St John's Church, Bassenthwaite

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sun, 22/02/2026 - 00:00

The Church of St John at Bassenthwaite (as opposed to St Bega’s) in Cumbria is nineteenth-century with an austere interior though it possesses a certain stateliness. This is enhanced by its rather slender spire, adding considerably to its sense of height.

I was interested to see a thick metal coil running down from its spire to the ground, a protection against lightning strikes. The Ecclesiastical Insurance Company states:

Paradoxically, a lightning conductor will make a building more rather than less liable to attract a strike. However, its purpose is to direct the energy within a strike to earth where it can be discharged safely. A strike to an unprotected building may still discharge safely, for example, down a rain-wet masonry surface; however, because the discharge is uncontrolled, there is a greater risk of structural damage to an unprotected building. Earthed metalwork such as wiring systems and piped services that inadvertently form part of the discharge path may also be damaged.

Insurers are naturally disposed to see the dangers of everything, and the proceeding text goes on to recommend additional measures as well as highlighting the wider hazards and perils of strikes.

‘Struck by lightning’ is sometimes an expression used for immediate and direct divine retribution, though it is surely, in nearly all cases, the result of a fallen world’s sense of imbalance and imperfection. Nevertheess, that line:

‘…a lightning conductor will make a building more rather than less liable to attract a strike’

-set me thinking.

It seems to me that any church which steps out in faith with the intention of harming the kingdom of darkness will attract that kingdom’s attention and opposition. At the very time we as a chapel resolved to plant a new church in Burnley and approved in principle the appointment of a second pastor, we had internal problems. Engage in evangelism and the Enemy will seek to hinder, slow and retard your outreach and witness. Choose to do nothing, and so will he (more or less). If you and your church offer no threat to the devil, he will generally be little threat to you. Ask yourself, therefore, if you are even on his radar? Sadly, there are some 'churches' and 'Christians' whom the Lord Jesus Himself does not know (Matthew 7:23). That is even scarier than any lightning strike or Satanic scorn.