Salt of the Earth Churches

The Kingdom of God is not built with the ostentacious, the grandiose, and the extravagant.  Instead, in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, we hear Jesus saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed...like yeast..."  As we hear these parables of Jesus we are reminded that the building blocks of the Kingdom of God are more like the simple, the ordinary, and even what seems to be invisible.  On this Sunday many churches across the countryside will be opening the doors, turning on the lights, and its people will be gathering for worship.  

Small places.  Simple places.   Fifteen or twenty may come through its doors, or maybe only a half dozen.  In some of those places the gathered people will be looking back to better days and hoping somehow to hang on until the tide of people leaving changes to a tide of people returning.  To many people these small churches seem like people who are described as "the salt of the earth."  "Salt of the earth" people live with their feet on the ground.  They are rooted and connected to values that have lasting power.  They know about the "ups and downs" of life.  They live attached to their heritage and hopeful for the future.  They are not quitters.   

So many of the small churches that dot the rural landscape are "salt of the earth" churches and maybe since Jesus spoke of disciples as being "the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13), it is high praise to speak of them in such a manner.  What I know from personal experience is that so many of these small churches have enabled missionaries, raised up pastors, provided an environment where its young could know Jesus, and have helped enable more of Christ's Kingdom work than could ever be recorded.  No one should be eager to close those doors simply because they lack the quality of bigness.  They have been like mustard seed and yeast.  They have not lost their Kingdom identity.