My new old home is within blocks of the old Henry Ford homes. These are wonderful old houses built by Mr. Ford for his employees years and years ago. I think that the Ford influence goes beyond the blocks he actually claimed. Our new old house is just a bungalow, not a Ford home like the one shown here. But I can feel the old fashioned neighborhood feel along the street where I live.
The other day I was taking a short cut home from Target when I noticed a little brick church tucked back into the trees of the Ford neighborhood. It was Village Baptist Church, and it doesn't have a web site that I can find. It looked sweet there, perfect in the old Ford neighborhood. I had a strange impulse then, that I want to go to Village Baptist Church. I am not Baptist, have never attended a Baptist church as a regular member. Although brothers and sisters in Christ, there are some differences between "their" beliefs and "our" beliefs and here and there has even been some animosity. Shame on us.
Today I attend a nondenominational modern church. We gather in a converted grocery store under spot lights and smoke machines and worship to modern rock with lyrics on big screens. We have a Panera-esque cafe and a book store. It is many things but quaint is not one. So why this draw to Village Baptist Church all of a sudden?
As I drove on past I thought about it. It seems like it would be comfortable and familiar to me. I bet I'd know most of the hymns and I can imagine sermons that might remind me childhood. Nothing modern inside those walls I bet. After all, no website and no cafe. Church was long over when I drove past but I picture ladies in Sunday best and men in suits walking under the old trees on sunshiny Sunday mornings with Bibles in hand. In the modern world where I live, I guess I convinced myself I could step inside of a Norman Rockwell painting at Village Baptist Church.
For twenty years I'd have debated the finer points of theology and questioned what ministries the church offered. Were they active in overseas missions? What kind of youth ministry? Do they reach out to the disenfranchised? The homeless, mentally ill, AIDs victims? This front-line kind of church has been a part of my life for a long time. Little steepled churches in old fashioned neighborhoods aren't likely to be aggressive in their approach to kingdom work. At least, not the way that draws attention and makes you feel like you're really doing something significant.
I imagine little steepled churches in old fashioned neighborhoods probably open their doors on Sunday mornings with organ music and a pastor in a three piece suit reading from a King James Bible. I bet there's a board somewhere showing where the missionaries are waiting for the offerings of the congregation so that they can teach far away people about Jesus. Maybe in the basement, four or five little ones are sitting around a flannel board learning about Jonah and the Big Fish.
I've been a gospel snob. I've looked down my nose at "Sunday morning Christians." I've attached myself to one or two or five "ministries" in my church as a show of my commitment to the work of God. But today I'm wondering again about a church like Village Baptist Church.
I don't have any idea what it's like in there. If I were to drop in, I might very well high-tail it out of there and regret my flights of fancy. Right now, though, I'm wondering....when did we decide that only the church ministers? What if I go to the Village Baptist Church to sing old hymns to an organ and listen to familiar passages from a preacher to fill up the parts of my soul that are hungry for quiet and comfortable church.
Can't I still love and help and minister even if it isn't official?
Maybe we all need to take a moment to consider that Jesus didn't put a clipboard at the welcome desk to organize outreach. He went to the Temple to be filled and to the streets to be poured out.
I might just dust off my big old fashioned King James Bible and drop by a little steepled church in an old fashioned neighborhood.
Pic: One of the Ford homes not far from my new old house.
7 comments:
What a thought-provoking post my friend. And you are right, as usual, in your summation of the 'church'. WE are it. WE are the hands and feet of our Lord in this earth. If all in the church waited for a committee to sanction 'ministry' we might be waiting a good long while.
I wonder if perhaps the small churches might, in the long run, be doing what the Lord said do. We can so easily get caught up in all the busyness and business of 'church' that we simply forget that WE, YOU AND ME, ARE THE CHURCH. We are to be obedient to what the Lord has called us to do ... glorify Him in every aspect of our lives by being content in Him. Sounds simple, don't ya think? And we don't need a committee or chairman's approval to do that. Thank goodness!
you might stop in there and remember how God loved you during your childhood, and have that same feeling of a hug as a little child instead of a hug as an adult.
i loved this post, we are the church. Sometimes it's Sunday morning inside a building, and sometimes it's every other day of the week, some other place.
I was raised in a Baptist Church...
I am now Pentecostal but I sometimes find myself longing for the quiet peace of singing the old Hymns, not from the overheads but a
Hymnal [haven't seen one in a while] while wearing my little white gloves and looking at Stained Glass Windows.
Great Post! Sweet Memories!
I want that house!!!!
Small church, big church, cutting edge, or traditional..they each exist because they fill a need, a space in the big picture...I too have been thinking of finding a place that sings the old hymns...a simpler life..of course in mayny ways, you can't get any simpler than house church which I have been in for 25 yrs, but for lack of one currently...i am exploring the more traditional setting...God is still God wherever you are. sa louise says "we are the church" though I don't believe that in the singular we are...She is a WE...and I need a WE..simple as that. :)
Do you live near Olmstead Ave/St? I have several friends there and many dear memories of "church" there as well. there are some incredible saints who live on Olmstead!
I recently left a more conservative Nazarene church to go back to my charismatic roots (A/G) and have now found myself quite at home in a Pentecostal church. We have hymnals in the pews. Why? - I haven't a clue because we haven't opened them once in the five months I've been attending.
The other day, I found myself alone in the house for a couple of hours (a rare occasion!) and soon found myself at the piano, with my hymnal, playing and singing all the great old hymns of the church.
That precious time with the Lord was just as incredible as the live band and the lyrics on the screen in my contemporary, dancing, whooping and hollering, hand-raising church...and as jada's gigi said...filled a need in my heart at the time for some wonderful waves of peace to wash over my soul.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post. WE are indeed the church. It has nothing to do with the service that takes place in the building.
my first memory in life is being wrapped in a soft blanket as a small toddler on a church pew. Light streaming in from the choir loft and hazy light. If you were raised on the old gospel songs ... they became part of your soul ... and it's nice to return to one's roots. BIG churches are great for those with LOTS of energy ... but I'm searching for a small church that will include my son as part of the 'package' deal.
You should check out the Village Baptist Church ... I would if I lived in your neighborhood :)
my first memory in life is being wrapped in a soft blanket as a small toddler on a church pew. Light streaming in from the choir loft and hazy light. If you were raised on the old gospel songs ... they became part of your soul ... and it's nice to return to one's roots. BIG churches are great for those with LOTS of energy ... but I'm searching for a small church that will include my son as part of the 'package' deal.
You should check out the Village Baptist Church ... I would if I lived in your neighborhood :)
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