*Around 1995, the phrase “When Sunday Comes” burst into the realm of our religious reasoning. For a decade, it reassured those of us who were regular church attendees via the vehicle of song that we had a weekly time of renewal. We could hardly wait for Sunday to come. To be sure there was Wednesday evening prayer meetings and learning experiences but nothing rivaled Sunday morning.
In light of our current religious conditioning that labors under the weight of technological advances, there is the question of the continuing import of Sunday. In other words, is church as we now know it still relevant? Now let me point out quickly that the question of relevancy is nothing new to the Christian movement. At different stages of the developing Christian movement, relevancy was always the question.
In the early days, there was a protest movement against the Catholic Church. The Church did not belong to a hierarchy of religious leaders but rather to all the people. There was the Social Reform Movement which questioned the Church’s relevancy based upon the Church’s response to human needs. Christian Fundamentalism sought to hold to a minimal set of traditional beliefs at the expense of allowing differing interpretations and thus caused a movement of separation from the “mainline’ Protestant churches. In every era, every movement has questioned the relevancy of and the import of Sunday morning.
Also By Rev. Adams: https://www.reelurbannews.com/ive-got-a-friend/
The lack of the Church’s relevancy that was once more of the concern of larger church groups and movements have now filtered down to the Simple Church or House Church movement. Do we really approach the coming of Sunday with the same spirit of joyfulness and need as we did once? Is the church still crucial to the needs of the Now Generation?
Absolutely! We still need the renewal that occurs “When Sunday Comes.”
The battles of life are still very much with us. One has but to look around and listen. We do not need to rehearse a litany of needs and the shortcomings we now face. They are apparent. So, now as much as ever, the Church is relevant and needed. Where else can we find the healing offered by the Balm in Gilead? Our social organizations, even those based on religious foundations, lack the true fellowship that the rooted church affords. Genuine caring, not based on social class, financial resources or educational attainment makes us all equally partnered in the search for renewal.
The church is a hospital for sinners and since all have sinned, all stand in need of the restoration that the church advocates and provides.
We await the coming of Sunday, in order that we can express our gratitude to God for favors received and gain the strength we need to continue our journey. Yes, we can do some worship alone but we need the church to give us a venue for our weekly cooperate expression. We must never fail to remember the joy of our coming together. The Church is relevant and we can hardly wait until Sunday Comes.
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Rev. Gerald D. Adams, Religion Editor, ReelUrbanNews.com, is the author of, “So You’ve Been Called,” and the retired pastor of The Greater True Friendship Baptist Los Angeles. Currently working on his second book, Rev. Adams resides in Dallas, Texas. Rev. Adams has been contributing to Reel Urban News since 2013.
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