It has been interesting for me to hear from so many people that have been reading this, and a lot of you are not from my home church of Immanuel URC in DeMotte. So I am going to take advantage of this to share some weightier thoughts that are the result of my time of contemplation and of looking back over our own ministry milestones. A sort of blog farewell, if you will, with a deeper message than most.

On church—some of you that have been reading this have given up on church. Evidence of people giving up on church is seen all over in the decreasing size of congregations at solid Bible preaching churches. I think back to our Sunday evening in Birmingham, Alabama. All but 29 people in that city missed out on the best spiritual food around. We saw more evidence of people having given up on church as we traveled on Sundays and noticed the huge crowds not only refraining from a Sabbath’s day rest, but jumping instead into a frenzied rat race of restaurant lines and shopping malls. Many of these people, I am guessing, were raised to know better than this. Or their parents were. Some of you reading this fall into this category.

I was raised on the severe side of strict in the matter of Sunday observance, and have tried to smooth out the sharp edges of this without losing the main emphasis. I will go into a store or restaurant on Sunday if I am travelling to buy food I need just for that day. On some recent weeks we found it easier to go into a Wal-Mart to buy something picnic-y instead of waiting in the crazy long lines at restaurants. I don’t like doing it because it makes me feel like I am contributing to the problem of the weakening of Sunday observance. Not one to make decisions based on feelings, I will admit however that it just feels wrong. And I am glad it feels wrong. No matter how old I get I remember like it was last week the terrible dilemma once facing my mom. I was 13. The three of us, my parents and I, vacationed in a small pickup camper, never staying more than one night in the same place. We arrived at the campground late Saturday after the camp store was closed, and along with the usual paperwork of receipt and site location were given a coupon for a free bag of marshmallows. Free? Being Dutch Christians we had to use the coupon. But there only for part of Sunday? Being Dutch Christians we could not shop on Sunday. To this day I cannot look at a bag of marshmallows without remembering the solution arrived upon by my parents. Without either adult, I was to go into the store and get the free food, but I was not – under any circumstances – to look at anything else while I was in there! And I am glad I still have that memory.

So much for a rambling turn of the topic to marshmallows. Let me get back on track and speak to those of you that may have given up on church. Some of this is because churches have given up on you. By this I mean that they have lost their God ordained purpose to preach the Word and sold out to the entertainment mindset. You need to find a church that focuses on biblical preaching. If you are planning a move, you first need to see if the city where you are going has a church whose focus is on biblical preaching. If you are headed to college you need to go to a college where you can become part of a church that has its focus set on biblical preaching. (And as I already wrote about this really ought to be a Calvinist college.) Are you buying a cottage somewhere? Or even going on a two week vacation? You wouldn’t go somewhere where you cannot buy food, why do without that which feeds your soul?  Find a church. Go to it. Ever wonder why little kids are taught the song The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock? Now you are an adult. Build on the Rock.

On visiting churches – We have visited several and it was a good reminder to us that this is not easy to do. It is hard to walk into a room full of strangers, but you do this when you go to other awkward places. Women occasionally have to take the car to the mechanic. This is my personal Don’t Make Me Go There place. Men, what is your awkward place – oh, the elevators in department stores. Why do they always put them there? Maybe just reading here in one humble paragraph that other people, ministers and wives on Sabbatical included, find it hard will make it a little bit easier for you to do it next time.

It is also hard to know what to say to a visitor in your church. Recognize the awkwardness and move beyond it into conversation. God will guide the rest. At the church where we heard the best preaching – by Alistair Begg – we had the least human interaction. It is such a large church that it is a wonder anyone knows each other. We did see little knots of conversation here and there, but most sat in silence as the hundreds came in. The only sentence spoken to us was by a khaki shorts, leather flip flop, neon yellow vest clad parking attendant that held the outer door for us: “Did you have a good breakfast?” That was a new one. Maybe it is an Ohio thing… (Actually the Dutch blood in me surfaced immediately and made me wonder if it was being served somewhere for free in a part of the church campus that we had not seen.)

I will stop here and keep today’s blog only about church. Today is Sunday. Did you go to church? I hope so. If not, go next week. Be prepared to tell an awkward usher that you had a nice breakfast, and realize that we all come into God’s house as broken sinners needing to hear His voice.