My Church Isn’t Perfect, But…

Jun 19, 2009

By Michael Bell

Mission Baptist Church

Mission Baptist Church



A wise person once said to me: “Be vocal in your encouragement and praise, and be quiet in your criticism.” Too often the opposite is true where church members or parents are vocal in their criticisms and quiet in their praise. I have been attending my church, Mission Baptist, in Hamilton, Ontario, for a little over two years now, and so I thought it was time to list a few things that I really appreciate about the church.

In no particular order:

1. A website that is kept up to date, and has all the key information of the first page. if you were to google “Hamilton Ontario Baptist Church”, you would find us among the first few entries. I am a web developer, and while I am not responsible for the development or maintaining of the website, I appreciate the fact that it is effective and well done. Many of the new people who have come to our church have found it because of the website.

2. A church that, while seeking to be contemporary, has not neglected the traditional. I have had a couple of newcomers comment to me that we still sing some hymns and have a choir that sings during significant times in the church year.

3. A church that was willing to embrace change. The church was founded as a German church, by German speaking Canadians, with German services. They realized that they would have to change if they were going to continue to survive as a church, and change they did. At our recent church retreat, half of the congregation attended (despite the fact that it was a four hour drive), and half of those attending were between the ages of 5 and 17.

4. A church that is welcoming. The church has picked up quite a few families over the last two years. All of them have been warmly welcomed into the church, and I believe feel at home in the church. I appreciate the wide smiles and handshakes I receive on Sunday morning.

5. A church that cares about its students. We are close to a University campus, and the students from the University add a certain vibrancy to the church. I have noted that especially at the start of each semester, the church has made a special welcome to students. The church also provides a lunch for the students once a month.

6. Members who aren’t afraid to share the gospel. While this is not yet what I would call a strength, I like that fact that some of the newest attendees come from a beginner Bible Study that some ladies are running in their neighborhood.

7. A church that supports small groups. For those under the age of 50, there is quite a high involvement in small groups (the older ones still have their own German study). The Pastors and leadership team promote them from the pulpit, and held a small group fair to encourage involvement.

8. A church in which worship music is consistently “well done”. As a former worship leader, I am discouraged when not enough of an effort is put into planning services. At Mission Baptist, the worship team has a philosophy of “If you don’t practice, you don’t play.” I wish more churches would have this philosophy.

9. A church that has very good leaders. Both the Pastors, along with the Elder’s board, are quality people, dedicated to Christ, and are good examples for the rest of us to follow.

10. A church that values both men and women in leadership. I am an egalitarian. This is important to me.

11. A church that believes in a plurality of leadership. There is no “cult of personality” here. Instead the Pastors work in close cooperation with the Elders’ board.

12. A church that is not into legalism. Being followers of Christ is emphasized rather than rules and regulations.

13. In additions to number 12 above, we have a Senior Pastor who believes in: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” I appreciate the good things he has to say about other denominations.

14. An Associate/Youth Pastor, who leads the youth in meaningful Bible studies, and who isn’t content with “pat answers”, but is willing to explore some of the issues that youth face today.

15. A church that believes in second chances. Our Senior Pastor was divorced a number of years ago. For many churches that would automatically exclude him from ministry. Our church recognized God’s calling and gifting in his life, and was willing to call him as Pastor six years ago, a decision which they have not regretted.

16. A church that supports missions. Constant attention is given to our own missionaries who have gone out from our congregation. Support is also given to those serving at home in full time ministry, as well as those going out on short term mission trips. This is a church that does “Missions” well.

17. A church that encourages further ministry. Along with those ideas stated in the previous point, the church has been very active in encouraging an older youth in our church who is interested in ministry as a Pastor.

18. A church that is multicultural and open to others. Along with the English services, there is a Bible Study in German, and an afternoon service in Spanish. The church facilities are also used weekly by a Korean church, as well as the Navigators campus group. Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship also uses the church from time to time.

19. A church that encourages those in their spiritual gifts. Despite being new to the church, and not yet a member (another story for another time), I have been given opportunities to use my teaching gifts within the church is ways that I probably would not have gotten in other churches.

20. A church that is not afraid of the charismatic gifts. Although the church is not outwardly very charismatic, there is an openness to what the Spirit might want to do, in ways that I have not seen in many Baptist churches.

