A Willing Heart
We had a wonderful Easter last weekend. As always, Easter began early with a 7:30am sunrise service, followed by breakfast and an egg hunt for the little guys. Afterward, we gathered for the main morning service.
Usually, for Easter and Christmas, instead of having Sunday School and church, we have one extra-long, two-plus-hour service. Listing everything we did would be boring for you all, so to sum it up: we had congregational songs, people sang specials, an object lesson was given, we had over a dozen minniskits of Bible stories with everyone trying to guess what they were, and lastly a sermon.
I’d like to take a step back and encourage all the tiny churches out there. Our normal Sunday attendance is about 15. We are a small country church. To illustrate how far we are from the rest of the world, the church is 30 miles from the nearest Super Walmart, and until last fall, the same distance from a McDonald’s (a McDonald’s opened twelve miles away last October). Even if a church has only a handful of people, they can still hold holiday services with special singing, skits, and the like. All that it takes is willing hearts and physical ability. Things like revival services with an evangelist, VBS, supporting missionaries, and other outreaches are possible. Remember, what is impossible with man is possible with God, and we can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth us. (Philippians 4:13)
To illustrate what a willing heart can do, let me tell you the story of Mr. Stivic.
This happened on Easter Sunday fifty years ago. The sun was shining through the church windows. Everyone was in an excellent mood. It was the first day, after a long, hard winter, that people would not have to wear a coat. Pastor announced, “We have something special for everyone.”
Mr. Stivic, a man in his nineties, got up from his middle-row seat and began moving down the aisle. He walked with a cane. He was so feeble that he could not climb the two steps onto the stage. He turned around in front of the pulpit. Now facing us, he began to sing, Nearer My God To Thee. His crackly voice was louder than expected, and he did not hit every note. I’ve been in thousands of church services, and I’ve heard hundreds, maybe thousands, of solos, duets, and quartets sing in church. As time passes, I remember a handful of them, but Mr. Stivic’s song that day will never leave my memory.
He had never sung before (maybe in his younger years, but not since I had been attending there), and he never sang in front of everyone like that again. There I was, a sixteen-year-old boy with tears running down my cheeks while listening to a man eighty years my senior sing.
I don’t remember ever having a one-on-one conversation with Mr. Stivic, but he taught me so much with that song. He taught me to never quit, no matter how tough the physical limitations may be; I can still do something for the Lord. He taught me that regardless of how difficult it may be, God can use me to bless others. Mr. Stivic, not by the words of the song, but by his willingness to sing it, and the heart that he put into bellowing out the words, taught me that I always needed a heart that was willing to serve God.
In one three-minute song, a ninety-something old man taught a young sixteen-year-old boy lessons that have stuck with him, not just for half a century, but that will stick with him for all of eternity.
If you are part of a small church, or maybe you have physical limitations because of age or other reasons, please remember that God wants to use you, and He can and will, if your heart will let Him.
Tiny churches, megachurches, and every church in between celebrated Easter in their own way yesterday.
At Countryside, all of the 15 regulars had a part. Some brought food, some performed in the skits. A mother and her two teen daughters sang, and one of those teens sang a song an evangelist had sung years ago at the church, bringing back memories. Others were involved in other ways. Nearly everyone did multiple things.
The week before Easter, a lot of preparation was done. People moved the tables from the Sunday School trailer to the main sanctuary on Wednesday. People shopped for and cooked breakfast. A couple cleaned the church and decorated. Practice was done for the songs and the skits. It has been a busy couple of weeks. But the most important preparation for Easter was prayer.
Prayer is the most important preparation for every church service. If you teach a Sunday School class with only one, two, or three students, pray. You can pray for more kids, but don’t do that unless you are praying for the ones you already have. Jesus tells the dying church of Sardis to “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain…”
Pray that you grow in Christ, that your heart becomes more like His. Pray for your Pastor; he goes through things you will never know. He needs strength, wisdom, and the ability to push aside loneliness. Pray for everyone in the congregation by name. Ask for the same things that you are asking for yourself, that they grow and their hearts become more like His.
Easter is a wonderful day of celebration of our risen Saviour. Every day, not just Easter, not just every other Sunday, but every day, can be a day of celebration for the birth, death, resurrection, and return of our Lord, if our hearts are in it.
Pray about everything, even the box of cereal you bring to a church breakfast. You never know how the Lord will use you to bless others.
Preacher Tim Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Indiana. His weekly column “Preacher’s Point” may be found at: www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com