Many years ago, an article was put into my hands, at just the right
time, in just the right place in my life, which has impacted me for many
years. Most Christians can testify of a time they heard an old truth
as if they heard it for the first time. These are truths that become
part of us and stay with us through good times and the seemingly
difficult ones.
In December of 1983, Maurice Roberts wrote an article in the Banner
of Truth magazine entitled, “On the Excellence of Plodding.” My own
church can testify to the fact that I have used that phrase dozens and
dozens of times since. I was starting my second year as an elder in a
reforming Baptist Church. My co-elder and I were doing our best to
bring Biblical truth to a church that had strong Fundamentalist roots.
As I said, we were trying, but we ourselves were still learning. As we
were trying to better understand the reformed faith ourselves, we were
leading, but admittedly did not fully know where we were going.
While in this process of reform, we saw many more individuals leave
through the back door than were coming through the front. By the time
reform had come to our church in 1985 (yes, always reforming, but we
finally were settled on the 1689) we had seen our attendance go from an
average of 120 to about 50. This decline came about generally by a
couple of families leaving together and inevitably in a few months a
couple more leaving. These were often discouraging times. Some new
folks would come, but then even many of these new folks would leave. We
never had a mass exodus, but it seemed no family was ever content to
leave without taking someone with them, with the exception of those
moving out of the area. Other circumstances would eventually leave me
as the sole elder in 1989, with an average attendance of about 40. Keep Reading >>>
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