praises , saying the Creed in unison , partaking in Holy Communion , and then being sent out as His witnesses in the world .
During a recent trip , I had an unforgettable experience . I was standing just outside an old church , lost in the beauty of the design and the construction , when the guide pointed out that it was no longer a church . It was now a pub ! I was in shock .
I grew up by the riverbanks in a tiny village in the very southern part of India . I remember as a little boy the coconut trees that grew nearby and leaned over the wide river . We kids would climb up those trees and then jump into the water and swim . But here ’ s the thing — from the height of those coconut trees we could look down where
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the water was clear and see the river bottom .
Today , however , if you went with me to see that same river , you ’ d find it dirty and polluted . What happened ? Well , over the past 50 years , hundreds of homes were built along the river , and with more people , more pollutants were dumped into the river so that there is now no life left in the river . It is dead .
In some ways , I see this as an analogy for what ’ s been happening in so many places to physical church buildings , yes , but also to the non-physical Church . Think about it . Two thousand years ago , the Church was born — it was orthodox , true and faithful to the Word and to the instructions of the Lord Jesus and the way He lived in the world . But as time went on , people began to dump their various opinions , methods and teachings into the Church , and now so much of what we see today is no longer the thing of beauty He intended .
But now go back with me to my river . We ’ ll get in a canoe and paddle to the headwaters . As we travel near where the stream starts , we will find water that is still clear and clean and pure . Going back to the start is what I believe we need to do regarding the Church . We can ’ t simply go back 500 years to the Reformation and think we ’ re at the beginning . We need to return to the real beginning , the early centuries .
It is reported in the media that thousands of churches are being closed in England and , unfortunately , most of them are bought by non-Christians to set up bars and create other businesses . They could become a dance hall or a museum , a liquor store or a restaurant .
It troubles me that the great , rich church heritage in these countries , which is so beautiful , could be treated with what seems to be such little respect .
I ’ ve thought to myself somewhat facetiously , If turnabout is fair play , maybe a group of committed English believers should get together and buy a famous restaurant ... and then turn it into a church !
In all seriousness , the information I read and the church buildings I saw used for other purposes troubled me deeply . But I had to make a deliberate effort not to think about it . I had to
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