During my church visits I’m
seeing a noticeable downward turn in attendance from when I visited the same
churches a year ago. Of three longstanding churches who last year had 20-30 in
attendance, one closed their doors, another is down to three people and a third
has only two families. I’m hearing a reoccurring theme in all of them — older
members are dying, people are not dependable, many are traveling, people are
out with the flu and some moved on to another church. From a visitor’s perspective
it appears that as fellowship shrinks, so does preparation and enthusiasm for
preaching the Word. The Lord said, “As
the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without
watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for
the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out
from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I
desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The Church is not the objective of our efforts. The Church is the result of our efforts made at His direction. Righteousness, peace, and joy come into the lives of people is the objective of our labors. That those people form churches is the natural product of righteousness, peace, and joy. Churches are important in that they are the gathering of those who know the Lord. But the gathering makes the church, not visa-versa. So His Word goes out and grows righteousness, peace, and joy in the lives of many, who by the same gather together. So when our churches dwindle, we should review less our church making and maintaining skills, and review more our spreading righteousness, peace, and joy skills.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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