A landmark day

The big celebration has come and gone and everything went well yesterday. We had 125 people and a nice reception afterward. Sandy and I put up a number of photos and put together a bit of an historical display.

I love to celebrate God's faithfulness in worship and look for any occasion to do so. That is what yesterday was all about. The stated reason for the celebration was my becoming the longest standing pastor of the church. Actually we took the time to remember nine other Pastors and their ministries. That was the fun part. We talked about what was happening and who was involved in the ministry. Of course we couldn't go into a lot of detail because we only had an hour or so. But through a few historical moments and with several references in my sermon, we managed to look back and see where we've been.


We recognized those members who were baptized or joined the church during the ministries of Rev. Kilmister, Rev. Schoepfer, Rev. Price and yours truly. We also managed a Kodak moment with the members of the pulpit committee that was responsible for bringing me here in the summer of 1985. The committee included Doris Adams, Curt Brockway (chair), Paul Lorraine, Rosie Main, Louise Strouse and Doug Wolf. I got a laugh when I noted that one of the results of being here so long was that some of the committee members had passed away since then.

During the Children's Moment I asked the kids if they noticed anything different about me. None of them noticed I had shaved off my goatee or colored my hair. I asked them if they thought I was younger that people would like me better. Then I told them that age or size or the color of our skin didn't matter to God. He loved us all just the way we are.

The message on Sunday was continuation of our Purpose Driven Life sermon series. I noted that we had our Father's eyes, hands and feet were called to be more like Christ. It was a good message on a great day in the life of our FBC family.

Cal


I've got to confess that I now know how Cal Ripken, Ricky Henderson, Barry bonds and other legendary sports figures felt when they became the all time leader in their categories. Where do you go from here? My answer is that you just keep doing that which you've done to get to this amazing place. I don't know how long I will be here but I will promise to keep on doing my best to love and serve the people of First Baptist.