I am always inviting people to church.

I invite 30-50 people to church every week. We are a “mission church” and do need more people and more support funds, but it is a bigger issue than that. In order for someone to be evangelistic, and serious about witnessing and about the growth of God's Kingdom, one must be convinced about several things.

First of all, we cannot share what we don't possess. Secondly, from a Christian viewpoint, if one doesn't really believe that without Christ one does not go to be with God when leaving this earth, then one won't really care about the souls of mankind.

Through all these convictions or the lack of them, the church moves on with or without you or me.

I remembered several times my mother saying that the education she received in her church was far more valuable to her than even her formal education. By this she meant that what she learned in church helped her through life's problems more than her formal education. She certainly wasn't against education, because she had attained her master's degree in special education, but her life was in the church.

If you are a Baptist, do you remember the evening “training union” sessions? They were like Sunday School before the evening service. It was here that I first learned to get up in front of a group of people to speak. In those days everyone had a part to present to the group, and I can vividly remember the deep breaths and the knocking of the knees before I spoke to the group.

I learned from those church days that it really wasn't so bad after all to get up and speak. Now it doesn't bother me if it's ten or ten thousand people to whom I'm speaking. It all started from the church on Sunday nights, week after week.

When I was serving as the post chaplain on a certain assignment, our director education was responsible for the religious education program of our military post. It would be like the Sunday School superintendent of a large church by today's standards. This person came to me and said that she was planning to shut down the Sunday School, choir, youth group and Bible studies for the summer.

I was in total shock and after our very heated conversation, all of the activities remained alive and well.

From the beginning of time, Satan has been trying to shut down churches. He does this through any means available. It sometimes is done through the wagging, gossiping tongue of a parishioner or the stiff neck of a spiritually dead deacon, or through personal attacks of people on the pastor, to name a few.

I know a small church that in the last four years has “fired” over four pastors and was proud of it. There are two kinds of pastors they like, the one that just left, or the one coming, but never the one they have. Imagine standing before God and smiling and proudly saying, “I was responsible for getting rid of the four men you sent our way.” And God's final answer is “depart from me, you evil spirit, I know you not.”

This last week, on the Fourth of July, we as a church all went down to Charlie Mask's farm and had an old-fashioned fish fry. We set up our church tent, in case of rain, (bring it on, Lord), and cooked up the fish we caught at a Fisher of Men Retreat we had at Destin, Fla. The menu was truly wonderful. We had the fish, hush puppies, french fries, coldslaw, potato salads, watermelon and all the soft drinks you could hold.

Before we ate, we bowed our heads and thanked God for the men and women that had sacrificed for the freedoms we all possess. Then one of the ladies cooked up a very light coconut cake that was out of this world. We then watched fireworks and oohed and aahed and laughed. In my opinion, it doesn't get much better than that, but it was all from the church with a group of people who love God and are pooling their resources for His Kingdom's work here on earth.

The church marches on, when it's hot and when it's cold, through war and peace, through good times and bad times. God bless the Church. Come Lord Jesus.

The Rev. Dr. Knox Herndon is the pastor of His House Community Church (SBC) and a substitute school teacher in the Fayette County School System, and a former Army chaplain. The church is currently meeting in the American Legion Log Cabin across from the fountain on the Square in Fayetteville, but not for long. We will be moving to our new land location near Senoia in late August. Prayer line 770-719-2365; e-mail KHERN2365@aol.com.

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