuary:

 

 

We also have this one, a small portion of the widow above the chancel. For those who may not recognize it, this is the Reformed Church in America’s former symbol, the coat of arms:

 

 

Trinity is a worshipping community, so it made sense to show some of the windows from the sanctuary. But the above ones aren’t what I really want to show you. It’s the views from those less expected. For instance entering the sanctuary from downstairs one may go through the door with windows and have this view (with cool reflection):

 

 

The same windows from the other side:

 

 

Or entering the sanctuary’s balcony:

 

 

Or entering the sanctuary from the narthex:

 

 

The same window the other way around:

 

 

And now having entered to worship, we go out to serve. So looking out, this is the view from the sanctuary out into the church courtyard:

 

Or looking out through the stained glass:

 

This is the window we were looking out:

 

 

Or this rose colored glass:

 

 

Or leaving the narthex, entering the wild streets of New York (in central pane, notice man crossing street, jaywalking(!) followed closely by school bus):

 

 

This is a view from the window of my office. It looks out into our Fellowship Hall. (Pardon the mess, please, as we are currently doing some remodeling of our kitchen and it has overflown into the view.) While empty on a Thursday afternoon, in a few hours this room will be full of men in women in one of the 12 step programs that almost nightly fill this room:

 

 

 

While some of our windows look out to beautiful scenery such as street trees:

 

or the church courtyard:

 

Other windows tend to block the view entirely, such as the window in the downstairs men’s room looks out into an air shaft:

 

or window looking across neighbor’s alley:

 

or window view from boiler room air shaft:

 

and further view:

 

 

Sometimes from various church windows we can even view “ourself” such as the view looking back across the central courtyard from the manse:

and again:

and again:

 

 

But the views that perhaps matters most are those looking out into the neighborhood where “Trinity” really lives and works and follows Christ:

and: