What if your church wasn't there?

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 122:1

Last Sunday the question was asked "What if our church weren't here?" There was a direction the speaker was heading, but the Holy Spirit has continually brought that up to me this week. What if my church weren't here? Look around your church and ask yourself that. What would be the impact if your church didn't exist, and had never existed?

How many souls that have been saved through the outreach of your church would be lost and headed for Hell, or maybe there already, instead of on their way to Heaven, or in Heaven already?

Depending on how long your church has been there, how many children that were saved and grew into adults serving the Lord wouldn't be saved and/or serving Him right now? There is a man in our church who has been here just about since the beginning of the church (37 years ago!). He has teenage grandchildren now, who are being trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord by their parents, his children. Would they be if our church had never been started?

How many homes that have been helped would be broken if not for the ministry of your church?

What would the impact on your community be? Yes, most likely the community by and large doesn't like your church, but the people in your church have made an impact for the Lord that wouldn't be there if your church wasn't.

When I was younger, we lived in Washington state. My mom and my stepdad married when I was nine. When I was 10, a bus captain came and visited our neighborhood. I promised I would go to church the next Sunday. Well, I forgot and spent the night with a friend, and missed the bus. But that captain didn't give up. He came back the next week, and I rode the bus. I got my brother to go another week. Then one day, the pastor came to visit. He talked with my dad, and showed him how he could have assurance of his salvation. Next thing you know, the whole family was going to church (IFB, by the way). My parents had been having some marital problems and mom had prayed and asked God to do something. That was the week the bus captain showed up. My parents will celebrate 38 years of marriage this year. But what if Open Door Babtist Church of Lynwood, WA wouldn't have been there? My older brother (while we were still attending Open Door) later led my younger brother to the Lord, because of what was taught at Open Door. He and I had already been saved through a Bible camp we had gone to. But where would my younger brother be? Would my older brother have talked with him about his soul, if Open Door hadn't been there. Don't know ~ but I am so thankful Pastor Blue obeyed God and started Open Door Baptist Church.

If the church where my husband and I had met hadn't been there, when I visited my mother on Mother's Day in 1986, we would have gone elsewhere for church, and I wouldn't be married to the best man in the world!!! =D We wouldn't have our son.

After my husband and I had been married almost 3 years, God called him to Bible college. Hubby felt God was leading him to Fairhaven Baptist College in Chesterton, Indiana. In 1989, we moved, with our almost 2 year old son, to Chesterton and my husband began college. We are still here, eighteen years later. God has worked in our lives through the ministry of the church here, and I am so thankful. But what if the church wasn't here? Scary thought! We have needed the preaching and teaching God has given us through our church, to raise our son and to have a good marriage, and to be the Christians God would have us be. Has everything been perfect? Oh, no ~ but would we still be married if it weren't for our church? Hopefully yes, but there are so many marriages that took place the same year as ours did that have ended in divorce. Praise God for a church where our pastor, Dr. Roger Voegtlin, preaches what the Bible says about the home!

How can we show our thankfulness for our church?

~ Do you pray for your pastor and any staff your church has? How about your fellow members? We need to lift each other up in prayer. Remember what Samuel said: "God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you." 1 Samuel 12:23

~ Do you give:
~ of yourself, your time to help in ways needed in your church?
~ of your money? how will the work continue and grow if money doesn't come in? Can we say: "Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house." 1 Chronicles 29:3

~ Do you attend faithfully? "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25
~ Jesus set the example for us: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16 This is something He did regularly...do we?

~ Is your testimony before the world right: would they want to come to your church if the way you conducted yourself was the only criteria they had by which to judge your church and your God? "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Maybe we should take extra time to thank God for our church, maybe send a note to our pastor thanking him for being a surrended servant and ministering to us.

What if your church wasn't there?