HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-06-02, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016.
From the Minister's Study
What makes a good church? asks van Leeuwen
By Pastor Gary van Leeuwen
Blyth Christian Reformed
Church
A few months ago I overheard a
conversation in which one person
said to the other, "That church is a
good church." I didn't follow the
conversation long enough to
discover what she meant by the
word, "good," but I suspect that it
had something to do with what
happened for an hour or so every
Sunday morning. Similarly, a few
days ago someone said to me that he
was willing to travel over an hour to
attend worship services because he
could not find a "good" church near
his home. Interestingly, the church
that was declared "good" in the first
conversation was rejected by the
person in the second conversation.
These two conversations started me
thinking- what is a good church?
What makes a church "good"?
I did some research for a paper a
few years ago where I sought to
discover what makes something
good. I discovered this: something
can be declared good when it fulfills
what it was designed to do. So, for
example, we can declare ice cream
to be good if it is cold, creamy and
well -flavoured. We cannot demand
that ice cream be free of calories to
be good because, by definition, ice
cream needs to have a high calorie
count in order to fulfill what it was
designed to do.
So, what makes a church good? It
depends on what the church is
supposed to do. I suppose some
might say that a church is good if it
has a dynamic praise team with well
qualified instrumentalists and
singers. Certainly good music
leadership makes the worship
service more enjoyable, but would
that be the thing that makes the
church good? Others might say that
a church is good if the pastor
delivers a message that is easy to
listen to and is full of amusing
stories.
Because of who I am I would have
to disagree. I would rather listen to
someone who thinks deeply and who
challenges me to think Biblically,
even if their presentation is rather
boring. Because we all have
different interests and preferences,
we might say that the goodness of a
church is all relative. What makes a
church good for you might not be
what makes a church good for me.
Or is there definition of what the
church ought to be that can help us
understand what a good church
might look like?
About 500 years ago the question
of what makes a church good was
being discussed in Europe. In those
times the church was in turmoil with
many protesting the actions and
teachings of the church to which
they belonged. It was from those
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June 5: Luke 20:27ff
"Ridiculous Reasoning &
Resurrection Reali "
Evangelical Missionary Church
FREE MOVIE
Fri., June 17, 7:00 pm
"WAR ROOM"
VBS July 11-14
tinyurl.com/blythvbs2016
Tues. 7:30 pm Wingham Small Group
- G&M Lisle's, 136 Patrick St. W.
10:30 a.m. - Worship & Sunday School ri
at 308 Blyth Rd. (former Church of God) I I
Pastor: Ernest Dow - 519-523-4848
getlivingwater.or)
protests that the Protestant branch of
the Christian church came into
existence. It was also during that
time when some began to answer the
question of what makes a church
good.
The first thing they said was this: a
church, in order to be good, needs to
derive its source of teaching from
the Holy Scriptures. The Bible needs
to give substance and direction to all
teachings and activities of the
church. All sermons, all songs, all
prayers, and all ministries of the
church need to be rooted in
scripture. I should note that this is
easily forgotten. Far too often, even
in churches which claim to be rooted
in Scripture, I have watched leaders
take ideas and practices from
business, for example, baptize those
practices with a few Bible verses and
declare that they are rooting
themselves in Scripture. This is not
rooting our lives in Scripture.
Rather, to be rooted in Scripture is to
study the Bible seriously and allow it
to shape our lives.
A second facet of a good church,
the leaders of the church from 500
years ago said, was that it cared for
those who belonged to it. Thus, the
church should provide good biblical
and theological instruction for its
members. But, more than that, the
church should instruct its members
how to live and set guidelines for
what it means to live Christ -like
lives. And, taking this further, a good
church ought to be willing to step in
and give direction to members who
are straying, calling them back to
Christ -like living. They called this
discipline, something we all need
from time to time.
In more recent years leaders in the
church have been talking about the
role of the church in the community.
A good church, many are proposing,
is one that also cares about the
community in which it finds itself. A
church does this by caring about the
spiritual and physical needs of the
people of the community. A good
church, thus, does not look after
only itself and the needs of its
What we are talking about this Sunday@ HURON CHAPEL
The phrase God says to man more than any
other in the Bible is this, "Do not be afraid".
It is written 365 times. This is a daily
reminder from God to us that we can live
everyday being fearless.
Learn how this Sunday 10:30am in Auburn huronchapel.com
ANGLICAN PARISH OF NEW BEGINNINGS
BLYTH
Trinity
(4. 9:15 am
Church Office
519-357-4883
BRUSSELS
St. John's
11:15 am
Church Office
519-887-6862
Everyone Welcome!
COME WORSHIP WITH US!
'Emmetd, eo004104 Vac
Sunday, June 5
Brussels Business & Cultural Centre
at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday School for children
4 to 12 years of age at 9:30 a.m.
Childcare provided for infants and
preschoolers during the sermon.
Coffee & cookies after the morning service.
For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621
Steve Klumpenhower 519.292.0965 Rick Packer 519.527.0173
Blyth United Church
Est. 1875
Worship Service & Sunday School at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday, June 5th
To Care is human,
To share is devine
All Welcome
MINISTER: Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div. 6. OFFICE: 519-523-4224
members, but, rather, it is also
involved in the community to pray
for the community and to provide
the love of Christ in concrete forms
to those who have needs. This is also
a facet of a good church.
So, to reiterate, a good church,
according to both historic and
contemporary church leaders, roots
itself in scripture and cares about
and for the spiritual and physical
needs of both its members and the
members of the larger community.
Now here is the challenging piece.
In the opening sentence of this
article I recalled a conversation in
which one person said to the other,
"That church is a good church" She
was referring to a church that was
not her own. I could sense in her
voice that she did not think that her
own church was as good as the other
one. I sensed, further, that she would
have gladly switched churches so
that she too could belong to a "good"
church. That seems to be the
tendency of people today - to switch
to a church which they like better,
which they perceive to be "more
good." But if we consider that the
church is defined as a gathering of
people, then whether or not a church
is considered "good" becomes the
responsibility of the people who are
in that church. We might have a
tendency to leave the task of making
a church "good" to the leadership,
but that would be to miss the point.
If we belong to a church, it is our
responsibility to see that it is good,
for the church is us. We are the
church, and if the church is not as
good as we might think it should be,
Continued on page 19
BRUSSELS
United Church
WORSHIP SERVICE
AND SUNDAY SCHOOL 11:00 am
All Welcome
Minister: Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M.Div.
Bulletin notices: 519-523-4224
blythunited@tcc.on.ca
Church bookings: 519-887-6377
Other concerns: 226-963-1175
You're egnvited Jo join `us egn Worsilip
SUNDAYS
Morning Service
Evening Service
10:00 am
7:30 pm
BLYTH CHRISTIAN
REFORMED CHURCH
Minister: Pastor Gary van Leeuwen
Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Elwin Garland
SUNDAY, JUNE 5
We invite you to join our church family in:
Worship & Sunday School - 10 am
Coffee & Snacks - 11 am
Fridays 11:30 am - 1:00 pm - Soup & More 2
- a free community meal held in Melville's basement, and
made possible by the Brussels churches working together.
Nursery care available
519-887-9017
THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS.
OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Brussels:
St. Ambrose
Saturday
6:00 p.m.
17 Flora Street
Wingham:
Sacred Heart
Sunday
9:00 a.m.
220 Carling Terrace
Listowel:
St. Joseph's
Sunday
11:00 a.m.
1025 Wallace Avenue N.