There's Hope For TodaySample

For five years the great stone church was silent on Sunday mornings. A caretaker kept enough heat in the old building to preserve the massive pipe organ that had once called a vibrant congregation to worship.

In the last years of the 50’s, the church had embraced a liberal theology, and suffered staggering losses in attendance. Her only recourse was to merge with another dwindling congregation, leaving the massive and beautiful building empty – a casualty of compromise.

The granite church had been rebuilt in 1917 following a fire. Dr. Burns offered a prophetic warning at her rededication: “If certain disturbing conditions existing now in the church are allowed to continue, and should we forget that the Church is not this edifice made with hands … then, the day will come when your great pipe organ will fall silent and these windows will cast their sad eyes upon your empty pews … and as the ghosts of yesterday haunt this sanctuary, all who pass by will shake their heads and say, ‘They began to build, but they could not finish.’“

When our message is compromised, the Gospel is emptied of its power. When the Gospel is emptied of its power, the church is soon to suffer – silent Sunday mornings.