Last week my wife and I had the privilege of going up north to see the beautiful fall foliage.

We were there over a Sunday so we looked for a church to attend. We thought it might be interesting to visit an old historic church, one of the oldest in the country, so we did.

The building was beautiful and the few members were friendly. This church at one time had over 1,400 members but now had decreased to a handful.

What was sad was that it didn’t take long to understand why the church had dwindled down in size to where it is today.

Every activity seemed to be dead and dry, void of hope or enthusiasm.

The announcement was given that during the Sunday school hour they had a guest from the city from an organization promoting taking guns, destroying them and turning them into art. Then came the message from the pastor, which turned out to be more of a lecture on global warming and gun control.

I realize that every church has room to grow and improve and there are times that we need to change our methods in reaching people for Jesus Christ. But we have to make sure that we don’t change the message.

This message has never changed nor will it ever change. Paul said to the Roman church, in chapter 1 verse 15, that he was eager to preach the gospel to them.

Then he goes on to say in verse 16 that he wasn’t ashamed to preach the gospel because it represented the power of God that would bring salvation to all who would accept it.

I am so thankful there are faithful places of worship that still teach the simple basic truths taught in scripture, and that a person who is hungry for God and a new beginning can find him in these places.