Real Hope: The TempleSample

Antiquated or Alive?

In Glynn County, Georgia, you can stand outside one of the state’s oldest African American Baptist Churches. Sadly, Needwood Church is no longer safe to enter. Several of the wooden bell tower slats are missing, and the peeling white paint droops downward toward the unkempt sodden lawn below. I’m told inside this decaying place of worship there are a few of the original wood pews from the church’s opening just after the American Civil War. The one-room school built in 1907 is in marginally better condition.

What a grand Sunday that must have been in 1866 when the parishioners gathered to sing and praise God as free men and women for the first time. What was that first sermon about I wonder? Which hymns wafted up into the humid Georgian air that morning? Today, there is no sound except the insects resident in the sagging willows on the church boundary. The church has not been a place of worship for decades. In fact, the Georgia Historical Society struggles to raise funds to stop the building from collapsing completely.

Needwood Baptist Church reminds me of the critical difference between a place of worship and a life of worship. Buildings succumb to time, seasons, and population, but when we daily invite the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and form our actions, we become a living temple to God’s goodness and grace. Our lives become mobile manifestations of God’s love on earth. I’m so thankful that our Father’s love is not limited to a time or place, but He invites us into a daily, vital and present relationship with Him.

Written by DWAYNE JEFFRIES