21. A church with a plethora of volunteers. Having come from some very small churches, it is nice to be able to sit back a bit, and see so many people engaged and active in ministry so that the work load is quite well shared. It is also nice to see so many who are willing to invest time with my children.

22. A church where many work quietly behind the scenes. We have a great group of trustees, who while never very visible, get much done around the church in terms of maintenance and upkeep.

23. A church that assists the less fortunate through its monthly communion offering.

24. A church where youth are actively involved in the ministry of the church.

25. Finally, but certainly at the top in importance, a church where the “good news of Jesus Christ” is preached faithfully.

These are a few of the things that I have come to appreciate about the church. I am sure that I will have more that I will add to the list as they come to mind. All in all though, over the last two years, Mission Baptist has been a pretty wonderful place to be.

What are some of the things you appreciate about your church?

14 Comments | church life | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

It’s a lot easier to be Non-Religious

Jun 19, 2009

I previously published this post on Internet Monk

I have received a lot of interest and feedback on my last two posts on Internet Monk, concerning how and when people switch between their childhood religion and their current faith. For those who have not had the opportunity to read them, you can read them here and here.

religiousswitching2The question that I have been asked the most is about historical trends in the data. For example, from the graph that I provided you can see that about 50% of adults who were raised non-religious, subsequently joined a faith group. How has this changed over time? (For the purposes of this posting I am using the word “religious” in the way it has been used historically, that is, someone is religious if they are an adherent to a particular faith tradition.)

Bradley Wright, who teaches Sociology of Religion at the University of Connecticut, was kind enough to pass on a source of data where this was analyzed:

Fischer and Hout, in their recent book “Century of Difference” (2006) used General Social Survey data to analyze historical data about religion and childhood. For the most part, the graphs that they provide match up quite nicely with the chart that I provided. Historically, the outflows from Evangelical and Mainline Protestant church have been pretty constant over the last 100 years. Evangelicals have done a better job at retaining member than Mainline Protestants, and so over time have fared better. Typically about 75% of Evangelical 16 year olds will continue their Evangelical affiliation into adulthood. 25% will switch out, a number that is quite similar to what is seen in my chart. Catholics retention is not as strong as it used to be, but according to the Fischer and Hout data is now similar to that of Evangelicals.

ReligiousswitchingovertimeNoReligion
The most striking change was for the non-religious. If you were raised non-religious between 1920 and about 1950 then you were more than 70% likely to join a faith group after the age of 16. This started changing rapidly in the 1960s, and by the time Fischer and Hout collected their data and published their book in 2002, the rate that at which non-religious became religious was down to 25%.

My chart, by nature of it looking at all adults regardless of age, had an averaging effect of younger adults and older adults, so my percentage of outflows from the non-religious was quite a bit higher than the 25% currently being reported by Fischer and Hout. What this means that if we were to somehow update my chart, and look at flows that were happening today, Protestant and Catholic outflows would be very similar to what you see on the chart, but outflows from the non-religious would only be about half as wide as are drawn on the chart.

These numbers should not surprise us. As my wife said to me last night, there is so much more support for the non-religious in school, media, and society in general than there was 50 years ago. It is not surprising that they are now retaining 75% of their adherents. I should also point out the trend in the non-religious retaining their adherents has not slowed. It may already be significantly higher than the 75%.

I hate being a bearer of bad news. I really do. People who know me, know that I am a pretty optimistic kind of guy. I don’t like to see that the non-religious are gaining ground. I have a lot of neighbors and co-workers who are not religious. Most of them do not see any need whatsoever for religion, or faith, or whatever you might want to call it. This is certainly a wake up call that tells me how important it is for me to live a Christ like life, to at least show them, if not tell them, that Jesus Christ is something worth considering.

As usual your thoughts and comments are welcome.

Leave a Comment » | church growth, statistics | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

How do we stop the Hemorrhaging? A follow up to the Pew Forum Data

May 18, 2009

By Michael Bell

I recently published this post at InternetMonk.com

In my previous post at Internet Monk, I looked at two surveys conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life: Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S. that was released a few weeks ago, and which was a followup to their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey that they released last year.

religiousswitching2By working with the numbers of the surveys I was able to come up with a chart that showed how Americans have been changing from their childhood faith to their current faith. One of the key findings was that Christian denominations are losing adherents though the back door so to speak than they are gaining new believers through the front door. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, please check out the original post, as it will help you understand some of the ideas behind this post, as well us understand the magnitude of the changes.

