Canada was once a 'churched' culture. It no longer is that. When it was thus (in Church- and
King/Queen- and Country-culture), most people went to church (meaning they attended local
church buildings, entered church programs and joined in the community life and ministry of
such congregations). Pastors and churches simply announced the time of their 'services,' opened their doors and people
came in to receive what was offered and to give and share the gifts,
resources, vision and love of Christ that held them together as a 'colony of
Heaven.'
When
I was a boy, even unbelieving neighbours did not cut their lawns nor run their
tractors on a Sunday. Before Sunday sports and wide-open shopping,
that was a day when a Christian or Christendom consensus dictated much of how
life was lived in Canadian communities. There was at least a respect and then grudging tolerance for the culture of
Christendom. It was not worth going against the majority view even of other
non-practicing Christians that Sunday was to be considered a special day, a ‘day of rest’ - the Sabbath. Certain
things were not to be done on that day out of respect for Christians, if not
out of love for God.
When
people gathered, we had pastors and teachers to help lead and shape their
individual and collective life and witness – much of it lived in the context of
the gathering in the church building and the inherent Christian nurture and
witness programs carried out in that primary context.
That
day is gone.
