Doing it "Old School"

I probably will remember this for the rest of my life...

I had gone to visit a new pastor of an old charge.

The church was located in a Portuguese Catholic neighbourhood and he was a Fellowship Baptist minister.

The average age of the church was 78 with an attendance of 6 and he was a disposed Executive Director of a Fellowship Baptist ministry.

The goal - give him a place from which he could retire, more gracefully, and to ensure that the church building would close, be sold, and funds would support another local church in a neighbouring community.

I met the pastor in his first month.  He asked if I could help get some material in a number of languages that he had discovered were in the immediate neighbourhood other than Portuguese.

We talked a bit.  I knew that he was a fan of the Goforths - famous Presbyterian missionaries to China in the late 1800s and early 1900s and in fact, he was personal friends with the last remaining daughter of the Goforths.

That was good enough for me - we become friends in ministry and I brought him his supplies of literature the following week.

After six months, I thought it would be best to follow-up and check out how things were going.

His spirit was the same, his energy was the same, his demeanor was the same - so better ask him what was happening.  He asked me if I would like to attend the Sunday evening service - 30 individuals were going to be baptized in water.  My eyes must have popped out of my head and my jaw must have dropped - he confirmed my doubt but saying that, yes, 130 individuals were now attending church each Sunday morning service. 

I asked what movies were being shown, or what children's act he introduced, or what drama was being presented as part of the Bible message...

He said that he was not really into those kinds of things.  He said he goes door to door in the neighbourhood, calls on them, invites them to church, preaches from the King James Version Bible and people make decisions, real decisions to become followers of Christ.

My, my, my...never again will I doubt the power of God's Word, never again the passion of a man of God who trusts completely in God, never again in the power of the Holy Spirit to draw whomever He wills to come to Jesus...

Yes, I believe in church, because I believe in the bride of Christ, the body, the community of followers, who love Him, because He first loved us.