Today I wanted to focus on the “when” and the “why” this hemorrhaging was occurring, but as I have been pondering the data, the “when” seemed to really stand out as being important. I was reminded of my preaching classes back in seminary, when our professor, Dr. Peter Ralph, would constantly remind us to find the “big idea” that needed to be communicated from the biblical text. I think the same holds true when looking at survey data. Here is the “big idea” that jumped out at me when going through the Flux survey data and reports:

Most religious life decisions, even among those who have been open to change, has been set by age 23.

Of those who were raised Protestant (Evangelical, Mainline, and Historical Black), and are now “unaffiliated with any religious group”, 85% left their childhood faith before the age of 24. Of those who were raised Catholic and were now unaffiliated, 79% left before the age of 24. The same holds true for those coming back the other way. Of those raised unaffiliated, but who are now affiliated with a religious group, 72% left the ranks of the unaffiliated before the age of 24.

I can’t emphasize enough how huge this is. I will state this again: Most religious life decisions, even among those who have been open to change, has been set by age 23. There is another much smaller group that will leave their Christian faith group between the ages of 24 and 35, but only 3-4% who will make the change after they turn 36.

Before I look at the implications of this, I would like us to consider some related statistics that also come from the Flux survey. Of those who were raised Protestant but are now unaffiliated, 64% attended weekly worship as a child, but only 29% attended as a teen. This too is huge. When we relate this back to our first set of numbers we can see that of those who left the faith before age 24, a large percentage had already made that decision by their teenage years. For Catholics, the decision to leave is somewhat delayed. Of those from Catholic backgrounds who become unaffiliated, 44% are still attending regularly as teens (down from 74% as children). As noted earlier, before the age of 24, most of those who will leave have already left, whether they be Catholic or Protestant.

So what does all this mean for us?

These numbers have significant implications for both discipleship and evangelism. While I have focused primarily on those leaving, it works both way. Those coming to faith make the decision when they are young as well. Let us look at the discipleship aspect first.

A friend of mine, Mitch, became a Youth Pastor of an Evangelical Presbyterian church a number of years ago. While the Church was of quite a decent size (about 300 attendance), they had no youth group, and almost no youth attending. I believe Mitch was hired as the church’s first ever Youth Pastor because the church knew that they had potentially lost one complement of youth, and were afraid of losing those who were approaching that age as well. As hard as Mitch tried, he could not get those youth who had left to come back, even though their parents will still attending the church. So instead he focused his energies on the kids in Sunday School and Junior High. By building into those kids lives, they had gone through significant discipleship well before they hit high school, and Mitch had the joy of working with them all the way through high school. Even after Mitch moved on to another church in a distant community as a senior pastor, he was invited back to participate in their weddings. It was wonderful to see those teens move into adulthood, still actively engaged in the church.

My point is that if we are not serious and intentional about engaging our young people before they hit their teens, then we may have left it too late.

After the teenage years comes young adulthood, and College and/or University have often been fingered as being culprits in the move away from the faith in young adults. Steven James Henderson in his 2003 study entitled “The Impact of Student Religion and College Affiliation on Student Religiosity” writes:

Railsback’s 1994 study of “born-again” Christian students… found that the vast majority of Christian students attend non-Christian colleges. As previously mentioned, of the group that attended public universities, approximately 52% either no longer called themselves “born again” or had not attended any religious services or meetings in over a year by the end of their college experience.

However it has been shown that those who do not attend College fall away from the faith in ever greater percentages than those who do attend. Regnerus and Uecker write:

The assumption that the religious involvement of young people diminishes when they attend college is of course true: 64 percent of those currently enrolled in a traditional four-year institution have curbed their attendance habits. Yet, 76 percent of those who never enrolled in college report a decline in religious service attendance.

So what do we do?

In Henderson’s more readable summary article, he points out that:

Students who attend institutions that are members of the Council for Christian College and Universities (CCCU) showed significant positive differences on almost all individual measures of religious commitment as well as an overall increase in that commitment compared to those who attended non-member institutions.

