tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3262546789235754734.post692600321192900091..comments2023-12-26T02:32:00.689-06:00Comments on Spat from the Whale: and are we yet aliveRich Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14503690198186721573noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3262546789235754734.post-60997765667143399022008-02-25T14:22:00.000-06:002008-02-25T14:22:00.000-06:00This hymn, which is a traditional opening at Annua...This hymn, which is a traditional opening at Annual Conferences, has always struck me as odd, until some recent events. In the past year and a half, my home church, an old congregation (established in the 1880's, with a beautiful Greek revival building completed in 1916 complete with stained-glass dome) that, when I was in high school, boasted a membership of 430 and a weekly attendance close to two hundred in a community of 6000, shuttered its doors, selling the building to the Salvation Army. My parents transferred their membership to another UM Church.<BR/><BR/>I can't say I was surprised, and I was sad. But, I also wondered about what it might "mean" - and I realized something Lisa always says applied. This one congregation has shuttered, but does that mean that God's Word isn't being preached, that Jesus is somehow less Lord than when it was open? Could it not be that this community of believers had a mission, served their Lord, and then, when their time was over, went the way of all other contingent things of this world? Does the closing of this church not so much show us how bad things are for the UMC, as show us the semi-inscrutable ways of God, calling things in to being, only to see them pass once their mission and ministry is complete? Even should the UMC as a denomination end, and "Are We Yet Alive?" become ironic rather than affirmative, would God's Kingdom be farther away?<BR/><BR/>Anyway, some thoughts this hymn brings to mind . . .Geoffrey Kruse-Saffordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11242660591954094499noreply@blogger.com