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A MAJOR challenge exists for the small town and country Christian church as we are mandated by Jesus Christ to proclaim the gospel message in America. The gospel simply stated, is that though a sinful people, we have been saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith has been and still is… a gift from God, a gift provided by the Holy Spirit. And having received grace, from that wondrous gift we are then called to both keep faith and grow in faith. Yes... the Holy Spirit was given fully to a tiny gathering of apostles during a Pentecost festival held nearly two millennia ago. Note that the eternal Spirit of God hovered over that infant Church so that it grew worldwide. Therefore, the news I tell you now is that the same Holy Spirit is close by even as I write this article. Through the Spirit, God whispers wisdom to each Christian from scripture. If we want to know what God says, we simply read… and study Holy Scripture. Thus, what presses upon me during reading, however, is that each week in little mission churches many congregations normally end the Sunday worship experience saying, “Let us go in peace, to love and serve the Lord!” With this being said, we of the Church go… and to some small degree... we serve out in the world. But this impetus echoes and fades rapidly as the week rolls on. Consequently, the realization appears for alert Christians that our serving of the Lord does not just center upon living our day-to-day lives. |
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Black Robe Regiment - Allegany - October 2025 |
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This seemingly holds true whether we worship in a small congregation or large. Basically, we are not caring enough for our neighbors. That is, unless something radical happens in this nation and the population responds to our meager witness and attends worship at least temporarily. The realization eventually should hit us… for many, the good news of salvation is not being heard... and in many cases the small local church is not growing. Demonically, excuses loom in sinful minds. For example, I live in a rather busy, small town filled with a lot of rather nice people. Our congregation is a tiny mission outpost gathering very few active people. As I think about this, I tend to explain this lack of growth by a theory of relativity… in desperation we look for anyone to just gather with us in sameness for the next Sunday AM… and bring a relative with us once in a while. But overall, it often seems that a demon has taken a scatter gun to defeat Christian witness. Our Christian community often gets fewer and many churches just shrug. We count blessings when our congregation holds its population steady… while others around us entertain closure. In the midst of this foreboding thought, my mind is spiritually guided to a scriptural word picture. I am reminded of old Simeon sitting in the doorway of the temple as he waited in prayer for the salvation of Israel.
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Spreading Manure?
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A Rural Christian’s View of Our Lord Jesus and What He Taught... |