These numbers may be misleading because if I want to become and Engineer, I am going to go to a school that specializing in producing Engineers. If I want to become a Pastor, I am going to go to a school that specializes in producing Pastors. So it may be that those who enter CCCU schools are more intentional about their future Christian involvement, and as such score much higher in the surveys.

Even if the numbers are not misleading, this still gives me a bit of a problem, primarily I believe that Christians cocoon themselves far too much, and secondly, because as pointed out by George Wood, a leader in the Assemblies of God, only 15% of their students choose schools affiliated with the CCCU. His figures, based on the 2005 Church Ministries Report for the Assemblies of God show that there are:

315,000 young people between the ages of 13 and 17 in the 12,301 Assemblies of God churches in the U.S.

210,000 (two-thirds) will enter one of the 4,000 colleges or universities in America.

178,500 will enter a non-Christian college or university, while

31,500 (15 percent) will enter one of the 102 CCCU schools, including those affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

In nine years, after these 13- to 17-year-olds have been in college for four years (and if the same percentages hold true for those who don’t go to college) up to 189,000 of Assemblies of God youth – out of 315,000 – may no longer be following Christ.

So, while giving additional consideration to a Christian College may be of benefit to our students, we need to consider the large majority who are not going to go that route.

This is why I am such a large supporter of Christian Campus ministries like Navigators, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and what was formerly know and Campus Crusade. Church “College & Career” ministries are very important too. My wife and I were involved in three different Campus ministries while at University, and one significant Church College ministries. All four had a huge impact on our spiritual growth, as well as in establishing life long relationships with like minded Christians. I look at those I was involved with and so many of them went on to become Pastors, Missionaries, and leaders in their respective churches. It is for that reason that my wife and I give 25% of our tithe to Campus ministries, spreading it out over four campuses. Being able to contribute to the spiritual well being of University students is something I believe will have a lasting impact on both their lives and the future health of the church.

Henderson has a number of excellent suggestions for students, parents, and Pastors, for ways that students can remain strong in their faith during their college years. It is well worth reading.

I would like to add a couple of other thoughts to his list as well as tie back to some of my original comments about teens.

I realize that I am about to pick on Pastors here, but I see Pastors as the key implementer of change withing churches. Pastors, how intentional are you at engaging youth and young adults in your sermons? Go over your last 10 sermons. How many of the sermon illustrations were ones that young people could really relate too? Have you ever alluded to a group like “Cold Play”? Do you have a visitation schedule? If so, have you ever included a teen or a young adult in that schedule? Have you ever taken a teen in your church out for a baseball game or even a cheese burger? When was the last time someone under the age of 18 did a Bible reading in the service? Ushered? Ran the sound board, or video system? Joined the worship team? Let a Bible Study? My son who is 14, does all kinds of complex presentations at school on all kinds of subjects that he has researched. Why doesn’t he get the same kind of opportunity at church?

My point is that many of our people have become disengaged from their faith at a very young age. It isn’t enough to tread water, but we need to become intentional at engaging them. You should note that I am not advocating that we become youth focused in our churches, but that we should at least become much more youth aware and youth inclusive. We need to engage them beyond the time spent in their Sunday School class or youth group, and make sure that they are an integral part in this bigger thing we call “church”

My final note has to do with Evangelism. As noted earlier in the post, of those raised unaffiliated, but who are now affiliated with a religious group, 72% left the ranks of the unaffiliated before the age of 24. My friend Tim immediately came to mind when I read this. When I was at University, he amazed all of us in our Christian campus group by leading his entire residence floor to Christ. One of the guys who became a Christian went on to become the President of our group three years later. Yet this is something that should not surprise us, because this is a stage of life when people are seeking, learning, and discovering so many new and amazing things about the world around them. We need to take the opportunity to introduce them to the most amazing person of all: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.<i

2 Comments | church growth, church life, statistics | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

The Times They Are A-Changin’ – How Americans Are Shifting From Their Childhood Beliefs

May 9, 2009

By Michael Bell

This post was originally published at Internet Monk.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
- Bob Dylan 1963

For years I have heard about the many changes that have been taking place within the Christian World. Churches and denominations growing, churches and denominations shrinking. We have had a pretty good idea of who has been growing, and who has been shrinking, but with birth rates, death rates and other factors, it has been pretty hard to pin down the source of the growth and decline. Have Evangelicals been growing? If so, has the growth come from the non religious, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, or other religions? What sort of outflows have they experienced that have offset the inputs? Is the back door larger or smaller than the front door? How are the Catholics, the Mainline Protestants, the non religious and others doing?

