Soon I will have been preaching the gospel of Christ for 59 years. I’ve been blessed to do local works in a country church that thrived, in a medium-sized urban church that was growing, in a big city church, in a downtown, urban church that reached out to all different cultures and now with a small-town congregation. Every place was very different from the others, and I grew in each environment. It is certainly very different to lead a good-sized staff of ministers and workers, as compared to being the only paid person in the church, where lots of things fall into your lap you never even considered in the larger environments. Of course, life changes as we go through the different periods of our lives. I was totally unprepared for the huge difference it made for our work when all our daughters grew up and left home. While they were growing up there were always lots of young people in our home and it was common for them to join in our devotional times and to talk about spiritual matters in their lives. It was such a blessing to baptize many of those young people into Christ. But when the girls all grew up and moved away, suddenly there weren’t any young people stopping by to visit. Our ability to reach out to teenagers dropped like a ball rolling off the table.
Strangely, as we get older, there is a difference in how people react to our preaching and teaching. Things that once drew crowds and interest seem no longer to have the same draw. That eagerness to hear your thoughts or opinions on matters drops off as well. I remember as a young preacher how much I wanted to visit with older preachers like Gus Nichols and Franklin Camp, Guy Woods, and H.A. Dixon. When I was in my twenties, I would drive from my home in Mississippi on Friday nights to attend a two-hour class with Bro. Nichols and then drive back home. Typically, there would be 75-100 men there to study with him each week. Can you even imagine such a thing in our day.
I’m not sure what led to the change from members seeing themselves and their families as missionaries to their community to a time when we tend to think only of what is best for our own family, especially our children. Small town churches struggle to survive while there are many members of the church living in those towns. But a large proportion of those members drive by the local church to go into a larger town or city to a church that has a great children’s ministry or youth ministry. The thought that we won’t be able to influence our friends or neighbors to go to church with us when we drive that far, seems never to dawn on anyone. Our focus has turned so far inward that teaching our own children to reach out to their friends for Christ is considered weird. Instead of thinking of teaching our children about God and His will ourselves, it is more about what some church ministry can do to bring up our children for God.
Central Church of Christ, Little Rock, AR
I remember the day when it was normal for church members to constantly try to reach their friends, co-workers, and neighbors to Christ. They invited them to things going on at church, such as revivals or Gospel meetings. Today, such an idea seems strange to us.
No doubt Covid did tons of damage to the church all over this country and probably around the world. Again, the whole selfish notion of “I get more out of it by sitting at home in my pajamas, watching a livestream that getting up and going to a church gathering” is far too common. The worship wasn’t intended to be a program to watch. It is an assembly to participate with. We are a fellowship, a communion.
Can things get better? Is there a possibility that we will have a turn around and the church will begin to grow, to reach the lost, to see ourselves as missionaries to our world again? I believe there is such a possibility. Certainly! But it will take all of us facing the fact that we aren’t observers but salt, light and yeast in our world. It is certainly true God gives the increase, but he only gives it when we are sowing the seed. Let’s get with it!
Leon Barnes
