A Pastor’s Ponderings: The Old Country Church

Back in the local Sunday paper, there was a picture of a small little country church now called Courtney Chapel. It was built in the early 1800’s before the U.S. Civil War and is located in western Caldwell County in North Carolina. They have a website giving more information about the chapel.

 My baby cousin was married there back in the fall and I have to say it was most tranquil of settings. The church reminded me of the song “The Church in the Wildwood.”

I wonder how it must have felt back in those days, when they stopped everything and went to church on Sunday. The church was full, the men stood outside, there was no electricity. Air conditioning was opened shutters, heat was a wood stove. But the Spirit shown up and  they worshipped the Lord.

Mom said the church she grew up in was similar. In the mountains of NC, people walked to church regardless of the weather. And they heard the songs of Zion and preachers preached the word. The people who could get in, sat on the wooden benches, not padded pews, but they went home knowing they had been in a special place.

The verse the quoted was: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ^ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:18-20).

And it was so. My, we have came a long way.

Sometimes we should go back to the old paths and see what were missing.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’'” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Blessings,

Pastor Stephen Widener