Well now we know.

A few days ago, The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of a survey entitled Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S. This was followup to their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey that they released last year.

I have been busy in the last week doing a bit of reverse engineering on the numbers to represent the shifts in belief as best and as clearly as I can. Here is the resulting chart. You can click on it to see the full sized version.

religiousswitching2
Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

Status update

May 9, 2009

By Michael Bell

I had previously posted that because of the busyness of life, both for myself and Joshua Hearne, that posting to Eclectic Christian is going to be quite limited for the next few months. However, I am going to be posting infrequently at Internet Monk and I will repost those items here.

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

The Underlying Cause of the Recession

Apr 8, 2009

By Mike Bell

Ike made a comment on my recent piece on Recession and Church growth that I think deserves some further attention. Ike begins by quoting from Thomas Kelley who wrote:

The deepest need of men is not food and clothing and shelter, important as they are. It is God. We have mistaken the nature of poverty and thought it was economic poverty. No, it is poverty of soul, deprivation of God’s recreating, loving peace. Peer into poverty and see if we are really getting down to our deepest needs, in our economic salvation schemes. These are important. But they lie farther along the road, secondary steps toward world reconstruction. The primary step is a holy life, transformed and radiant in the glory of God.

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, page 123.

Ike continues by writing:

Our economic recession began in a recession of the soul. If our hearts were filled with the Holy Spirit, we would be so freed from financial foolishness that we would not have established lifestyles, personally and nationally, that we now know are practically unsustainable, politically divisive, economically backward and perhaps even militarily risky.

The most relevant message to our nation today, and to ourselves, is personal repentance, confession of sin, newness of life and hope in the gracious promises of God in Christ.

Over the last few days I have been thinking about this, particularly as it relates to this blog. I don’t won’t to get so wrapped up in other statistics and other thing that I forget the focus that this blog was supposed to be about. It is about the good news of Jesus Christ, and how that is lived out throughout Christianity. Sure I find the numbers interesting and I am going to continue to put up posts along those lines. As much as possible though I want to try and tie them back to what it means concerning the good news of Jesus.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

3 Comments | Gospel, recession | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

Two newer blogs I like to read

Apr 7, 2009

Two blogs that I have been reading quite a bit recently are Girl in a Glass House and Willohroots. I don’t really care for either of the blogs’ artistic layouts, (sorry guys) but that is not why I go there. Girl in a glass house in an excellent writer who has written some wonderful stuff on her relationship with God. She has a wonderful way of weaving in quotations from other Christian writers. Willohroots tends to have interesting stories about being called into ministry in a small church. I feel a sense of kinship with him as he talks about how he is ministering to others.

Both of them have been a great encouragement to me and are among the most frequent Eclectic Christian commentators. If you haven’t had a chance to visit their sites please do so. I am adding them both to my blogroll.

4 Comments | recommendation | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

How the recession may fuel church growth

Apr 6, 2009

By Michael Bell

The following post was originally published at InternetMonk.com.

Michael Spencer recently republished an article which looked at the problems that wealth creates for discipleship. He writes:

Have you ever thought about this? We are living in the most fabulously wealthy, excessively entertained and unimaginably prosperous nation in the history of the world. We have a standard of living, and a level of comfort, that much of the rest of the world cannot imagine…

The Jesus of the Gospel proclaims the promises of prosperity, real estate and parking places to be empty. If we will listen. He’s just as discomforting now as ever, unless we render him the harmless servant of our desires.

Rather than telling us about your best life now, Jesus talks over and over about persecution, sacrifice, voluntary poverty and laying down the images and symbols of success for the lasting worth and influence of the Kingdom of Jesus.

In the story of the rich young ruler, Matthew 19:21-24, Jesus makes it clear that it is very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is so very true. When people are content in their present circumstances it is very difficult for them to hear the challenges of the gospel, and the demands of the Kingdom of God. This goes for both people with and without faith in God. For those with faith, it is a question of discipleship. For those without faith it is a question of evangelism.

