After being
a Christian for over
55 years, the first 25 years of which I was an active
member of the Salvation Army. During that time I served for 15 years in the
Royal Navy and as part of the Naval Christian Fellowship, met and shared my
faith with Christians from all denominations and none. I now find it
difficult to find a church to which I feel I belong and more importantly am
accepted. My wife Julia with whom I
have been married now for 40 odd years and have 3 grown up children all
Christians attending churches in Plymouth, also now has no interest in church saying she
finds no friendship there.
The disenchantment with church started in
2007 whilst living in Stroud Glos.,
First
I
had to put down my Labrador after 18 years as a family pet. Shortly afterwards my father became ill and
in March of
that year died.
In
June my mother did likewise.
5 months later (November)
a very close aunt of Julia’s
died.
A
week
or so
later her mother died and 10 days later her father (just a couple of days before
Christmas.) Just to add to the fun of it all both Julia
and myself lost our jobs when we were made redundant. All in all 2007 was quite traumatic time and by the end
of it we had put down our beloved dog Saffrin;
lost both mine and then Julia’s parents and in the middle of it all, lost
our jobs.
And the church in all that time......., nowhere to be
seen. In fact we later found out, they
were annoyed that when we got home after it was all over, we did not go and visit them so they could
comfort us. Not one of the
congregation in the church in Gloucester
where we had been active members for several years, could travel the 10 miles to Stroud to
comfort us. We were though repeatedly
assured we were in their prayers. A Salvation
Army Officer though dropped everything and travelled over 100 miles to spend an
hour or so to pray with Julie the same day that he found out. It was
then I began to ask what was the purpose of church and began to say “don’t pray for us, pray with us.”
One thing the year did tell us though. The church was right Jesus was all we need. For without God’s hand upon us. His support and at times divine intervention
how we would have got through 2007 I
still don’t. As for the church,
well.............................
Having now no reason for being in Stroud, we returned to Plymouth and looked around our
old stamping grounds for a church we could join. This time though we were keen to find an
answer to the question 2007 had thrown up.
What was the point of going to church if when it’s needed, it is not there. What is the purpose of church, the answer to which no one is willing to tell
me except to say the bible tells us in
Hebrews 10 v25 not give up meeting together.
No one though is prepared to put it in context for v24 starts with “And
let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good
deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of
doing, encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the
Day approaching.” The other thing they
tell me is “ in order to worship God.”
But where? there are at least 70 churches I know of in the Plymouth,
Tavistock area. And is that all there
is to church. An hour or so a week
coming together to sing a few songs and worship God. After 6 years of searching for an answer I
have to agree with Julie. There is no
point....... maybe one of you know
different and could tell us why we are wrong after all these years not to go to
church.
No comments:
Post a Comment