Dictionary Word of the Day: Potemkin Village

Either my vocabulary is slipping or the Dictionary Word of the Day is getting more obscure.  I haven't had this many "new words" in a long time!  It comes at a good time, though, because I haven't had much time to fit blogging into my day lately.  Here's another new one to me:

1. Potemkin village \puh-TEM(P)-kin\, noun:
   An impressive facade or display that hides an undesirable fact or state; a false front.
2. A Potemkin village is so called after Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who had elaborate fake villages built in order to impress Catherine the Great on her tours of the Ukraine and the Crimea in the 18th century.

In the last few days, I have learned about four churches--all with impressive buildings, exciting programs, and growing congregations--that are imploding.  They look good on the outside, but inside things are not at all what they seem.  Interestingly, they have been from very diverse denominational/theological backgrounds but the types of facades are so similar, as are the types of failures and sins that have brought them crashing down, or at least shaking on their foundations.

Potemkin was, reportedly, erecting false fronts to impress a Sovereign, Catherine the Great.  If you read the Wikipedia article, it seems he wasn't fooling anyone.

This morning, thinking about the Potemkin churches, I wonder.  Were the facades built for man or for God?  It seems that men can easily be fooled--both the men who are constructing the Potemkin churches and those who are attending them.  But just as we can be falsely impressed by the outward appearance, we can be wrongly discouraged when we see behind the false fronts.  God is shaking them; He will reveal their foundations.  Our job is to offer God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe and not refuse Him who is speaking when He warns.

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Comments

[ellen b]

Very interesting, Kim. I'm grateful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Have a great week and wonderful long weekend...