Don’t be deceived by the headlines: “More than 400 churches have been shut down in less than a decade.” It may be that 400 church buildings have closed – but the ‘churches’ (gathering of God’s people) that met in them must have ceased to function as ‘churches’ many years before that.
Such news should not lead us to believe that the Gospel is in decline: in most cases, Gospel-preaching Bible teaching churches are growing. The Lord Jesus promised in Matthew ch 16 “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”. We can be certain that if the gates of hell will not prevail against His plan then changing trends in a confused society certainly won’t!
As we heard last Sunday morning from Psalm 48: the LORD is still MOST worthy of praise! The effect of His presence with and wonder of His love for His people, means we can be confident that THE key thing that He is STILL doing in His world is building His church:
- That doesn’t mean quaint church buildings all over the countryside, and it doesn’t necessarily mean every gathering of believers in every situation – as The Lord Jesus’ letters to the churches in Revelation describe (and warn us!).
- It does mean that across the world and down through time, men and women who put their trust in Him as Saviour and Lord are being gathered to form one great people as His church.
Our fellowship at Emmanuel Chippenham is one part of that larger body and as we enter 2022 we can be confident because, as our motto verse for the year ahead proclaims:
“For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end.”
Psalm 48:14
Spencer Shaw