Hunting for Sunday Worship
Hmmmm . . . Probably not.
Recently (i.e. April of 2010), Sharon and I were given a wonderful week of vacation in the mountains of North Carolina. We sequestered ourselves in a secluded, quiet apartment in the woods and did almost nothing for six days. It was quite refreshing, and much needed. In fact, I didn’t realize just how needed it was until about four days into the vacation when I found myself sufficiently emotionally distanced from the stuff back home to be able to relax.
At the end of the week on our departure day, which was a Sunday, we decided to be on the lookout for a church to attend. We wanted to join together with brothers and sisters in worship on the Lord’s Day. I looked online for churches that might be like-minded. After perusing the Founders website, and the FIRE listings of churches for Reformed Baptist congregations along our route, we found nothing. So we decided to just drop in on a church at 11:00 and see what would happen. Surely we would be able to find something in the heart of the Bible Belt that would provide us a time for worship and fellowship, even if we weren’t in near total agreement with everything. We like to think of ourselves as at least somewhat tolerant of our non-Reformed brethren.
We found ourselves in Hickory, NC at 10:40 AM. So we took the exit off of I-40 and began looking around. Surely there would be a number of Southern Baptist churches to choose from. But because we were obviously not familiar with the area and didn’t know where to look, the only church we found was a very large (according to Grace Fellowship standards) Baptist church near the center of town. So we pulled in.
Unfortunately, we had picked a bad time to visit this church. They were just finishing their worship service when we arrived. Their service had been rescheduled for 10 AM in order to conduct a congregational business meeting at 11. We were definitely not interested in sitting through that, so we asked a very well-dressed usher if he could recommend any other Baptist church in the vicinity. Maybe we could rush over and join them a few minutes late.
The usher thought for a moment about my question, and then answered no. No, he couldn’t recommend another Baptist church in the area. For a number of reasons, we were greatly disappointed in that answer, jumped back into the car, continued our search, and found nothing in the allotted time.
We did find a number of churches, but none we felt would actually be biblical or edifying. We found several Roman Catholic churches, many United Methodist congregations, and lots of other mainline liberal churches. Then we just ran out of time and continued on our journey. Our time in the car was well-spent as Sharon read to me while I drove. But it’s just not the same as congregational worship. It’s just not the same, and we were disappointed.
So we set our sights for the evening service. By 6 PM, we would be somewhere in northern Virginia or possibly West Virginia and off the interstate. Surely we would be able to find a church that was holding an evening service. But to make a long story short, we found many dark churches with no services at all, and very few churches that looked appealing from the outside based upon their denominational affiliations.
It was not a good Lord’s Day for us. We felt robbed. I don’t particularly want to be traveling on Sundays for that very reason, unless we’ve already made arrangements to fellowship with a certain congregation. So I suppose this was my fault for not planning ahead, or for not leaving for home a day earlier.
But one thing did make an impact upon me: The obvious need for vibrant, biblical, gospel-preaching and teaching churches across this land. Not churches that are primarily concerned with social justice, or churches that conduct a single service for an hour a week, or churches whose congregations find that the worship of God has to compete with whatever is happening on Sunday evenings. Or churches that are so isolated and insulated and individualistic that they (apparently) have no close association with other like-minded churches in the community.
The week prior to our NC vacation getaway, several of us from Grace Fellowship spent the week in Louisville at the Together for the Gospel Pastor’s Conference. Seven thousand people were in attendance, mostly pastors or seminary students or other ministerial-type people. They were all there to worship, to encourage one another in the work of the Gospel. No doubt, the vast majority of the pastors there were shepherding small congregations in out-of-the-way places, in rented facilities and storefront rooms they did not own, far from interstate highway frontage. The time together with these brethren was glorious.
The need for these brothers (and sisters) to persevere in the proclamation of the biblical gospel is huge. This is now more obvious to me than ever, having spent hours looking for a “decent” church to attend on both Sunday morning and evening. Clearly, Sharon and I were in the wrong places at the wrong times as we drove for miles in unfamiliar territory searching out a congregation of believers with which to worship. But my fear is that we could have driven many more miles on many more Sundays, and the end result would be almost always the same: Where are the churches that make the Gospel of Jesus Christ known? Where are the congregations that live out the Gospel as they love one another and love God and worship Him?
Undoubtedly, those churches are out there and can be found with a little bit of Internet searching and Google mapping. Surely Sharon and I drove within blocks, and even within sight of good churches that we just missed. Surely that must be the case. But we also drove past scads of churches that (according to their denominational standards at least), do not understand or promote biblical truth. Dozens of large, beautiful church facilities with signs out front which typically indicate the pharisaical condition of the congregation within: White-washed tombs filled with dead men’s bones. These churches often do more harm than good by promoting moralism at the expense of repentance and faith in a Savior from sin.
Grace Fellowship is, by God’s grace, one of those out-of-the-way, hard to find congregations that attempts to be biblical both on paper and in our lives. We desire to be accurate in our proclamation of the Gospel, and holy in our conduct. We gather together each week, both Sunday morning and evening, to worship our King and fellowship in like-minded devotion to the study of God’s word.
But we’re nowhere close to the interstate. In fact, our little town is nowhere close to much of anything you’d be interested in visiting, with the exception of Penn State. We are in a secluded village in central Pennsylvania, in a rented, circa 1865 church facility. We don’t have a lot of programs or a lot of people. We don’t have well-dressed ushers passing shiny offering plates as the 30-member choir sings the final anthem. We don’t even have a denominationally recognizable sign out front.
But we’re here every week, working and living in this rural setting, seeking to be pleasing to God as we follow our good Shepherd day after day, year after year. And it may be that, if we persevere long enough, our congregation, which is insignificant in the eyes of the world in many respects, may become a noticeable light for the gospel in this community. It may be that one day, someone will be driving through the Pennsylvania countryside looking for a congregation with which to worship on a Sunday morning. It may be that the Lord will cause their eyes to fall upon our humble, portable, 2 foot by 4 foot sign that says “Grace Fellowship Meets Here”. I pray for the Lord to allow us to be that church for those people who want to worship the Lord Jesus and glory in the gospel of the grace of God towards sinners like us.
