Opps, missed church today. To be more precise I don't have a church. How can you miss something you never had. It was taken away, and now no longer exist. I guess you could say that it died. It was killed with hopes of a resurrection in about a year. I won't be called Westwood, it won't have the same people.I visit other churches, but this is the one we chose over 20 years ago. My grand children were baptized here., I played the organ and piano here. I directed and sang in it's choir. I served as an elder and watch many a minister come and go. This building served many a baptism, marriage, sunday school and vacation bible school. For years we had a basketball on Monday night. We also played gold and softball under the name Westwood. Many funerals were held here, young and old. We opened to the community with a bonfire on Halloween, and served breakfast before the Roosevelt Park parade. We were part of the community and yet we were closed because we were not part of the community. Reasons abound for the real reason in a decline in it;s membership. The wrong pastors drove many away, and yet it was the people and many other reasons. In a medical terms we were dying of a virus. We had all the money to throw at it, but no cure was found. With much money stored up, we died. A cure was never searched for, a miracle didn't happen, and yet about 70 remained faithful. We tried everything, guitars, singers, hands raised to heaven, and pastors we thought would turn things around. Who failed? Our pastors, congregation, music leaders, and much more. Gossip, special groups, and failure to greet the people who came looking for a church They were looking for a show, and we were trying to give that to them. We moved the pulpit around, closed off the balcony, had baptisms at the lake, and many of us sat back and watched. We kept digging deeper and deeper. The harder we tried, the worse things became. Don't open your bible, or don't open you hymnals because everything you needed was projected on a screen. Many of us laughed when 10 minutes late was referred to as Westwood Time. How could we have failed. We forgot to keep it simple. The pulpit became a podium, and the church service our entertainment on Sunday Mornings. We gave up 1 hour a week of our time to worship God and perform the show. We searched for God in our music. our sermons, and our coffee time. Our search for God was considered on how well we performed. Now the building sits vacant, the parking lot empty, and voids of the laughters that filled this building, and told to find another church. And now we search for another church that might have those show stoppers we failed to achieve. I belive what we were searching for was alway there. I believe we were searching for God on our terms. Sundays were never the Sabbath, the day to keep holy. It became 1 hour of the week we had to honor. We worshiped the day, we worshiped the book called a Bible, we worshiped the communion, we worshiped the baptism, and we worshiped what we had done. We forgot the 10 commandments and the apostle creed, basics in our church. We failed to dress in our finest clothes in place we wore what we felt comfortable in..
Many things we did right were done by people who have passed on. We made our excuses because these people have left. I would one of the first to say that I had a part in the demise of Westwood Reformed church, Westwood Church, or Lighthouse Church. Besides myself, there were many others who failed our Lord. I am not actively looking for a church building for Sundays. I need to look for a place where I can give of my best for the master. There was an old saying, " you can put a dress on a pig, put on makeup, you can teach it to dance, and you can give it a name, but it is still a pig. I, myself want to become a better christian and just once a week we give to God is so far less then he has given me, Before I look for a church to fill the slot, I need to take a long look at myself. What can I bring to worship our Lord. When I find that, my search for a building will start.
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