Have We Forgotten Our Roots?

Fourscore minus one years ago*, Bro. William Sowders brought forth on this continent a new work of God, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all Christians are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great Amorite** war testing whether that work or any work so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

Around us is destruction and chaos and a complete forgetfulness of why this work was begun.

Those brave men who struggled in the early days of this work were dedicated to the knowledge that truth could be found in any denomination, and that the only way for the truth of the Word of God to truly be found was for men of differing Christian opinions to come together and share what they had and where they found it in the Bible.

Because of their dedication, many battles were fought, some even bloody.  Yet, through it all some precious truths were gleaned.

It was at this point that we closed our doors.  We said, "Wow!  It worked! We found something precious! We are now better than everyone else.  We will no longer listen to any teachings but our own.  All others must come to us."

The threshing ceased ('though not all the arguments), as did the battles; but at what cost?  The men of God whom Bro. Sowders called equal brothers under God, we now call Babylon and the beast system.  Not only did we cease to share our treasures so that God's truth could be spread throughout Christendom, but we also refused to hear anything new.  Thus, we quit growing in the Lord.

Our assemblies, once thriving, filled with youth and energy and growth, have become complacent.  Instead of growing, we are fading.  Our youth is leaving.  In many places, the thrill and joy in the Lord has been replaced by blind waiting for the rapture (although we do not call it that).

The hope of our salvation has been replaced by our hope that the end times will finally come. Then the people with whom we refuse to share God's truth outside of our buildings will miraculously come pounding on our doors begging for it.

We quote the scripture, "Many are called but few are chosen" to excuse the dwindling state of our assemblies.  We quote, "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved," to excuse hiding inside the walls of our churches and refusing to share the truth with those around us.

We hide our light and do our best to blend in and not make waves under the guise of "letting the Lord shine through our lives".

We say we want to be like the Early Church, but we completely ignore how the Early Church functioned.

The Early Church did not put out a sign and hope people would show up.  Nor did they hide in homes and trust in meeting enough neighbors to grow the work of God.

They preached on the streets, in the synagogues, in the public markets.  They were NEVER silent.

And as people came in, knowing nothing of the scriptures and needing to be taught, they set up elders -  Godly men, not politicians - to teach them.  These men had lives that proclaimed Jesus as Lord.  Their job was to teach and settle disputes.  Not to rule.  Their goal was to help people grow up.  Not to keep them children.

We need to go back to our foundations.  Back to letting Jesus be Lord of our churches and remember that it was not the son who knew his father's will that pleased his father... it was the son who DID his father's will.

Matthew 21:28-31

²⁸ But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
²⁹ He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
³⁰ And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
³¹ Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.


Interesting, reading that story again, I found I missed something.  It ends with a warning, lest those we despise enter the kingdom of heaven before us...or instead of us.

In short, Bro. Sowders despised no man, in his fellowship or not.  What gives us the right to do so?  It was his inclusion of those we despise that led us to the truths we now treasure.

How many truths/treasures are we missing now that we have cut off those not in our fellowship?  How many "truths" have we twisted because we have not allowed others to challenge them?  How often is our walk with God based solely on what we know, while we ignore (or type and shadow away) what we are asked to do? 

Complacency & pride are a dangerous combination.







*(The date at the beginning of this blog is based on the start up of the Campground at Shepherdsville Hill in 1935.  Bro. Sowders actually had his first campground meeting, from what I understand, in 1914, exactly one hundred years ago this year.  If my dates are incorrect, I apologize.)

** (Amorites were a picture of pride in the Bible.)

Why Do Our Children Leave?

I guess this is appropriate, coming on the heels of my last blog, although I did not plan this.

The fellowship we have been visiting while here in Portland has raised concerns over their children and the choices their children have made as they became adults.  They feel they need to start youth-based, youth directed Bible studies (under the guidance of an experienced, adult couple) because their youth are leaving their church and attending other churches after attaining adulthood.  Let me state, before anything else, that I think the Bible study as they have outlined it is a fantastic idea.  How can our children learn to be adults if we never give them the opportunity to do adult things?

That said, when I look at their reasons for doing this, my heart screams in agony.  I pray to God that He will allow me to voice my heart cry so that others may understand.

First of all, dear, precious people of God, fall on your knees before a merciful God and praise His name in absolute gratitude that your children are still serving Him... no matter what church.  My beloved brothers and sisters, for the most part, are not.  There were 17 of us, from different families, but we grew up together, went to the same church together, learned the same lessons, had the same joys and losses... we were siblings.  Even if some them prefer not to claim me, I will always claim them. Out of the 17,  four are serving the Lord.  Count them.  Four.

