Maintaining the Church in Adversity

It is easy to forget that the Church does not need a church building to maintain herself. And that one does not need a fancy altar, sacred scrolls, incense, or coffee hour (no matter how Lutheran...) to constitute a Church Service. We have had a spate of natural disasters in my area- earthquakes, floods, severe storms, and a hurricane. Obviously, church was cancelled at least once. And yet services were held- by my family in our house. The smallest unit of the church is a couple (man and wife makes an excellent example). Study and prayer of God's Word with the appropriate praise to God for what He has done on our behalf constitutes the service. How easy it is for familiar and good things to cloud the core. If there is one thing that we have learned from the trails of the past weeks it is that God provides abundantly in trail and in fair seasons. And He does this through His Word, which maintains and strengthens the Church, regardless of the world around them.