CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – My family’s church in Connecticut is one of the oldest in North America. The First Congregational Church of Fairfield is 375 years old. That’s older than our country. It was burned by the redcoats during the Revolutionary War, and was destroyed again by an arsonist. The current building, the third on the site, was completed in 1892.
All things being equal, I like worshiping in an old place. It reminds me that God does not change – He is the Alpha and Omega.
And yet, The Cross, my church today, is only eight years old. It celebrates its anniversary this Sunday.
If you were going to wager on whether a church was going to be successful, the odds would have been against The Cross. It was started with in the pastor’s living room with four families. Last Sunday 100 people attended worship at the storefront on Grand Avenue, where the church shares a parking lot with an auto parts store.
Who attends? Mostly former drunks and addicts. Convicts. Many of the people who are in the congregation were introduced to the gospel through the prison bible study at the Marathon County jail. Many have come to realize that only through God’s help can they beat the vices of their lives. Some attend for a few weeks and don’t come back. Others re-appear after falling back into their old ways.
Yet, the Cross has critical mass. It’s grown to the point that this church isn’t going way. So long as it remains a welcoming church where the word of God is preached, it’s likely to grow.
The early apostles had no particular church-planting or leadership skills. Yet they founded churchs in India, in Syria, and in Rome, the crossroads of the ancient world. Scripture tells us that God loves the church like a husband loves his bride. That must be true. How else could churches, to this very day, continue to flourish in unlikely places?
Chris Conley
You’ve heard me talk before about the Gospel TLC – the only-of-its-kind live-in facility for the addicted and homeless. They need people who are willing to make monthly donations; I have a link here. Being a monthly donor is the best way to help the Gospel TLC manage its expensese and be put on a long-term path to financial stability.
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