Where old churches go to die – they become Tae Kwan Doe centers.
We have stories about Minot flood operations run from LCMS parking lot, it is great to read about churches meeting the needs of the community. (article also appeared in Jamestown Sun): http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/366037/ – so says Tom Boerger of Jamestown. Check out this link.
We can finally admit that the stories about xenodechiology were inspired by Pastor Reinke up in Williston. You can go back and look at 4/16, and 5/02. It was a good discussion about what the church is about. When the church is not about what it should be about strange things happen. The wonderful “sanctuaries” that we built for ourselves have a habit of becoming something else when the folks that built them go to eternity. I have said that part of our problem is that we built magnificent structures to benefit the “faithful” and now the faithful are getting older and dying. The structures remain and have to be kept up and repaired but the number of folks using the facility are declining. Loren Meade recognized this phenomenon would probably banckrupt the corporate churches and made the prediction back in the 90’s. He called it”Financial Meltdown in the Mainlines”. You can see the symptoms – people get mad if the Youth Group uses the kitchen; mud on the carpet is grounds for excommunication; babies should not be allowed in church because they might munch on cheerios; we spend more on the parking lot than we do for ‘missions’, etc.
Go back and read the blogs listed above and remember what the church was, think about what it is now, and say a prayer
