Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Worship Smiles

 

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  

If you should encounter a negative attitude in your journey today (and what’re the odds of that these days), as the old hymn has it:  be not dismayed what-e’er betide, God will take care of you

You don’t have to so-much keep-the-faith, as trust that the faith will keep you!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

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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