Turfed

 No, we weren't having church outside because of covid restrictions. We had been locked out, but no, it wasn't the Canadian government, or even an Ontario Ruling that put us outside on a drizzly day in August. 

    Hugh and I had started singing on a regular basis at a little church down the road from us in the Hamlet of Massie. We didn't pay much attention to the denominational title. It was really just a community church. They read a lot of wonderful scripture, sang some awesome hymns, the fellowship was great, and they seemed to appreciate our music when we came.

    But that denominational title did turn out to be way more important than any of us realized. When John Wesley started his ministry he had a fiery message from the Lord. The Methodist churches that sprang up in his wake spread the gospel throughout our nation. Gradually things changed, and when the organization decided that unity was more important than slight differences in doctrine, a large contingent of Methodist churches in Canada united with some of the Prespeterian churches and became the United Church of Canada.

    It sounded like a great idea to many of the churches who wanted to knock down their fences and have fellowship with more Christians. The little church in Massie became the Massie United Church. 

    It was still just a community church. If you lived near by you would hitch up the horse and buggy on a Sunday morning, pile your children in, and head to the property that the Neelands family had donated and the men of the community had built, and you would blend your voices in song with your neighbors and listen to the word of God being read and preached about. 

    It was a good way of life. It brought the community together while reminding them who kept the rain coming in its season, and who blessed them with a harvest each year, and most important, who paid the price for their salvation. All seemed fine, but wherever man gets his finger in the pie, things start to deteriorate. 

    I believe that is what has happened to the United Church of Canada. They still continue to claim to be a Christian organization, and I know that there are still, within its circle, true God fearing, Jesus loving, Christians. But the organization itself?  

    About a year ago, the United Church of Canada sent Massie an ultimatum. Do what we tell you to do, or we will close your doors. They wanted the little Hamlet to take a preacher of the organization's choosing, not a local boy whose training had not been with the United Church of Canada. They had successfully closed all the other United Churches in the area, and now they were targeting Massie.

    Massie balked. They couldn't afford a different minister, besides, they loved their preacher. He was one of them. He spoke words of wisdom that they appreciated, and they saw no reason to turf him or make him go through all the United Church hoops. 

    Last Sunday the locks were changed on the doors of the church that their families had built. Their bank account was frozen and the United Church of Canada sent a letter saying that most of the members of their board had been removed. 

    Hugh and I do not see this as a such terrible thing. Although it hurts Hugh to lose a building that his family built and that he played a large part in renovating, we have felt that the connection to the United Church of Canada would be a chain around the neck. God is starting to bring His people out of "religion" and is seeking to have a people that just rely on Him. Sometimes that could mean the loss of our comfort zone, but the "way it's always been" is really not the way it has always been. Churches have changed. Maybe God is saying, "Here is the way it has always been with Me: I have always wanted you loyal to Me, and no other, not even the United Church of Canada."