WHY ATTEND CHURCH?

A man sent a letter to a newspaper, complaining that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.

 

“I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I’ve heard something like 3,000 sermons. For the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them, so, I think I'm wasting my time, and pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons.”

 

That caused controversy, and the editor printed pro-and-con letters until someone wrote this:

 

“I've been married for 30 years. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.

 

“But I do know this…They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

 

I worked four years as a part-time religion reporter for The Pilot, a newspaper in Southern Pines, NC, where my late wife, Carol, and I lived for about 28 years. While on that job, I visited some houses of worship.

 

In one church I visited, a pastor preached on Sunday morning and served communion. After the pastor said the last amen, an elderly man standing near me smiled at a lady and said, “Right on time – 12 o’clock.”

 

The Rev. Bailey Smith, former Southern Baptist Convention president, said, “Many churches are just country clubs with steeples on top.”

 

Select a church that preaches the Gospel and commit to that church if you feel you fit there. A person can live a Christian life in isolation, but that’s not normal. “You can cross the ocean in a rowboat, but it’s a lot easier to cross on a big ship with a bunch of people,” someone said.

 

Someone else said, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your brothers and sisters.”

 

“Any idea of enjoying salvation or being a Christian in isolation is foreign to New Testament writings,” someone stated.

 

St. Paul pictures the church as a body (I Corinthians 12). There is a universal Church made up of all believers, but we’re asked to belong to a local church and build up (edify) one another in that group. We are urged to confess our sins and pray for each other when we meet.

At church meetings, we should hear the Word of God preached, experience the friendship of Christians, and foster some accountability to brothers and sisters.

 

Believers should speak the truth in love and exhort each other to uphold Scriptural standards. Peer influence in church should be positive and seasoned with grace, someone said.

 

Church can be a gathering of thousands or a few people helping each other grow in Christ. Jesus says, “For where two or three gather together in my name, there am I in their midst” (Matthew 18:20).

 

We should not forsake assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another; “and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).

 

Someone said the Bible records no examples of anyone who was right with God but also stood alone and did not spend time with other believers.

 

When I wrote years ago on this subject, the late Father Tom Parsons, a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam but then pastor of Christ Church Anglican, Southern Pines, NC, wrote, “Steve, I believe the problem you discuss is due to an incomplete understanding of what the Church is. Paul, for one, believed it to be the Body of Christ on earth, and the Church, East and West, confessed this for over fifteen hundred years. … Only God knows what He will do in His prevenient grace, but Scripture, two thousand years of tradition, and our God-given reason should lead us to the covenanted way of salvation in Christ through the authority and office of His Church. To go it alone is a risky business!”

Steven Riley Sturm: A Good Friend Passes On

A good buddy left this old world. Barbara and I attended a memorial service at Hampton Park Baptist Church, Greenville, SC, on Wed., June 9, 2021, for the Rev. Steven Riley Sturm (pictured here), a friend of mine since at least 1969.  

Steve, born in 1943, “passed from life to Life” on June 5. A quote from Steve’s obituary reads, “The only thing he wanted said about him was that he was ‘rotten to the core.’ A sinner saved by grace [in his late teen years] in the back of Riley’s Paint Store in Shinnston, West Virginia, who continued to be overwhelmed by the love and mercy of God for nearly sixty years following.”  

Steve and Sherry were married for 58 years. Sherry’s maiden name was Riley, the same as Steve’s middle name, and she was his high school sweetheart. He called her his “front street girl” because she lived in town on the second floor of her late father’s funeral home and he lived on a dairy farm. Sherry’s father died when she was young. Her widowed mother taught music in the local high school Steve and Sherry attended. Sherry has an older brother and sister. Steve’s two brothers have passed on.

Steve served in the Army under two Presidents in White House Communications before becoming a “Bible major” at Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC, and working part-time as a wallpaper hanger.

Here’s how we met: Carol, my late wife, and I were dating and working as first-year public school teachers for Greenville County, SC. Carol met Sherry — both worked as elementary school teachers —  and introduced me to her and Steve and their little daughter, Kelly. Carol and I often broke up, and she’d go to the Sturm’s house to talk about our troubles. One time, Steve, in his West Virginia farm-boy way, said to Carol, “Why don’t y’all just get married and annihilate each other.”    

The Sturms attended our wedding the next year (August 1970) at Bethany Baptist Church, Travelers Rest, SC, after I’d completed Army basic training.

We visited the Sturms when Steve pastored Shinns Run Baptist Church, Shinnston, West Virginia. Carol and Sherry often corresponded. Years later the Sturms moved back to Greenville, SC, and stayed in our home for several weeks (until their house was ready). They have four children: Kelly, John Michael, Steven, and Karla. 

In Greenville, Sherry worked as a teacher; Steve worked at delivering parts for a company and served as one of the leaders at Hampton Park Baptist Church. In 1988, my family located in NC as I followed the “textile trail” by working in carpet manufacturing. 

Once, Sherry came with their youngest, Karla, to stay overnight with us in Southern Pines, NC, That night, Carol, groaned with nausea. “You better get her to the hospital,” Sherry told me, as she recognized gall bladder trouble. She visited Carol in the hospital after surgery.   

Steve and Sherry visited us several times in NC. John Fawcett wrote this song, published in 1782, “Blest be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”

Before Carol and I moved back to Greenville County, SC, on Jan. 10, 2018, Steve visited Steven, his son, in Raleigh. After their visit, Steven drove Steve to our house, and Steve drove my extra car to Greenville. Steve and his daughter, Karla (a nurse), painted about half the interior of the Taylors, SC, house we purchased. Steve hooked up our washer.

He and Sherry, who have four grandchildren, visited us as Carol suffered from pulmonary hypertension. They served their church by visiting the elderly, and Steve played his guitar at prayer meetings. They spoke at Carol’s funeral (Jan. 15, 2019) and visited me at my home after Carol passed. Steve would bring his guitar when he came by himself to my Taylors home, and we’d play together, sing hymns, and talk about the Lord.

One day, I called Steve, and he told me about his sudden cancer diagnosis. “I’m at the front of the line for the Glory Train,” he said. About two weeks later, he called and asked to borrow the music stand we’d shared when we sang together at my house before COVID-19 stopped our visits. He wanted to sing as long as he could and thought the stand might help. Barbara (my wife as of June 14, 2020) and I took the stand to his house and sat with Steve and Sherry on their patio for Barbara’s first and our last precious visit with him. In the printed program for Steve’s memorial service, his children wrote, “Dad continued to lead us in worship over the five weeks of his illness … All the hymns about Grace have brought us comfort.”   

Steve’s obituary said about him: “Mountaineer, and recipient of the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe award. Dairy farmer who hated getting up early. Loved and was loved by many good ‘hound dogs.’ Veteran of the US Army. Graduated with honors from Bob Jones University, undergraduate and Master’s Degree. Hunter, fisherman, photographer, map collector, expert wallpaper hanger. Musician and vocalist until his final breath. Dedicated scholar. Avid reader. Voracious Learner. Great pontificator. Lifelong student and teacher of the Scriptures. ‘Pastor Sturm.’ Counselor, encourager, and friend to many.”