Recession changes all that.
Read the rest of this entry »

15 Comments | church growth, recession, statistics | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

Why the change in the crowd?

Apr 1, 2009

I have been posting on Eclectic Christian now for just over a year. This post is the amalgamation of two of my very earliest posts and is revisited now as Easter is just about upon us.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:8-9

22″What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!”
23″Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” Matthew 27:22-23

What a difference a week makes! In one week, the people have gone from shouting “Hosanna” to shouting “Crucify him!” Unfortunately, in almost every sermon I have heard on the topic, the pastor gets it wrong. (Not picking on any particular pastor here, I have heard this preached badly six or seven times.) The Pastor assumes that the crowd in Matthew 21 is the same as the crowd in Matthew 27. But this is not the case. Read the rest of this entry »

10 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Eclectic Christian

TTSTM – March 23 – Peter O’Higgins

Mar 26, 2009

This post is the daily post for March 23rd on my blog: Telling the Stories that Matter.

March 23 – Peter O’Higgins, Martyr, Lifesaver, Thought Criminal

William Pilsworth was the vicar of the Church of Ireland in Donadea and had given room and board to Roman Catholic friars even though they disagreed on some theological matters. In 1641, there was a rebellion on Ireland and many fled the countryside to find refuge in Dublin. William was one of the last to do so and was detained by the rebel army outside of Dublin. When they searched his things they found a letter from a brother-in-law who asked William to kill a rebel and bring the head with him so that their family might purchase security from the powerful by spilling the blood of the hated. Though William had done no such thing and had no plans to do so, he was given a political choice: attend a Roman Catholic mass as an ally or die as an enemy. He refused to be manipulated and so he was marched to the gallows. Before the trapdoor released and William could plunge to his death, a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Peter O’Higgins intervened. Peter had never met William and knew nothing of him but gave a detailed and impassioned speech insisting that this execution would be an unholy and reprehensible act. Having been chastized by Peter O’Higgins, William’s captors released him.

The protestant government soon cracked down on the rebellion and moved into the area with speed and vicious efficiency. Peter remained in his parish even though he had been advised to flee the expected vengeance against Roman Catholics in the area. He was arrested and turned over to the military powers. The commander of the force, a man by the name of Ormonde, handed him on down the line to a lesser officer but expected that the Peter–a Dominican priest–would find mercy from those in whose hands he found himself. Almost twenty protestant clergymen wrote letters begging mercy and leniency for Peter but these appear to be ignored. He was beaten, abused, tortured, and finally marched to the gallows to die. He was accused of trying to convinced protestants to give up their protest but could only be found guilty of simply being Roman Catholic. When he stood on the gallows, he was presented with two pieces of paper: one was a warrant for his execution and the other was a pardon to be given to him on the condition that he recanted his faith. He had requested that the pardon be printed up for him to consider upon the gallows and his accusers had complied.

The assembled crowd looked on as Peter considered both documents. They couldn’t decide what they wanted more: to see the priest die or to see the priest sacrifice his faith for his life. They had long ago left behind devotion to the one who was the Bread of Life. He picked up the pardon and some in the crowd were excited as they imagined he would now recant his position and join with the protestants. Instead, he spoke loudly and for all to hear: “For some time I was in doubt as t the charge on which they would ground my condenmnation; but, thanks to heaven, it is no longer so; and I am about to die for my attachment to the catholic faith. See you here the condition on which I might save my life? Apostasy is all they require; but, before high heaven, I spurn their offers, and with my last breath will glorify God for the honor he has done me, in allowing me thus to suffer for his name.” With these words, he threw the pardon to the dirt below the gallows. The trapdoor was released and he was hung for refusing to give up on his faith–the faith that this accusers claimed but had long ago forgotten. This was not a protestant or Roman Catholic faith alone; it was a faith that transcended political labels and rested solely in devotion to Jesus. As he slowly died at the end of the rope–and even as they were preparing to kill Peter–William Pilsworth stood at his feet repeatedly yelling: “This man is innocent! He saved my life!” Peter O’Higgins died on the 23rd day of March in the year 1642.

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by jhearne0

« Previous Entries