November 1, 2016 @ 9:00 AM
I was invited to preach a church's annual Homecoming service this past Sunday. Of course, few churches today have Homecomings. To the contemporary church in America, things like the history and heritage of a church are unimportant. Neither is it believed to be worthwhile to gather former members with current members to celebrate what God has done over the years through a baptized body of believers. Instead, in the contemporary church, what matters are things like Madison Avenue marketing techniques, media graphics, and the number of young people frequenting church grounds in search of Pokemon.
As my family and friends know, my favorite place in the whole wide world is Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Cove is one of our country's ten most visited places, having over 2 million visitors a year. One of its most popular destinations is the Primitive Baptist Church, which was established in 1827. If you ever visit the church, look carefully at the ceiling. You'll see the fingerprints of those who built the building. Apparently, the treated wood was still wet when the ceiling was hung, leaving the indelible fingerprints of the workmen to be viewed by posterity.
After looking at the ceiling, step outside and walk around to the back. There, in the church cemetery, you'll find the graves of those whose fingerprints you saw on the ceiling. Although all churches do not have graveyards, they all have fingerprints, the fingerprints of those who have gone before us. To fail to remember the service and sacrifice of those who have gone before us is for us to fail to appreciate the cost they paid for the preservation of our faith in the world today.
Perhaps, the dismissal of our heritage and the disrespect shown to past convention goes along way in explaining why the contemporary church in America is preaching a costless and unconventional Christianity. Failing to follow Christ's counsel to count the cost (Luke 14:27-33), not only the cost of personal discipleship, but also the cost paid by Christ on the cross and by past Christians in the preservation of the Christian Faith, today's churchgoers profess a crossless Christianity that can be purchased at bargain prices and practiced at one's convenience.