The Gospel And Nantucket: Or, 14:54 min. Sermons & Men In Pink

I had the privilege of vacationing with my family in Nantucket last week. I want to talk a little bit about what I observed last week regarding the status of the gospel in Nantucket.

Nantucket is and island 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. This beautifully-beached land mass is 14 miles long and 3 miles wide. 10,000 people live there year round. In the summer time the population of the island balloons up to 56,000 as many people have summer homes on the island and many simply spend 2 or 3 weeks renting a home or staying in one of the many Nantucket inns.

As the picture above shows, the skyline of Nantucket is dominated by a church steeple. Actually, if I had taken a better picture you’d see that the town skyline is bordered by two church steeples. I was able to count 5 churches in Nantucket. There may be more, but I think I detected them all.

We stayed in a home one block away from this church (this is the other tall steeple, skyline dominating church in the center of town–look at the deep center of the picture):

Over 150 years ago this church, formerly known as Second Congregational Church, split off from First Congregational Church (the church with the steeple that appears in the first picture) because First Congregational’s sanctuary couldn’t hold the massive crowds that showed up every Sunday. This wasn’t a church split over doctrine or division, but more a hybrid church plant/second campus 3/4ths of a mile down the road necessitated by space constraints. 150 years ago, Nantucket residents (most of whom lived on the island because of the burgeoning whaling industry) were flocking to hear the gospel preached in First Congregational Church.

Within a few decades of this split (after, I think, the short tenure of just two pastors), Second Congregational lost her hold on the gospel and became a Unitarian congregation. It remains a Unitarian congregation today. When I passed by the beautiful building on Sunday morning about 25 people were gathered together listening to some sort of nice address about, I think, kindness or something like that. Very sad.

So, that Sunday morning I walked past the beautiful Unitarian building that years ago held the overflow of Christians from First Congregational with sadness in my bones. I thought I’d attend First Congregational’s 11am worship service and see if they remained a thriving congregation centered upon the work of Jesus.

Along the way I passed by the Methodist church of Nantucket:

Best I could tell about 80 or so people were gathering for service here. From the literature I’d read, I didn’t think I’d hear the gospel in this beautiful building, so I kept walking to First Congregational:

I grabbed some literature from First Congregational’s welcome table and then took a seat in pew #75:

This was the first time I’d actually seen the old English pews with locking doors. As I looked around the sanctuary I immediately noticed that the building wasn’t as full as it was 150 years ago when space constraints required a church split/spin off/plant:

About 100 people were in attendance. The service was formal and liturgical. After we got through the weight of  the liturgy we came to the sermon. The interim pastor (for whom I prayed for as he preached) preached for exactly 14 minutes and 54 seconds. As you’d imagine from that statistic, the exposition was poor and the gospel was not preached. After the post-service punch and cookies I walked home sad, sad as to the declined status of the gospel, the pulpit, and the local church in Nantucket.

What I saw in the churches helped explain the hedonism I observed on the island as well as the observation that 3 out of 4 men wear pink in Nantucket. I tried to snap some pictures of the preppy pink male east coast dress culture that I found myself in. But, after this picture

I realized that what I was doing was obvious and not well disguised. On Nantucket guys don’t just sport pink pants (like the man above), they also wear pink shirts, pink sweaters, pink blazers, pink slip on shoes, and pink hats. Now, I’m not asserting that lack of gospel preaching is a direct cause of this unashamed male pink wardrobing, but there may be some correlation. Maybe not.

Anyways, that Sunday in Nantucket I was rather discouraged over what I observed and what I could gather from the churches in the area. However, a few days later I became aware of Summer Street Church. I wish I had know about this church on Sunday. From everything I could gather about the church (I discovered the place on Friday, my last day on the island, and though the pastor wasn’t around a janitor, I think he was a janitor, let me inside and I was able to look around and grab some literature) I learned that this was a body of believers faithful to the gospel.

All this is to say that Nantucket island needs a revival. At the very least, this island needs longer sermons that proclaim the gospel and more men who steer clear of pink pants. If this is to happen I think it will come from Summer Street Church. Next time I’m in Nantucket I’m excited to get to know these believers.