Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Not Just a Cute Church

I really enjoyed the post I saw today by Jared Wilson. He is the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Spings, VT and the author of the blog, The Gospel-Driven Church. I enjoy his blog for a couple reasons:

1) His postings are almost always insightful, motivated by grace and filled with gospel wisdom.

2) One of my interests is family history, and his church is only about 10 miles from the family farm in Wallingford, VT where my father spent many of his boyhood summers. I have never been there (or to Vermont at all, for that matter), but I have always wanted to visit, and hope to do so some day. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to worship with Jared at Middletown Springs.

In today's post he cites how people often refer to the building where his church meets (pictured above) as "cute" because it is small, old and traditional. He cautions against such short-sightedness in his post, recounting some of the church's history. You should really read the whole thing here (it's not very long), but he concludes with the following:

Our building is just a building, but it's not just a building. It's a symbol of the enduring evangelical presence, small but hearty, in this least-churched state in the nation, and of the endurance of the great salt-of-the-earth people who are the church that gathers in the building for which they're called.

The gates of hell will prevail against espresso bars and KidzTowns. But not our church.

Our church is not cute. It is epic.

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