The Gifts of the Church

Maybe it is because preaching is what preachers do that my Young Harris College friend, Harold, and I agreed to do some preaching in a couple of small country churches over the state line in North Carolina.  The Annual Conference of that area had assigned one pastor a charge of eight churches which provided us an opportunity to fill in where he could not be.  Each Sunday Harold and I would put on our best preacher clothes and head out to try our hand at some preaching.

 

It is interesting that we both remember those churches when nary a soul there is likely to be remembering those two green college students who came to preach.  What I am declaring it that those small mountain churches had more of an impact on us than we likely had on them.  It was not the first time the church has blessed the preacher more than the preacher blessed the church.  When I finally did get appointed to a charge of three churches here in South Georgia by a Bishop, I went figuring to wow the world with my preaching only to find that those churches blessed me in immeasurable way through their patience and prayers and grace giving.

 

There are times when we sell the local church short.  There are times when the local church seems so afflicted with problems that nothing positive could possibly come from it.  But, such is not true.  Every church I have served had one or two cantankerous folks who seemed to enjoy mixing it up with the preacher, but for everyone of them there were so many others who wanted nothing more than the best of God's blessing for the church.  More than I remember any troublemakers do I remember the saints who showered me with the gift of encouragement, the power of their prayers, and the grace of their presence Sunday after Sunday.  May the Lord continue to bless the church and may He continue to give life to the blessings it has planted in the lives of so many preachers like me.