Church of the Wagon Train

One of my favorite TV shows as a kid was "Wagon Train" with Ward Bond ( and later John McIntire). You may remember that the series revolved around a wagon train heading to California after the Civil War.  As with all wagon trains, it contained people from various backgrounds, yet untied by a single goal--to reach California, the promised land.  Each person in the train had their own history--their own story.  Not everyone who started made it to the end.  Some found a place they liked along the way and decided to stay there while others died before completing the trip.  And then there were those who joined the train during the journey.  They had a dream and merged their dream with those on the train.  Some who joined finished out the journey, while others stayed awhile and then split off.  Regardless of the conflicts, dangers, and tragedies faced along the way, the wagon train kept on the journey.  There was no stopping or turning back.

The Bible is full of pilgrims seeking promised lands.  The Israelites left Egypt bound for Canaan, their Promised Land.  Although they took a forty year detour, they eventually arrived.  The writer of Hebrews talks about Christians being on a journey to the spiritual Promised Land.

I have come to understand the church to be much like a wagon train.  We are all pilgrims seeking God's Promised Land.  The church--this church, is comprised of folks old and young, men and women, parents and children, white collar and blue collar, each of us with our dreams and our own stories.  God has brought us together to live out our faith while we journey together toward the Promised Land--like the folks on Wagon Train.  Some of us will find a comfortable place in our faith journey and will decide to stop there and slowly drift away.  Others will journey with us for a while and then move on to journey with another congregation--perhaps in another place.  And we will bury some who journeyed with us until it came their time to enter the Promised Land ahead of us.

One consistent theme in Wagon Train was that of people needing each other and helping each other.  After all, that is the whole purpose of joining a wagon train--to not have the make the journey facing the dangers and struggles alone.  The same is true of the church. As each of us faces the struggles and trials of life, but we don't have to make the journey facing the dangers and struggles alone.  We have the others in our train to help us through--our sisters and brothers in Christ.

So, thank God for the church--for First Christian Church of Brownwood. For we will remain the church and we will continue to move forward together toward God's Promised Land.  Will you bring your dream and join us? Will you be a part? Will you stay?

Just thinking about the journey-----Sterling