Will Our Church Survive?

Pasotring a small church you sometimes are tempted to ask, "Will this church survive through these changing times?". The answer to that question lies in the sovereign will of God, but also in the responsibility of the leadership of this church. According to John Wesley if Methodism was to survive beyond his life he said,

"The Methodists must take heed of their doctrine, their experience, their practice, and their disciplines. If they attend their doctrine only, they will make people antinomians; if to the experiential part of religion only, they will make them enthusiasts (mindless fanatics); if to the practical part only, they will make them Pharisees; and if they do not attend to their discipline, they will be like persons who bestow much pains in cultivating their gardens, and put no fence round it to save it from wild boars of the forest."

The Presbyterian and Reformed churches must also take heed to his words. The doctrine of God is adorned with the righteousness of God, the experience or the enjoyment of God is guarded by the knowledge of God, the application of God's Word is expressed only through the grace God gives, and the gift of disciplines is a training ground for the display of God's glory in grace toward the nations through the church, but also a rampart to keep God's church from being overrun by the culture. We will survive if the leaders of our church keep a watch over their lives and their doctrine, and give themselves to keeping watch over the church whom they serve as under-shephards.