Slow Death in Family

My homeland, the South, has a custom that I have never seen observed outside of the area.  When a funeral procession is winding its way to the burial site, all the traffic in both directions pulls to the side of the road out of respect for the departed.  Once the procession of mourners has passed, those in the other vehicles go on about their daily routine without ever knowing whom the person was whom they had honored.

On Sunday, as we were driving to church, we passed a temporary traffic sign posted in front of a house on the narrow country road leading into town.  The sign read, “Slow Death in Family.”  My husband asked why it was posted.  I could think of two reasons.  The first was evidently to alert motorists that there could be traffic entering and exiting the site and some parking encroachment which might make the road more narrow as family and visitors congregated at the site.  The second reason would be to alert us to show respect for the family’s loss.

Then, the lover of the English language side of me kicked in, and I began musing about the wording of the sign.  Other than one word being placed upon the top of the next word in the four-line layered sign, there was nothing (no punctuation) that really divided the words.  I know the sign was to admonish us to go slowly because there had been a death in the family.  However, the words “slow death” are what caught my attention.  I began to associate them with a message I had heard at a mother/daughter luncheon a month or so ago.  The speaker had spoken to us about those Christians who are sitting in the pews at church “stillborn.”  They have talents that could be used for the Lord’s work, but they have never used them or allowed them to develop.  It is as though they are born again into His kingdom, but they are stillborn.  They want to be nurtured, but they do not become nurturers.  They want others to be saved, but they do not spread the message of salvation.  They want to do something for God, but they never move from the pew to the performance.

Many of our churches are facing a slow death due to lukewarm Christians, stillborn Christians, and those who say “Been there, done that – now let someone else do it.”  Every year churches close their doors.  Fewer people attend church.  Official church membership is down in most denominations.  If we don’t get off the pews and spread His gospel through word and deed, will we one day see the sign “Slow Death in Family” posted in front of our churches?

When we arrived at the church we were visiting, a few contemporary choruses were sung, and then the worship leader asked us to turn to a page in the red hymnal.  It was Dad Speer’s hymn, “Keep on the Firing Line.”  Yes, I believe in signs and wonders . . . I wonder most often about signs.

Revelation 3:16
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

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