I stepped outside the front door of my mother’s home to carry out the trash, and heard the sound of kids playing, something I hadn’t heard in that neighborhood in longer than I can remember. Looking up the street to where some new folks had moved in, I saw the kids in the backyard playing some form of ball game.
It made me think back to when my kids were small. Along with my sister’s and brother’s kids, we had 8 kids around all the time. They loved to stay with Granny and play all around her house, inside and out, and off down on the creek.
When we were kids, in the 1950s, there were 4 kids in our family, 1 girl next door north, and 4 kids next door south, plus many others. Right there within a block were 23 kids besides ourselves.
When Chester wanted to start a baseball game, he didn’t have to go very far to find enough people to make up two teams, and fill all the bases, and plenty more to watch the game.
There have been a few families who lived on that block within the last 10 years, but mostly it is older people,
Reminds me also of so many churches where the average age of members is 40, and very few if any children in the congregation. As the church membership gets older, the church begins to die until most of the members are gone to heaven.
This is a serious problem in the American churches, as a whole. There is no one way to fix the problem, but I know that God has the answer.
Jesus told His disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:19-20 KJV.
One thing I notice is that just like ball teams, only so many people can be on each team, and then the rest of the people just stand around and watch what is going on.
Maybe it’s time to get the people out of the bleachers and start a new team.