Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 February 2008 12:34:26
Yesterday saw me preaching at another new chapel. This one is just around the corner from my current place of worship. One of the amazing things about the Welsh vallies is the shear number of chapels and churches in a very small area.
Within a 1-2 mile area of our chapel there are at least 4 Baptist chapels alone - I'm sure that there maybe 1 or 2 more I don't know of. This is a testament to how important christianity was to the area. This doesn't just mean 100 years ago but 50 to 60 years ago. You walk into these beautiful buildings today and can only imagine what they must have been like when they were all full for 3 services every Sunday. Now they try to survive with anywhere from 10-35 people.
To many of these chapels it is a victory for them to open for 1 service a week and to stay open from year to year. Congregations are declining now from death more than anything else. The average age of many congregations is 60+ and I've yet to visit more than 1 chapel with a Sunday School.
Yesterday I preached to 10 people. I'm not upset about this; I'm willing to preach to a field of sheep if it'll further the kingdom. Yet, at the end, they seemed to be really grateful for the message that I'd brought. I actually left smiling because they were so happy to hear the message that God had given me to pass on.
More about that tomorrow....