Abandoned churches and the lessons they leave: Part 3 Ministry

I have always enjoyed visiting historical sites. The more a place is preserved, as it was when its significance was established, the more I am fascinated by it. It is one thing to read history. It is exponentially more powerful to stand in the place where history was made. Cades Cove is a pastoral valley nestled among the Tennessee mountains in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Thousands of visitors walk, run, or drive through the eleven-mile road that loops through the valley. Some come to get a glimpse of the wildlife. Others come to witness the spectacular pageantry of seasonal transformation of the natural beauty. Others, like me, come to walk among the structures built by the early settlers and ponder what life was like for them.

Several years ago, my family and I visited Cades Cove while on vacation. I was most struck by the three church buildings in the valley. (Read my introduction for more about these buildings.) As I walked through these now-abandoned buildings, imagining the ministries they once housed, the people who once sat in the pews, and the pastors who preached in the pulpits, I pondered what these now-silent buildings could say to congregations today. Three ideas came to mind as I explored the buildings: simplicity, legacy, and ministry. Today, I want to consider the importance of a congregation's ministry.

I felt a sadness as I explored the three church buildings of Cades Cove. I felt a longing for what was and grieved for what would never be again. Each building retains the same beauty of its construction and ornamentation as they held before their congregations moved away. Though lacking modern accoutrements, all three church buildings have been well maintained and still house the accommodations and furniture employed by their former members. Unfortunately, they are today essentially museum exhibits, preserved for observation but not for use. This designation was a source of sadness and grief for me as I walked through these empty church buildings.

The architecture of church buildings often is designed for beauty, but esthetics is not the primary concern for the design of a church building. Church buildings may be beautiful, but they are not constructed singularly for esthetics but primarily for action. The three church buildings of Cades Cove are functional in form and simplistic in nature, built for ministry. While it is true that more sophisticated and moneyed congregations have built more elaborate and ornate structures than those that grace Cades Cove, they too are mostly functional in their architecture. Whether it be for preaching, teaching, or meeting a need in the community, church buildings are designed to support the church's ministry. And it is ministry that is at the heart of a church's existence.

Ministry is the vocation of the church as it fulfills the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20), equips the saints (Ephesians 4:12-15), cares for one another (Acts 2:42-47), and expresses the love of God to the broader community (Matthew 22:39). The purpose of church buildings is to support the ministry. The focus of ministry is people. Ministry among the congregation seeks to deepen theological understanding, encourage obedience to the commands of Jesus, comfort those who are struggling, encourage those who are fainthearted, and discipline those who are wayward. Ministry among the community seeks to make known the gospel of Jesus and minister to the needs of those who have been broken and bruised by this world. Thus, ministry is dependent on the presence of a congregation in a community. A church building without a congregation has no ministry. Neither does a congregation without a community around it have a ministry.

In the Cades Cove's situation, the community to which the churches ministered was taken away by the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As the people left the Cove and settled elsewhere, the ministry of the churches left with them. Even though the Primitive Baptist church defiantly continued to hold worship services, the purposefulness of their ministry, as with the other two congregations, was nullified when the last family left the cove.

The grief and sadness I felt as I toured the old church buildings was that they no longer fulfilled the purpose for which they were built. They remain beautiful in their simple and understated elegance. They remain functional, at least according to the expectations of a previous generation. But they no longer remain purposeful as a church doing gospel ministry in a community. The churches of Cades Cove had their ministries eviscerated by external forces, but many churches today are forfeiting their ministries by their own choices. These abandoned churches speak to us a warning not to be distracted from our purpose. The buildings we build must not become memorials or museums. Instead, they must be used as tools and resources in support of ministry. Unfortunately, many churches have given in to the temptation of seeing ministry as what supports the maintenance of their buildings rather than their facilities supporting their ministry. When the preservation of resources takes precedence over doing ministry, a church steps dangerously close to abandoning its purpose.

The New Testament does not speak a word about the importance of church buildings. It gives us no instructions as to the construction of Sunday school rooms and playgrounds, kitchens and fellowship halls, or bathrooms and lobbies. However, it does repeatedly speak to encourage the church to be faithful in ministry. Paul wrote to Timothy to:

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:2-5 ESV)

This is the witness of the abandoned churches of Cades Cove – do the work of ministry while you have the opportunity. Ministry is connected to people, not buildings. Be singularly focused on the work to which the church has been called, use the resources God has provided, and only value what will last into eternity.