Churches, Churches Everywhere
We had a guest preacher in France one time, an American from a medium-sized Michigan town in the heart of Reformed country. My jaw literally dropped when he mentioned that his town has 2,500 churches. Two thousand, five hundred! Is this even possible, in a population of 190,000?
This fact came back to me when we started driving around Muncie this past summer. I didn't really think about all the churches I was seeing, having lived in the Midwest before, but my kids sure noticed. Every time we went out in the car, they began a count from the back seat: number 8! number 17! Any and every kind, from the Mormons and Universalists and C&MA in our neighborhood to the Methodists and Full Gospel Temples and everything large and small in between.
None of them really looked like churches the kids were used to, until we saw the Catholic church. That comes closer. There are a few other pretty little churches built somewhere between 1880 and 1920, like the Quaker one, but otherwise, the Catholics win for cathedral-like. Most of the rest are store-fronts, big sheds
or 70's blah.
I wonder how many there are? Our family right now attends two: a Presbyterian and a C&MA. Just a teeny fraction of the whole!
This fact came back to me when we started driving around Muncie this past summer. I didn't really think about all the churches I was seeing, having lived in the Midwest before, but my kids sure noticed. Every time we went out in the car, they began a count from the back seat: number 8! number 17! Any and every kind, from the Mormons and Universalists and C&MA in our neighborhood to the Methodists and Full Gospel Temples and everything large and small in between.
None of them really looked like churches the kids were used to, until we saw the Catholic church. That comes closer. There are a few other pretty little churches built somewhere between 1880 and 1920, like the Quaker one, but otherwise, the Catholics win for cathedral-like. Most of the rest are store-fronts, big sheds
or 70's blah.
I wonder how many there are? Our family right now attends two: a Presbyterian and a C&MA. Just a teeny fraction of the whole!
Comments
Post a Comment