Fountain of Hope Church

Perhaps it was the grey skies and the autumnal detritus from the trees which were littering the lawns. Or was it the grim shutters over the windows and the peeling paint? Or the rather functional seventies or eighties architecture? The church building just did not match the incongruous name: Fountain of Hope Church.

An Elim Pentecostal fellowship in the Greenacres area of Oldham, not far from the area’s Congregational church, its service style is likely to be lively and upbeat, better keeping with its gushing, refreshing name. Often church buildings do not reflect the congregation’s designations or characters. I have been to Zions which were no strongholds of truth nor foretastes of heaven. I have passed Ebenezer Chapels which were faithless, Bethel’s from which God’s Spirit had long departed, All Saints’ which had not known a true man or woman of God for generations, and gatherings called Christ Church to which He may one day pronounce: “I never knew you”. What of we at Salem Chapel, which means peace? Are we really a place where humans find peace with God, where God’s peace infuses our lives? Or are we just a sham, a quaint chapel with an archaic name?