In many different news sources and blogs, we are told that the church is in decline, numbers are falling.

This may be true of some churches but not all.   If we only get our information from the newspapers we might think that Christianity is coming obsolete.

Not all churches are church-like buildings.   Not all churches in the UK are part of the Church of England or the Vatican some other more familiar religious authority.   Some churches are traditional or contemporary and are purpose built, some churches borrow someone else’s building like a school, hotel or community centre, as it maybe more cost effective or flexible for their needs this way.

Some of churches back in the day were caves!

I saw this place on the outsides of the official museum of Goereme’s open air museum which is full of cave churches.  This one you can see for free a few hundred metres away.

Its not functioning.

And it was shut.   Funny as its not winter.   I visited here during April.

My ticket I got for the Balloon ride shows 5th Nisan 2016.   Hold on Nisan is the Jewish word for April!   This month and a few others are also the same in Turkish, despite Turkish isn’t a Semitic language, I guess this is more from Islam which borrows a few elements of Judaism.

Ok, these churches aren’t functioning places of worship, and Turkey is a 99% Islamic country.   There are believers here, the gospel is being spread, but it is underground.  There is talk about persecution that could be happening at the moment, so I’d imagine these meetings are more likely to be in people’s homes.

No, I didn’t see this there, and yeah I’d wait till I’m back in the UK before writing this blog 🙂  Turkey isn’t known for freedom of speech and religion.   My point is churches represent a group of people meeting together rather than the fabric of the building itself.

Matthew 16 : 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bed bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will bee loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

In this case, church was built in the rock!

Previous 7.”Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam” or Turkish Star Wars
Next 9. Derinkuyu underground city