{"id":839,"date":"2015-04-01T21:13:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T06:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=839"},"modified":"2015-04-19T12:15:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T21:15:33","slug":"apr-18-dont-let-this-happen-to-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=839","title":{"rendered":"Apr 18 – Don’t let this happen to your church"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

GUEST BLOGGER – REV. JOE SHEETZ CENTENARY UMC EFFINGHAM IL<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\n

Don\u2019t Let This Happen to Your\u00a0Church<\/a><\/h2>\n

by pattyshusband<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

I’m assuming you’re active in a church; if not, stop reading right now and find one…a great place to start is Find-A-Church at http:\/\/www.umc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The following\u00a0comes from a colleague, with permission to share it; all redactions are mine —<\/p>\n

Five generations of my family worshiped there. Grandpa died as chairman of the Church Board.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Church is now facing closure.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beautiful wonderfully kept historic building.<\/em><\/p>\n

Population locally is 10 times literally what it was when my mom and aunt grew up there.<\/strong> Endowment pays the bills. Handful of elderly saints. No one in my family has lived there in over 20 years and I believe I know everyone present except the pastor. No new people in 20 years.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

22 worshippers on Easter<\/strong> which they were thrilled about… a generation ago 300+.<\/strong>Lay supply pastor age 80 herself. No fights, no controversy, just massive die off with no replacements.<\/strong> Very sad.<\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t let this happen to your church. \u00a0Be active in your church, and be the church all week long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GUEST BLOGGER – REV. JOE SHEETZ CENTENARY UMC EFFINGHAM IL Don\u2019t Let This Happen to Your\u00a0Church by pattyshusband I’m assuming you’re active in a church; if not, stop reading right now and find one…a great place to start is Find-A-Church at http:\/\/www.umc.org. The following\u00a0comes from a colleague, with permission to share it; all redactions are … Continue reading Apr 18 – Don’t let this happen to your church<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}