Yesterday I saw a For Sale sign at a UCC church on the corner in the town just south of us. It is a beautiful stone building with a bell tower that was playing a hymn as it always does at noon. The church was founded in 1792 as a German Reformed Church in union with Zion Lutheran Church. The two congregations built their current buildings at opposite ends of the block in 1917.
In the 1950s, about 200 people worshiped in the Reformed church (which later became UCC). Attendance began to dwindle and now the congregation of forty can no longer afford to maintain the building. There is only one young family with one child still attending. Their generation does "not have time" for church on a Sunday morning. They will continue to worship in a small rented room of another building. The handwriting is on the wall. As the remaining aging members die, the congregation will eventually cease to exist.
Sadly, the story of this church is not unusual. Several other congregations around us that were founded hundreds of years ago are struggling to survive with only 25 or 30 people in attendance. Others are closing or merging with other congregations in an attempt to survive.
This problem is not limited to Berks County but happening across the country. According to a news report, an average of nine UCC churches close on any given day. If this is true, Ulrich Zwingli's Reformed church is dying rapidly.
Our nation is becoming more and more secular as the number of people who profess no faith continues to grow. Lack of faith and reverence for God affects every area of life. Society is becoming increasingly corrupt, from the highest government officials so the lowest man in the gutter.
Lack of decency and respect was on display at the State of the Union address last night. The speech was full of bragging and self-congratulation, actually a campaign speech in my humble opinion. The reactions to the speech were an open display of partisan politics with the Democratic side of the house remaining stoically seated while Republican side repeatedly stood and applauded. When it ended, the democratic Speaker of the House stood on the platform, tore up the pages of the speech, and threw them down to make a statement. And these are the people who make the laws of the land!
Government cannot legislate righteousness and is not the answer to the ills of society today. The answer is in the Word of God that can change hearts and lives. As churches fail and close, society spirals downward. As the number of Bible believing Christians shrinks, the outlook for the future of the nation grows darker and darker. We can expect persecution to grow but Jesus promised He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Let us go on shining our lights in the darkness. It is needed more than ever today!
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