Every one of them had the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Every one can quote Bible and most can prove our beliefs from Bible scriptures.  Every one, at some point in time, had a personal experience with God.  And one by one, I watched them leave... because, of the four that are still serving the Lord, only one couple is a part of what is left of our church... and they left and came back.

You see, I am the one that stayed.  At least until the war came and what we had was destroyed.

You may think I am not qualified to speak on this issue because I have not raised any children to adulthood in church.  You are right.  As a parent, I am not qualified.  But as a child who grew up in church, please hear me.

First of all, do not be offended if your adult sons and daughters feel the need to explore.  I was a certified "church angel".  Ask anyone who knew me.  I went to the most wonderful church on the planet (according to me).  We had a pastor that always had something fresh to share, and I wouldn't have traded him for anything.  I still miss him.  Yet, there came a time when I felt that there was something else God wanted to teach me, and I couldn't learn it where I was at.  I needed to see life and the Bible from a new perspective in order to grow.  I needed to leave the place I was in to get that perspective. This is not an insult.  It is part of growing up in the Lord.

Second, creating a bubble for the young people to keep them entertained and interested is how the youth groups we see all around us began.  "The young people need something more, let's create a program just for them, where they can associate with their own age.  Then they'll want to stay."  It works great... until the kids outgrow the bubble, then what?

Thus, the cycle repeats itself.  One of the principles that Household of Faith was founded on is that church needs to be age-integrated.  It is one of the things that make fellowship there such a relief for my family.  Please don't make the mistake of tossing that principle out the window, of making the same mistake as hundreds before you.  (Please don't feel bad, it is a very common mistake.)  The mistake is that you are treating the symptoms, not the problem.  We are buying into the very ideals that are helping to destroy our public schools.  When you segregate children by age, they have only themselves to look to for examples.  Children trying to impress other children rarely produce anything good.  We don't want our children to be raised by children.  This is one of the reasons we homeschool.  We want our children to become adults.

Understand, this is only one woman's perspective, but the main reason I see/had for wanting to go someplace besides where one is raised, is that the people who raised us have a tendency to not let us grow up.  Giving them a Bible study or other such event, while good training, will not help them in this area.  It's like patting them on the head and saying, "You're such a good kid, why don't you come play adult for a while."  Meanwhile the non-supervising adults go back to their concerns; back to ignoring the young people.  Did you hear what I just said?

The young people aren't leaving because you are not providing them enough entertainment.  They are leaving because you are not making them a part of your world.  Don't believe me?  Look around after services, during fellowships, at special events... What do you see?  You see adults talking to adults, and young people talking to young people.  You see adults clustered at one end of the table, little children clustered at the other end, and the young people at a completely separate table.  (I am as guilty here as anyone.)  When was the last time you, as an adult, joined a group of young people and had a conversation with them?  At the time when they should be integrating among you, they are becoming more and more set apart.  Because we adults are living in denial.  In our minds, they are still 10 years old...they can't possibly be sixteen already, they were cutting their teeth just yesterday.  Dave Ramsey calls it the powdered bum syndrome... once you've powdered their bum, you don't want to listen to what they have to say.

Let me illustrate my point.  When I was 18, I was thrilled to be graduating.  I was finally going to be an adult!  I had always preferred adult company.  Graduation meant I finally could join their ranks.  It was my graduation party.  I had the certificate in my hand proclaiming my entrance into adulthood.  MY party!  Where everyone was congratulating me for becoming an adult.  Joyful in my success, I approached a table where two older people were talking and sat down... or started to sit down.  The older woman turned to me and said, rather angrily, "Do you mind?  We're having an adult conversation here."

Are you still wondering why children feel the need to go elsewhere as adults?

One more story, then I'm done.  When I was 28, I came back after being in another state for a year.  I was given a job teaching in the church school under a principal that had not been in the church when I was a child.  She would ask what I thought about certain situations, and when I told her, SHE LISTENED!!!  I was flabergasted.  She actually acted like what I said mattered, and was something to be considered.  I wish I could put you in my heart so you could feel what these two examples did to my emotions.

I would like to say that emotions do not matter, but they do.  God, for whatever reason, made us to be emotional people.  Please don't forget that when raising up young people.

In closing, I want to point out that causing separation will not win your children's hearts.  We need to be looking for ways to bind them to us, if we want them to stay, or even come back for visits.  They need to be integrated into our world, or they will leave, and find their own world.

Teach them well, lay the foundations in their lives, and then make them a part of your life.  Not a distraction, not an obligation, but a real, living, equal value, integral part of your life.

Let them cease to be your children and become your brothers in sisters in the Lord.

God Bless,

Julie Streit