A Church Ought to Look Like a Church

You walk into a building with a church sign out front. The lights are down low. A man on a stool opens with a joke. The band plays a song you heard on the radio driving over. Ten minutes in, you still cannot tell where you are.

Or you meet a man who says he is saved. He talks like the world. He loses his temper like the world. He spends his Saturday night like the world. You want to take him at his word, but you have to work at it.

God gave His people ways to be known. The Bible open on the pulpit. Hymns with doctrine in them. A father who bows his head at the supper table and gives thanks. Children who answer "yes sir" and "no ma'am." Some churches have put all that away to seem friendlier. That was a mistake. Those things told folks what they were walking into.

"For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" (1 Corinthians 14:8)

A sinner looking for help ought to be able to find it. A saint trying to stand ought to know where the line is. A church that sounds like the world helps neither one.

Blow the trumpet clear. Raise your house to look like a Christian house, and keep your church looking like a church. Folks ought to know what to expect from you. Then they ought to get it.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/