Tuesday,
January 10, 2023
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for
they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord. They rejoice all day long in your
wonderful reputation. They exult in your
righteousness. You are their
glorious strength. It pleases you to
make us strong. Yes, our
protection comes from the Lord, and he, the Holy One of Israel, has given
us our king. Psalm 89:15-18
Well, there it is…the Psalmist
said it out loud: Worship makes
you happy! From reports of “church
experts” across the spectrum it would not seem so. Weekly attendance is abysmal compared to
previous generations, along with offerings, and volunteerism. The word on the street is that the church is
done. The reasons given for such an
appraisal are legion, clergy misconduct causing distrust of denominational
leadership, as well as culture clash, where the church
diverges from the demands of societal-change.
The overwhelming shift of accepted sexual expression in the last 50-60
years has constructed a portrait of the church as out-of-touch, antiquated,
old-fogey. As an
institution, the church is perceived as the dead-end of rules, with sour dispositions. To listen to all of that, we (church folks) are
not fun at all!
My experience is somewhat
different. Even with health challenges
that make it difficult to get up in the morning and get moving, I find myself
anxious to be at our church’s worship times.
We have the same complexity as most other groups do in navigating the
problems of aging, financial shortfall, COVID-issues, and more. However, week after week, I’m in the presence
of smiling, grateful, and…well…downright happy people.
So, which is truth, the report
on the street of the church’s death, or the opposing experience of joyful
worship? I think it’s both. On the street report, you would have to give credence
to the death certificates of many churches.
Year after year as I gather with other church leaders in our annual
meetings, there are closings finalized for local congregations that have
dwindled to unsustainable levels.
In the North Carolina Conference
nearly one-third (representing 22% of membership) of their churches have recently
disaffiliated with the UMC over the Homosexuality Issue.[1]
On the positive side of the
ledger, this represents a healthy desire for defined Biblical
faith, as opposed to caving-in to the demands of cultural opinion. This is consistent with the swimming
upstream historical track record of Christ’s cosmic church, seeking
to be His body, rather than an off-shoot orgainizational arm of culture’s selfish
whims and fancies. It’s what drove the
apostle Paul to preach to Gentiles, defying the overwhelming disapproval of the
early (mostly-Jewish) church elders. It’s
what drove Martin Luther to separate from the Roman church. Through all the church disputes, clergy
failure, cultural revolution, wars, famines, plagues, and oppression, the gates
of Hell still do not prevail. Christ’s
church is a forever-promise of the Holy Lord, God of Heaven’s hosts.
For You Today
You don’t have to so-much keep-the-faith,
as trust that the faith will keep you!
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
I Find Your Lack of Faith Distrubing
and Is This Church?
Images: Title Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal
property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
[1] The
Christian Post article Nov 2022, 249 North Carolina churches leave UMC
amid homosexuality schism
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