Going, going . . .

Today I walked through Wycombe past the Salvation Army 'Church' (as it is slightly incongruously called these days) building. Then . . .

. . . then comes Black's, an outdoor clothing shop that has a sister branch in town.  It only had its staff in - no customers.  Its owner is now in administration.  Past a glass door to upstairs offices and next comes a boarded up shopfront that appears to have been long unoccupied.

After this is the remains (you have to look hard to see this) of a Box Clever shopfront which was also a furniture outlet for a short interim time. 

Then comes the Alexon Clothing shop - its closing down sale in full swing.

Next a large Toy Shop lies empty.  It has moved to another shopping centre.

You could buy a Subway sandwich next or a Kebab next door to that and then there is a bereft-looking charity shop where some other retailer had previously been.  Next to the Charity Shop is the former Officers Club shop.  Closed of course.

Then comes the old Burger King restaurant.  But that's closed.

Next to the old BK is a large shop that is so closed as to be untraceable as to its former owners though it now has pictures of local trees in.

First Choice is next.  That was a travel agent, though not any more.  Even though it belonged to the more successful of the UK's two main travel groups it has closed.

I suppose it's good news if the Salvation Army has any wish to expand into shopfronts . . .

Worldcom

Most Sunday mornings I'm booked in to work. That's kind of par for the course for a Pastor!

When I'm not at my Church I'm nearly always at someone else's.  So it was a very unusual Sunday last Summer when I had to transport my daughter to camp and I joined the motorway hordes who believe they have found something better to do than go to church.  One of the larger buildings I passed, and shiny too, was this one.

It was Sunday and it was empty.  It looked very high tech and expensive.  Then again, the company concerned could well afford it as this extract from one of their reports shows . . . 

'For the quarter, the company posted consolidated net income, excluding goodwill amortisation, of $710 million, or 25 cents a share, equalling analysts' forecasts. The company reported net income of $1.3 billion, or 44 cents per share, excluding charges, a year earlier.'

More accurately I ought to state, they APPEARED to be well able to afford it.  This was WorldCom's UK headquarters (a mere rabbit hutch compared to its American cousins).  And yet, as we now know, Worldcom was moving forward in a way analagous with the Sunday traffic on the adjacent M4: at high speed on a road to nothing that lasts.  Now, after uncovering $11 billion in accounting mistatements, the CEO is in jail for a long time.

If only all those people driving past would learn the lesson of Worldcom and go to church.

Mmm.  But that CEO did go to church.  In fact, he taught Sunday School in a Baptist Church.

It is not where I place my bottom that ultimately matters, even when that place is a church pew.  It is where I place my heart.