03 Aug Liberty UB: A Small but Healthy Church

I just received a letter from Mike Turner, a layperson at the Liberty UB church of Stockport, Ohio, down in the beautiful hills of southern Ohio. He reports that on July 12, they baptized, in Wolf Creek, 13 people who had been saved in the past month and six who had been saved earlier in 2009. A nearby Nazarene Church learned of the upcoming baptism, and they baptized one more person, for a total of 20. Mike reports that 68 persons were present to witness the power of God, sing songs, and pray. Mike said it was a grand and glorious day.

Over the past four years, I had tried to be consistent in calling our churches to become healthy. I think some people thought I was saying all churches had to become large. But that was and is not the point. I believe that healthy churches do grow, but size isn’t the issue. The issue is one of being effective in seeing people come to Christ.

Liberty UB is a small church that is healthy because they are reaching people in their community. We have many of our churches who haven’t seen a conversion for a long time. The baptismal fount is dry! Oh that many of our churches might become involved once again in the harvest fields.

Way to go Liberty! The angels in heaven rejoiced on that day!