Mar 3, 2019
Just Imagine No Churches!
This world seems to be getting smaller, at least places we know about. Right in our living rooms, we see problems in Syria, troubles in Europe, summits in Vietnam. Yet for some of us, the most difficult travel is between our homes and the church.
In the actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid downgrade.
Church work and church attendance mean the cultivation of the habit of feeling some responsibility for others and the sense of braced moral strength, which prevents a relaxation of one’s own moral fiber.
There are enough holidays for most of us that can quite properly be devoted to pure holiday-making. Sundays differ from other holidays, among other ways, in the fact that there are 52 of them every year.
On Sunday, go to church.
Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one’s own house, just as well as in church. But I also know as a matter of cold fact the average man does not thus worship or thus dedicate himself. If he strays from church, he does not spend his time in good works or lofty meditation. He looks over the colored supplement of the newspaper.
He may not hear a good sermon at church. But unless he is very unfortunate, he will hear a sermon by a good man who, with his good wife, is engaged all the week long in a series of wearing, humdrum, and important tasks for making hard lives a little easier.
He will listen to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible.
And if he is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss.
He will probably take part in singing some good hymns.
He will meet and nod to, or speak to, good quiet neighbors. He will come away feeling a little more charitably toward all the world, even toward those excessively foolish young men who regard churchgoing as rather a soft performance.
I advocate a man’s joining in church works for the sake of showing his faith by his works.
The man who does not in some way, active or not, connect himself with some active, working church misses many opportunities for helping his neighbors, and therefore, incidentally, for helping himself.
– Theodore Roosevelt, 1917
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Click: Just Suppose
Rick, this was powerful encouragement for me today. I imagine the permission you were granted to quote one of your favorite people ever had to encourage you too, as you planned to bless us all today with this important reminder. You defined for me an aspect of the church I’ve been missing: “He may not hear a good sermon at church. But unless he is very unfortunate, he will hear a sermon by a good man who, with his good wife, is engaged all the week long in a series of wearing, humdrum, and important tasks for making hard lives a little easier.” As a word smith, I struggle with poorly executed homiletics. This gave me the necessary attitude adjustment, allowing me to focus on the true fellowship of believers that accomplishes being the hands and feet of Jesus….Thanks so much for the verbal kick in the rear you perfectly executed:)
Thank you! Indeed it is a good reminder… and to me , an encouraging perspective and lesson in humility. We both have occasionally visited churches or sat under dropouts from Homiletics 101. I remember someone pointed to a modest church and said that the roof needed repair, and the preacher was poor. “Why doesn’t the church pay him better?” I asked. No… he meant that the fellow preached poorly.
It is interesting about the context of Theodore Roosevelt’s essay. He wrote it as an article for Ladies Home Journal magazine! Imagine that today?
THANK YOU for the comment!
I was amazed when I reached the end and realized this was written 100 years ago; the message is perfect for today. Wow, what a message.
Thank you, Katie! Yes, a surprise. And imagine an ex-president today — any of our ex-presidents — writing such an article. And for the Ladies Home Journal , no less.
I know this is a bit late to comment on, but I wanted to say something about this. My husband and I had always been regular church goers, but when our first child was born, we slacked off attending for nearly two years. Our infant daughter would scream when we left her in the nursery, and that was very hard on me to hear, as a young and first time mother. That was one of my excuses for not wanting to go. Transitions in our little fellowship added to that, and then we moved away from the area. But, the absence from fellowship and regular worship and hearing weekly sermons had done its damage. I wasn’t consciously aware of my diminished desire for the things of God, until an event in my life that caused me to understand just how weak in Him I had become. It drove me back into regular attendance, and greater involvement, and I have been there ever since.
Being a committed member of a Christian fellowship is both a profound personal necessity and blessing. It is also absolutely vital to the influence and life of the larger Church. To be able to sit and listen to a sermon from someone who sought the Lord to hear and relay a message to a congregation is priceless, even if it is imperfectly imparted to us. To be guided back to the Truth in Him is what helps to keep us on the straight path. To take this little bit of time, once a week, to present our offerings of worship to our amazing and wonderful Lord in tandem with our local fellow believers, is not too much to ask of us who claim we believe in and love the Lord. We need each other. We need encouragement from each other. We need to be able to ask for prayer from each other for things we face in this life, asking God to intervene (where two or three are gathered…).
Aside from the time we spend sleeping, or in prayer, personal devotions/Bible reading/meditation, or genuine fellowship with other believers, the world bombards us with its views without cessation. Unless there is an intentional counterpoint, we are slowly worn down to life-altering error.
I am just echoing the bottom line exhortation here to understand just how critical it is to be actively engaged with one’s local brothers and sisters in Christ. Don’t give up meeting together, especially as you see the Day approaching; and, oh yes, it is approaching.
Thank you! I assume and hope the essay and the music encouraged you… what you have written is on a par, and encourages ME! Good words — thank you very much, Susan, for your testimony and witness.
You are welcome, Rick! Yes, indeed, the essay encouraged me, but I hadn’t listened to the song yet. So, I listened just now. How funny that the song should contain some lyrics about a mom and a crying baby as the reason the mom was avoiding going to church! I had no idea! Oh, the Lord is good! 🙂
This does make me wonder, however, how many other young moms face this each week. It must be a common thing. How do we let them know it’s really okay to come anyway, and that their baby will be just fine -as will they, and everyone else!?
Thanks Rick!