George Den Oudsten

When a church closes, its remaining members grieve. But in Christ we are not without hope. The final service of Gallatin Gateway Community Christian Reformed Church in Bozeman, Montana, was a moving expression of remembrance, pain, and faith.

Gathering

Call to Worship: John 11:25-26

Hymn of Praise: “How Great Thou Art” ^{LUYH 553, PH 467, PsH 483, TH 44, WR 51}

The Lord’s Greeting

Passing of the Peace

The problem we humans have, as one of my seminary professors put it, is that people forget. Even in a world where death is all over the news, where gravediggers are always employed, where Ebola and war and famine wreak havoc, people forget about death. We don’t passively forget—that is not possible. But we actively turn our minds away from our own deaths, even if we cannot avoid death in the world around us. We lobotomize the part of our brain that considers the fact that except Christ comes again, all of us will die.