They came into church ready to reach the South Pole. Puffy jackets, ski gloves, big beanies, and thick scarves. As regulars they were armed with hard won knowledge of just how cold church could be.

The broken switchboard in the choir vestry was testament to the previous existence of some kind of under pew heating system. That had been replaced by the 'chicken shop' radiators bolted to the walls. Their crackling red light threw out an empty promise of warmth. Despite their ineffectiveness, groups would huddle together around each one, in the hope of some heat.

Last week we turned on the new gas furnace. For the first winter service in years nobody noticed the temperature. No more automatic apology spiels to guests about their frostbite.

Why did it take so long to change things? Three simple reasons: we got used to it, it cost money to fix it, and it involved change.

It is easy to get used to things you see each week. Like boiling frogs, we can get comfortable with stuff that will kill us. I'm sure that over the years we'd have had guests and newcomers not return because it was simply too cold.

Have you had that painful walk through church, trying to see it as a newcomer would? Regulars can be blind to the things that jump out at a newcomer: peeling paint in the kids room, that broken window boarded up with plywood, that 70's RSL carpet.

Imagine the gap between the house you live in and what it would look like if you were listed for sale. Churches almost always look more lived in than listed. Which is fine for those that live there, but lousy for attracting people who might consider joining.

The new heating system at church cost us about $12,000 to install. That's a big hit on a small and tight budget. It meant there were other things we couldn't do. But it was a cost that had to be paid. We realised that there was no other building that locals would walk into that was this cold. They wouldn't stand for it in their local schools or shops or even trains. So we needed to catch up with the times and pay the money so that people didn't notice the temperature.

Trying to match the community expectation is a helpful measure because if we looked to the church expectation there were people who were prepared to soldier on. They'd rather see money sent to far nobler causes and didn't mind suffering a couple of cold months - after all, church had always been like that!

You'd think a change like heating the church would be welcome. And it was. But change like this took time. The Wardens did a great job of researching options, costing the project, talking to people, working with the tradesmen.

Time like this doesn't get invested unless we're persuaded this is really an important part of our mission to the local community.

At a time when people are debating whether churches should be 'attractional churches' or 'missional churches' a lot of our buildings are making us 'repulsive churches'. We need to look hard to see what it is that might be repelling people. Sometimes, something as simple as new lights, new paint, and a cut lawn can make a real difference. That'd be a cost worth paying and a change worth making.