The Good Old Days

I look back with fond memories to my childhood and growing up in the Church. I remember every

Sunday night we would make the trek back to the church building (it was just across the parking lot from the parsonage), and we would assemble in the sanctuary to sing some of our favorite hymns. The preacher (he was my dad) would give a message of some sort. I recall no details of this particular portion of the service. Strange. And we would receive communion. Every time. I grew up
independent Christian, and part of our tradition was to receive communion every time we met. Literally.

I remember when children's church first became part of what happened at church on Sunday mornings. The main area of our church basement was converted into this massive Sesame Street-like getup, complete with puppets and human actors. I remember going to Sunday School and learning the books of the Bible. Those were the good old days.

Unless you were my parents. They remember the good old days as being slightly different. Much of the format would have been the same, except there was no children's church. Kids stayed in every service the entire time. Everyone always dressed in their Sunday best. Church services were sometimes followed by picnics or potluck meals. Revivals were a regular part of the life of the church, sometimes happening multiple times per year. Those were the good old days.

Unless you were my grandparents. They remember the good old days as being slightly different. People would travel from great distances sometimes to go to church, and because of that, church was not just an hour or two long event. It was often the better portion of the day. Preaching, music, meals, more preaching, more music, and maybe another meal were part of it all. Sometimes, if your church was particularly small, you wouldn't have your own preacher. He would move from one congregation to the next on a rotation of sorts. Much of the time, the local church truly was the center of the community. If it was happening, it was happening at the church. Those were the good old days.

Unless you were my great-grandparents. They remember the good old days as being slightly different. The spirit of revival was alive and well. It was not uncommon to have tent revivals that would last for weeks. People were getting saved and baptized that day in the closest river or stream. No one even needed a church building because where the people gathered, the church was alive and the presence of God was real. Those were the good old days.

"Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Isaiah 43:18-19, NIV

The good old days will be whatever we look back on in our memories and, yes, they can truly be good days. But it does not make them any better or any more effective than what God is doing in His Church today. The Spirit of God is still moving in men and women who are responding to His leading. The mission of the Church to make disciples is still the same and it is happening, despite the fact that the good old days are behind us.

What hurts the Church today is the mentality that believes the good old days are better than today. That attitude is declaring that the Spirit of God is no longer at work. That attitude is rejecting the Spirit of God that also says new things will happen. That attitude is hurting the Church just as much as a negative comment or a gossipping voice.

We all look fondly upon the good old days in one way or another. But let's be careful not to fall to the sin of idolatry, thus separating ourselves from God and what He is doing in the here and now, as well as the days to come.