When I was in college, I was privileged to drive about 50 miles from campus to preach for a small country church in West Tennessee. This church was located just off a narrow, curvy, country road. When you arrived, you would just park your car in the grass anywhere around the building, for it had no parking lot. This church had two restrooms, but they were both outside; out back behind the building. The building itself was a little white frame building with maybe 15 pews, and an old pot bellied stove toward the front of the building. There were no classrooms, no air conditioning, and no p.a. system. What it did have was a strong musty smell from being closed up all week, and a lot of wasps that would somehow find their way into the building (upon reflection, I think I fought the wasps as hard as I fought sin!)
But tell me, what’s glorious about what I just described to you? Paul speaks of the church as being glorious (Ephesians 5:27). Does that sound glorious to you?
Well, the glory is seen in the fact that the church is not a building, but the people. And these people, as “country” as they may have been, were children of God! These “simple” people had discovered and embraced what more “sophisticated” people had failed to to appreciate. These good people were forgiven, no longer stained by sin, and consequently, heaven-bound. That’s the glory of the church!
The glory of the church is that people from every walk of life, every nation, privileged and disadvantaged, educated and uneducated can all be called children of God (1 John 3:1)! I hope you too will share in this glory!