Instead, we saw another sign - Rosanna Baptist Church - and decided to pop in. The church was in a little corner brick house in a residential area. The 9 am non-denominational service had just ended, and we were early for the 11 am Baptist service. A line of worshippers (mostly Asian, to our surprise) filed out the church to shake hands with the well-dressed pastor and his wife, who looked to be in their 50's. We wandered up the driveway and were warmly greeted by the couple, who politely enquired if we were attending the next service and whether we were tourists.
As the couple drove off in a respectable looking white sedan, another couple drove up...in a battered white Volvo that had seen better days. It was the pastor for the Baptist congregation, and his wife. They were frail and looked to be at least 70; he was blind in one eye and hard of hearing, and she was also hard of hearing! It seemed like God was challenging our established perceptions of how his church should be run.
Despite being warned that it was a small gathering, we were still surprised when the total number who showed up (including us, the pastor and his wife) was... 10! The organ was played (haltingly) by the pastor's wife, the pastor and guest preacher struggled with the sound system (it needed to be on so he could fully hear what was going on) and finally gave up, and no offering was taken (which made us wonder how the church got by) at the end of the service.
These superficial differences aside (I am reminded that Man looks at the outward appearance, but He looks at the heart), we were moved by the solemnity of the service, the sincerity of the pastor's opening prayer (he thanked God that we could "meet around His Word"), the solid content and conviction of the preacher's sermon (more on that below), and the careful attention with which Communion was conducted (served to us as we sat in our seats; we each pinched a bit off the loaf and waited to eat together, and drank real red wine - not Ribena - out of solid glass cups).
Key Points of Sermon (based on Rev 3, John's letters to the Churches of Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea)
- To Sardis: "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die...what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent."
- => A church (and by extension, Christians) can be outwardly respectable and be seen to do everything right, yet be inwardly rebellious and disobedient to God.
- To Philadelphia: "I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."
- => A church can be struggling with small numbers and lack of resources, yet remain faithful to its cause.
- To Laodicea: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot....You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'
- => A church can grow too successful for its own good, deceive itself as to its true spiritual condition and fit into the world so well that it loses its distinctiveness and purpose.
Which am I - Sardis or Laodicea, or both?
How can I strive to be more like Philadelphia?
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