What happens when a church doesn't grow?

You see the church building of the Barbaree's Hill church in Barbados--certainly one of the most adequate buildings in the Eastern Caribbean. When I first visited there in 1993 or 4 there were more than 60 in attendance on a Wed. night. As I continued to visit, usually just passing through on my way to another island not only the number remained constant, but so did the people. There were few, if any, new faces but attendance remained pretty much the same. Dana and I were there last year for a Tues.-Friday Gospel meeting and the number was around 30 each night, with a number of visitors. I was told that on Sunday they number around 40. What happened to this once thriving church? They didn't grow and the handwriting is on the wall for all to see--they could cease to exist before too many more years.

Why didn't they grow? I don't know everything there is to know about their history but a few things seem obvious to me. It is tragic to see Sunday morning there; people in their 40's-50's bring Mommie to church, drop her off, then go their merry way until it's time to come pick Mommie up again. Many of these children were "raised" in this church, but practically none of them attend now. They didn't have childrens Bible classes too much and when they did it was only a week or so. As a result those children never learned the Bible and have little or no faith. Most of them know enough not to go to a denomination, but don't have enough faith to actively serve God. We say "Children are the future of the church" and that is so true. When we neglect teaching our children we destroy the church--it may take some years, but that is the inevitable result.

Do you see children's Bible class as something with eternal consequences? Or is it just something you do to keep the kids busy so their parents can have "real" Bible study? The devil is trying to teach kids all day long every day and often we don't really even try for 2 hours a week. Souls will be lost because of it--not only theirs, but perhaps yours as well.

Is your church growing? If not it's dying. But it's not too late yet, if you acknowledge the problem and do something about it.

Tol

Isolation

Many of us in the United States take for granted the churches that surround us and the visitors we have "just passing through". Even in West Texas churches are no more than an hour from another sound church. Here in Middle Tennessee there are so many that you can't make all the Gospel meetings even one night during some weeks. And then there are the occasional visitors we have from time to time. But that is NOT the case for our brethren in most of the rest of the world

Dominica is a good example of this. There are 3 faithful churches there, each an hour or more from the others. In the north there is Vielle Case--they are at least 1 1/2 hours from the other 2 churches and are not on the way anywhere. The church in La Plaine (on the East coast, south of Rosalie) is an hour from the church at Goodwill, a northern suburb of Roseau on the West coast. La Plaine is perhaps even less visited than Vielle Case and Goodwill doesn't get many either. All of these will have around 20 in attendance, so they see the same 20 people week in, week out. They've heard there are big churches in the States, but most have never seen them. They've met preachers who have come from the States, but that number is limited, probably less than 10. They don't have Gospel meetings as we do, so don't even have that option of visiting and seeing one another.

Do you understand why brethren get discouraged in other places? Dominica has a population of 70,000 + and less than 60 Christians. In Puerto Rico the number are even worse; pop. 4 million and 50 Christians. Does the Eastern Caribbean have potential? Oh yes, the preacher in La Plaine has over 40 Bible studies each month. You won't have that many in some other islands, but the need is for teachers, not students. Please pray for these and other brethren throughout the world.

Tol

Venezuela

I received word yesterday that the third sound church has begun meeting in Caracas this past Sunday. Now in this city of 6 million people there are 3 churches--I've jokingly told a couple of the preachers that they only have 2 million people to work with. The church in Petare began with 9 people, some of whom were going 30-45 minutes to get to the church in Las Carmelitas. I got another e-mail from a brother in Maracay that one person was baptized there this week. The work in Venezuela continues to progress, in spite of the political/economic problems, or perhaps because of them.

When I first began going to Venezuela in Jan. 2000 there were 10 or so churches, plus 2 just across the border in Colombia. Rather than preaching a Gospel meeting in one place, as we're accustomed to, they prefer to spread you around--you may travel by car, bus, or airplane. So the first 2 trips I made I preached in 7-8 of the churches over the period of 2 weeks, usually ending in the only church in Caracas, in order to fly out the next morning. In Jan. 2005 I preached in 11 different churches in 8 different cities and still only preached in half the churches. Counting the new congregation in Caracas there are now over 20 churches--the number has more than doubled in 6 years. Yes, some of them are small--San Juan de los Morros has only 4 members, but one of the churches in Barinas has over 100 in attendance most Sundays. I always enjoy the church in Cagua, although they will wear you out--they have so many questions to ask. The questions are usually very practical questions--about marriage, modesty, raising children, etc. Last year we had an hour or so of questions before services, then a one hour service followed by more questions--about 4 hours in all. And this in a building that doesn't even have a bathroom--they want to know! Because of a last minute change in schedule we also had another couple of hours of questions the next morning. As Brother Hugo told the church in Caracas after 2 weeks there, "My name is Hugo (which sounds like jugo, which means juice in Spanish) and you have just about drained all the juice in me.

Tol Burk

La Plaine, Dominica, Feb. 2006

Charlie Norman (one of the elders at Jackson Hts, Columbia, TN) and I arrived in La Plaine about 4:30 PM AST, Mon. the 13th to work with the preacher there. We first stopped at Elkin's house, which you see on the right. After greeting everyone Elkin took us up to the house where we were to stay--everything worked pretty well, we even had hot water. The toilet leaked, so we had to turn it off after every use, but that's a minor inconvenience.

Our Bible studies were scheduled to begin Tues. morning at 8 AM, but the first one was cancelled because she had to go to Roseau unexpectedly. We studied with 5 or 6 people each day, all different. These studies have all progressed to the point they know what they must do to be saved, but. Elkin did a good job with the studies, Charlie and I made a few comments along the way. We studied at the gas station (full service, so had several interruptions) but mostly in people's homes scattered over the village and surrounding area. Thursday at 4:30 PM Elkin and I went to study with some Haitian immigrants. Elkin was not too confident they were understanding his Creole (Patois, broken French) so told me to teach in English, then repeat it in Spanish as one of them understands Spanish pretty well. That was a bit confusing for all--first English, then Elkin would speak Patois to one while I spoke Spanish to another. Fortunately it soon became obvious that Spanish wasn't necessary as Elkin's Patois was fine and the others understood English fairly well. Still, it was a 2 1/2 hour study, with one of the same length the next evening.

The people we studied with were receptive because: 1) We gave Bible for everything we said, 2) They had been confused by different churches teaching different things but could now see the truth for themselves. I expect fruit from Elkin's labors soon. We had 19 present for Bible study Wed. night at the Village Council building--the 6 members of the church there, Charlie & I, and 11 visitors, which is the usual crowd for Sundays.

Tol Burk