It had once been a thriving church, Shiloh had. It had been the center of the community. Children knew it was a safe place they could go to hang out with each other. Adults knew it was a place where they could go and express their problems to God. There was a time when the doors were left unlocked so that if a person was in need of spending time in prayer in the sanctuary, they could get in day or night. The doors were left unlocked so that a weary traveler could come in and find a place to warm-up before braving the cold again.

At its peak, Shiloh had been filled almost to capacity every Sunday morning. There were multiple education classes offered for different ages or situations in life.

But lest we get too starry eyed about the past there were also times when the responses the pastor or the lay leaders of the church made were not adequate. There were plenty of times when the members and leaders at Shiloh did not see the needs in front of them or responded in ways that were less than helpful. There were times when the music lacked passion and the preaching put people to sleep.

Well Shiloh has been going downhill over the past years. Some of the paint is starting to peel. Some of the shingles fall off the roof in a good wind. And sometimes when the rain comes, it drips right over the baptismal fount. And they did have to start locking the doors at night because the insurance agency said they wouldn’t cover their policy if they didn’t lock the doors.

Slowly things began to shift around Shiloh. There were other places for the kids to go after school to hang out with their friends. There were plenty of other places for adults to go to seek advice about their problems. As the self-help aisle in the local bookstore grew, the attendance at Shiloh began to dwindle. As the number of options available for the kids on Sunday mornings grew, the education classes began to shrink.

It got to the point where there were just a few people who came to Shiloh every Sunday. They sometimes tried to spread out in the pews so it wouldn’t seem so empty when the preacher stood and looked out from the pulpit. Then they would try gathering together in the first few rows – but that didn’t last too long either.

Then came the news. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to the people at Shiloh. After all, they had heard rumors about the changes that were happening in their area. The land they were sitting on was valuable. They were no longer using it as much as they had been in the past. Maybe it was time for Shiloh to end its work among the people. There were rumors that a new larger worship center was opening up a few miles down the road. Maybe the few members from Shiloh who were still interested in worship could go there.

The members at Shiloh heard what the plans were for their beloved church. They knew that the people who wanted to close it down had some valid points. The paint was peeling and there weren’t as many people here as there was a generation ago. They had made some mistakes in their ministering to the community but they had tried.

A few of the members got together and decided that they would work to fight the decision to close Shiloh. They decided they would focus on answering the question, "What would be lost if Shiloh closes?" After all they had heard some of those who were for closing the church say that nothing would really be lost by closing Shiloh except for maybe a building that had some structural problems anyway.

That’s when the stories began to be shared. The call went out among the community to answer the question "What would you lose if Shiloh were closed?" Some surprising things began to be revealed. Many of the stories had never been told in public before.

There were stories told about people who had been married at Shiloh and had been blessed with a long life together. There were stories about people who had come there for prayer and received an answer – though not always the one they were expecting. There were even stories of people had no place to go to come out of the cold who had come to the church, found the door open, and stayed there for the night.

But there was one story that stood out more than any of them. As the members first heard it told, they weren’t sure they wanted to include it in their argument for keeping Shiloh open. After all, the beloved minister was not really shown in the best light. This story showed that sometimes the church leadership just doesn’t get it.

It was the story of a woman who prayed differently than others. This woman came forward and told the members about how she was so distressed and didn’t know where else to turn. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t sleep. She was desperate for some relief. She had no one else to turn to. The ones who should have been her friends were the one who were taunting her the most. So with no one else to turn to, this woman came to Shiloh. She prayed as she had never prayed before. She couldn’t even find the words to pray so her prayer was simply groaning to God, praying for relief.

She was in the middle of her prayer of groaning, muttering to herself when the minister came in and asked her to leave. The minister had seen the light on in the sanctuary and had come in to turn it off. The minister asked the woman to leave because she was not conducting herself in a manner appropriate to the house of God.

The woman explained to the minister that she had been praying and, a little put out by the woman’s argument, the minister simply said that God had certainly heard her and ushered her out the door. The minister probably didn’t think about that woman again after the door was shut. But a few years later the woman returned, claiming that God had answered her prayer. Though the minister had shooed her out, God had heard her and answered her prayer.

As the woman finished telling her story to the members at Shiloh, a hush fell across the room. "You asked me what would be lost if Shiloh were to close? I would be lost. Where could we go to bring our prayers before God? Where could we go to ask for help from the faith community? So what would be lost? A listening ear, a place to cry out to God, a place to come out of the cold, a place to bring up a child."

The stories of Shiloh didn’t end with that woman’s story. There were other stories told of thoughts, ideas, seeds planted in people’s souls that took years to grow. One member was told about how he had stopped in at the church, saw a man praying and simply sat on the other side of the pew with him. No words were spoken. They didn’t even know each other’s name. After a while, the man got up and left.

When the call went out for stories of Shiloh, the man came forward and told the members that just by that member coming and sitting in the pew next to him, gave him the strength to get through another week, when he had all but resolved to give up.

As they heard story after story about Shiloh, the members were amazed that many of the things they had worked so hard on – the programs, the dinners, the special events – were not the things most people talked about. Most of the time, the members didn’t even know they were reaching out to fill a need. Most of the time, they didn’t even realize they had done something that would grow into a life-changing experience for another person. Most of the time they didn’t’ realize that they were the answer to prayer.

The decline the people at Shiloh saw happening in their congregation is familiar in many places. We are all too familiar with the competition with Sunday morning worship. We are all too familiar with the other outlets for guidance: from Oprah to self-help books, from Dr. Phil to psychoanalysis. But what is the church? What is this place of worship but a place where we can bring our own prayers of groaning to God? What is this place but a place where we plant seeds of hope within one another?

Hannah came to her own Shiloh, lifted up her prayer to God, and was dismissed by Eli as being drunk in the sanctuary. But God was present at Shiloh, just as God is present here. God heard Hannah and through this woman of faith, in spite of Eli’s misunderstanding, God ushered in a new generation to work for God. Hannah’s son would become a beacon of hope and a prophetic voice for God.

The next generation of the church is out there and in here. God is planting seeds through us and sometimes in spite of us. What can we do to hold open the doors of the church to welcome in the next generation who might not think like you, look like you, worship like you, or lead like you? Perhaps you have planted seeds of faith within someone without even knowing it.

God is at work in this place, through those of us gathered here and through the people outside these doors. Perhaps our own prayer can echo Hannah’s. "My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in my God."