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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 t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t 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.