I just spent the first part of this week at the Annual Conference of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. The event is filled with some preaching, some teaching, some reporting and a lot of voting (I have emailed updates to you if you are interested in knowing what happened). One thing that happens each year is the reading and approval of property resolutions from the Conference Board of Trustees. Just days before Pentecost (read Acts 2) we are invariably voting on the closure of several congregations that have been declared "legally dead." People still live near the building, life goes on outside of the 'structure' that we call a church ... but there is no life inside the structure. I always wonder what happened.
In a short blog, this week I want to put forward my take on what happens when a church closes. I believe the people inside the building have decided that they don't need to speak the language of the people outside the building. In the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 the disciples (especially Peter) come out of the upper room into the world of their time and begin telling the Gospel story. People heard it in their own language and thousands believed after that simple sermon. A few observations ... 1) the Holy Spirit did this work through the disciples after they left the safety of the upper room (God calls us to risk for the Gospel), 2) they spoke God's message with the boldness of those who were convicted themselves (God uses us when we follow His leading), 3) they spoke to any and all who would listen (no criteria for entry ... just come and hear). I think those churches that were closed had lost the ability to go out, tell the message with simplicity and risk it all for the God who saved them. It became about them ... not about God.
I will close with a question that I can answer with multiple examples for Good News ... I wonder how the closed churches would answer it. Here it is ... "Who, other than members of your congregation, would be harmed if suddenly your church was gone?" For Good News I think lots of folks ... for the closed churches, maybe nobody. That's my take ... Pastor Randy
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