The Spiritual Pathway

The Church’s One Foundation

WRITTEN BY REV. DR. H. WILLIAM PERRY

Anne Lamott tells of the little girl who got lost one day. She ran up and down the streets in the town where she lived, but couldn’t find a single landmark. Finally, a policeman saw that she was frightened and stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they rode around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman and told him firmly, “You can let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”

I love it! My churches have always helped me find my way. I have been a member of nine churches during my nearly eight decades. In four of those churches I have had pastors: my home church, two while in college, and one during seminary years. Those pastors were wonderful. They took a personal interest in me, and helped me in so many ways.

I love the story of the two men who were fishing several miles out in the Atlantic when their boat sprung a leak and began to sink. They saw an island in the distance and began to make their way toward it. The boat went down and they had to swim the last mile or so. When they got to the island, one of the men was so frightened. The other calm. The frightened one said to his friend, “Why aren’t you scared? We may never be found!” The friend replied, “Well, you know I just inherited several million dollars. I guarantee you, my pastor will find me!”

In the other five churches, I have served as pastor for a total of forty years, plus fifteen years as an interim pastor in eleven churches during retirement. What blessings! I hope these churches have helped people say, “I can find my way home now.” Eternal home.

Each church is supposed to be a loving fellowship of people where everyone is welcomed and where the Gospel of Christ is taught and lived. The buildings that house each church are to point upward to the Lord. But more important than the buildings are the people and the Lord Jesus. Jesus established the church to carry on His work. And He said that He gives the church the keys to the kingdom. That means the churches have the keys that will open the doors of God’s kingdom for people, and to open the hearts of people to God. Wow! What a responsibility!

Have you found your church? Has a church found you? Do you deal with spiritual and eternal matters?

A pastor had been asked to go to the hospital to visit a man and when he stood by the man’s bed and told him who he was, the patient said, “I have never had time to deal with spiritual matters.” The pastor talked with him for a short while but could not open the door to his mind and heart about God. When he left the hospital he said to himself, “He said he never had time for God but he had over 4,000 Sundays.” An hour or two in church each week could have made quite a difference in the man’s life.

A woman and her young son were out in the field watching a hot-air balloon moving about in the air several hundred feet above ground. The woman’s husband, who was also the child’s father, was in it. Suddenly, something went wrong and the basket of the balloon began falling to the ground. The three men in it, including the husband and father, were tragically killed. Twenty-four hours later the wife and son were in church. People were shocked to see them. The woman said, “We wanted to be with the people who know us best, the ones who understand both our grief and our joy; grief over our loss and joy because we know where Jack is.”

The church. A church can help you get to know God, believe in Christ, and receive love from fellow believers. S