This past Sunday, I received some disheartening news: The Getwell congregation in Memphis is closing its doors. If you aren’t familiar with the Getwell brethren, perhaps you’ve heard of this…
This is the Spiritual Sword Quarterly, a mail-out publication filled with excellent articles and Bible studies, edited by the wonderful Alan Highers. It began in October of 1969 and for over half a century has been a rock solid supplier of rock solid Bible truth. I’m thankful the publication will continue thanks to the great brethren at House to House Heart to Heart, but up until today, the countless souls encouraged and instructed by the Quarterly were so helped thanks to the work of the brethren at Getwell. In addition, Getwell oversaw the Truth in Love radio program airing on WHBQ in Memphis, one of the longest-continuously running religious radio programs in the nation. It has aired for decades and taught the Gospel to millions. Getwell was also home to the annual Spiritual Sword Lectureship, a week-long gathering of some excellent Gospel Preachers who opened their Bibles and taught the Word of God from the heart. This year will be the 48th event, and it will be the last at the Getwell building. I attended several of them over the years. I wish I could be at their final one, but I’ll be preaching a Gospel Meeting that week and will have to miss it.
The Memphis School of Preaching began at Getwell, before moving to Knight Arnold Rd. in Memphis (and ultimately moving to Forest Hill in nearby Germantown, TN). Even without the school, Getwell has a legacy of great Gospel Preachers who stood in that old pulpit and preached to the brethren. Among them are the aforementioned Alan Highers, as well as Garland Elkins (one of my teachers), Gary McDade, and Garry Colley. Hundreds of others preached there by way of their Lectureship, and hundreds more sat and listened to the old old story be told from their auditorium.
Getwell’s Spiritual Sword Lectureship is where my future mother-in-law first pointed at me from across the auditorium and whispered to my future wife “he’s cute” (she was right). A month later, Lauren and I were dating, and 1.5 years later we were married and living in our first house not a stone’s throw from the Getwell building. To say that old church house has a lot of sentimental value to me would be an understatement, and to Lauren’s family especially.
So what happened?
At the end of the day, Getwell’s ending is no different than what has happened to congregations here and there across the nation. Getwell’s weekly attendance used to exceed 600 on the Lord’s Day. Last Sunday, when they announced they were closing their doors, they did so to an audience of about 12. What happened? Members got old and died. That happens everywhere, including at congregations that aren’t closing their doors, so what else is there? Why don’t all congregations shrink and shrink until they die? The reason is multi-faceted, some of it having to do with the environment (Getwell was in an area of Memphis where, by the 2020s, you would not feel safe stopping at a red light). There’s also the fact that a congregation that can only (or will only) “keep house,” and not look outward, evangelize, and add new members through Bible study and Baptism, is a congregation that will eventually die.
If a church only relies on growth by way of new babies being born, that’s not growth, that’s swelling. It’s nice to have, but real growth comes when the lost are found, when the community of sinners around the church house is taught the Gospel, obeys it, and adds themselves to the number of brethren who meet there weekly. Getwell had a number of environmental disadvantages that made it hard to attract visitors, and the writing had been on the wall for them over the past decade or so.
I read somewhere that there are a lot of things that close before the doors of a church building close for good: Bibles close, hearts close, minds close, hands close, mouths close.
With Getwell, at the end of the day, all that’s closing is a building. Those brethren who continued to attend there, no matter the circumstances, will continue to attend somewhere: You can’t keep a faithful Christian from assembling on the Lord’s Day. The many great works those brethren supported will be carried on by other brethren. A congregation is closing its doors, not the Kingdom of God, but the congregation’s closure should still be a caution to all: If we don’t look outward, and if we are content to hold on to what we already have, we too will slowly age, wither, and die.
~Matthew