A Church That Costs Nothing Is Easy to Leave
Eight habits our grandparents’ churches kept, and how they slipped away.
Our grandparents’ churches did eight things we rarely do now. They preached through whole books of the Bible. They kept membership meaningful. They sang hymns heavy with doctrine. They faithfully attended a second service on Sunday. They fasted, preached plainly on judgment, went out after the lost, and gathered the family around the Book at home.
Most of that was never put to a vote. Each piece slipped away by a reasonable decision, and many of those decisions were made in the pulpit. I’m a preacher, and that humbles me.
Every change solved a small problem. A shorter commitment suited a busy family. A lighter sermon suited a tired listener. But together they made church cheaper, and what costs little is easy to leave. Plenty of other things emptied pews, and I won’t pin it all on these eight. Still, you sensed something had been lost, didn’t you?
Our Lord never hid the price. “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). A church without a cross may fill a building for a season, but it will not hold a people.
Here is the hope. A habit put down by choice can be picked up by choice. “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16).
Start tonight at your own table. Open the Bible, read a few verses aloud, and pray together. Ten minutes. Fathers, that one is yours.
Which of the eight would you bring back first?
Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee
https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/