After Nancy retired as a teacher in the Penn Yan Central Schools, we bought a 23- foot trailer, hooked it up to our Explorer and visited much of the country each fall for several years. Everywhere we travelled, we looked for a church to attend on Sunday morning regardless of the denomination.
We had many good experiences, but we also visited several churches where we were ignored. We were not greeted or introduced. No one made us feel welcome. We do remember one church in Williamsburg, Virginia where we were greeted by one person. He was another visitor.
In a recent Parable titled Faith and Courage, I quoted Pastor James McDonald from Walking World Ministries who reported that 4,000 churches close their doors every year and 3,500 people leave the church every day.
Jesus final instructions to us, as recorded in Matthew, were:
“ … go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Congregations dwindle, in part, because they have ignored Jesus’ command to make more disciples They disregard strangers, they fail to reach out to their lost sheep, and they no longer speak for Christ in their communities and around the world.
