If the church doors closed...

My dad always said, "If the church doors are open, we're going to be there!"  And we were.  Every service, every event, many Saturdays and special occasions.  We were at church.  It was a second home.  Filled with people who we grew to love like family and who prayed for us and cared for us.  We weren't perfect, but we did the best we knew how as we sought the Lord.  I learned what the Bible says both in classes designed for my age group and in sitting with my parents in "big church"; I learned how to pray from watching adults pray together; I learned to care for my neighbors and look out for one another as we set out to encourage and meet needs.  Much of what I am is a result of the church, and the church people, I was privileged to attend and to know.  I am grateful to the Lord and grateful to my parents.

Recently, I've heard it said - "If our church doors closed, would our community mourn?"

Would our community mourn?

I don't understand.

 

If we, as a church, are doing God's will and following both Christ's example in Scripture and the principles spelled out in His Word, then we will be meeting needs of the people of our community. They will, hopefully, be drawn to Jesus Christ, and then they will choose to be a part of our church in order to grow in the Lord and continue serving Him in our community.  If that's not happening, the doors should close.

I think a better question is, "If our church doors are open, is God mourning?"

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. 

I can think of plenty of people who were not happy with Jesus or with the apostles or with Paul.  There were many communities that threw the disciples out; that stoned Paul (who watched as Stephen was stoned); that crucified the Lord.  In this statement, "If our church doors close, would our community mourn?", we are looking only at the temporal.  The focus is on the immediate.  Why is it important for the community to want our church open? what need are we meeting?

What need are we meant to meet?

• Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God.
• Visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction; keep [yourself] undefiled from the world
• Love your enemies.

Even if the building doors were to close by some act of the government, God's plan would still be accomplished.  Jesus Christ said, "...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:16)

So we should be asking ourselves, why? Why does God close a church? We see as the church is being formed that God deals with members of the church - i.e., Ananias and Sapphira, members of the Corinthian church who misused the Lord's Table, etc.  But the church itself remained in tact as they were admonished.  Our God is merciful and slow to anger.  What would cause Him to close a church?  Revelation 2 gives us some insight.  It's written to the angel of the church in Ephesus.  "This complaint I have against you.  You don't love me or each other as you did at first...If you do not repent, I will come and remove your lamp stand from its place among the churches." How are we to let our little lights shine if the lamp stand has been removed? For the Christian, I cannot think of anything worse.

The pastor at the church I grew up in has a saying, which he phrased along with several other pastors in the city.  They say, "We want to make it very difficult for the people in Jackson, Michigan, to end up in hell."  Here the focus is on eternity.  There is an urgency.  It wouldn't matter if the church doors closed because the Church, God's children, would still be active.  We want to think about what's going on with the lost and broken outside the walls of the church building, but we want them to care about their eternal soul.  

Matthew 5: 20-48

"But I warn you - unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven...I say, if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court.  And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. If you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God... You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury... But I say, do not resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat too.  If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and do not turn away from those who want to borrow.  I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.  For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike... If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."