Too Many Churches are Spiritless; Here are Some Solutions
A Column in the Baptist Associations Series with Applications for all Local Denominational Organizations
(This column appears this week in the digital and print edition of The Baptist Paper. Access the column in the digital edition HERE. The Baptist Paper is a publication of TAB Media. Request a free trial HERE. See all TAB Media columns written by George Bullard HERE.)
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Too Many Churches are Spiritless; Here are Some Solutions
By George Bullard
I am not sure which church it was that finally led me to call this type of church “spiritless.”
Was it the one that would seat 400 and looked like a huge, evangelistic crusade tent that had been turned into a cement-block building with two dozen people scattered around the auditorium for worship?
Could it have been the one with half a dozen people huddled in one corner of the fellowship hall, paying a retired pastor to come preach for them each Sunday? They refused many offers for other active churches to use their sanctuary because they were not their kind of people.
Perhaps it was the church that 50 years ago went from a thriving church to a remnant church when ministerial infidelity was exposed, and men with guns went looking for the pastor. A group of two dozen people held on to the facility. They kept the church open by allowing a non-English language church to pay rent to worship there.
All I know is that their name is Legion, for there are many — except they are spiritless. And yet the people who are part of these churches are people of worth created in the image of God to live and to love.
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(Note: Consult recent columns on church sabbaticals and a year of jubilee found HERE.)