Last night we were at our monthly CARES meeting and a friend shared with me an amazing insight that had once helped him make some important decisions. The illumination had come to him via a preacher’s teaching on churches. The preacher posed the question, “How many churches that were founded in the first century are still around today?” The answer is zero. “Why do you think that is? Maybe because churches were not meant to last forever. Maybe a churches goal should not be to see how long they can survive but to seek to leave a legacy.” How fantastically true! Which of us humans knows he will persist forever in this world? Only the delusional. How then do we build a legacy? Procreation of course. We can live forever on this earth, at least to the end of the age, through both a physical and spiritual posterity. In like manner each church should seek to leave a legacy by planting new churches, in essence, giving birth then parenting that church into maturity.
My church is some 50+ years old. We are experiencing either growing pains or Alzheimer’s, depending on your level of optimism. We have two praise and worship leaders a modern one and one who is more fond of the hymnal and old courses. It’s anyones guess as to whether the praise and worship service will be modern, traditional or a blend on any given Sunday. Some are not not bothered by this hodgepodge of uncertainty. Those who are find it at times a hinderance to their worship.
I consider myself…well there is really not much to consider, I am a man of perpetual hope. Such a state is brought on by years of soaking in the Word, a God given predisposition, and grace abounding at every turn and on every point. I take no credit for my optimism. Yet I find myself wondering, “Growing pains or Alzheimer’s?”