Celebrate Your Anniversary

 I searched in vain for an essay on the value of history in advance of our 2003 church anniversary. I never found what I wanted, so I wrote this little piece to preface the rehearsal of our history. I offer it to you to encourage you to record the history of your church and ministry for generations to come.

“There they go again, talking about how it used to be…what they used to do…stuff that happened to people that are dead and gone…funny names, dates of things a half-century ago. Why do I have to know these things? What does it have to do with me? We are so totally different from back then, what’s the point…except it’s what the old people like to talk about.”

What’s the point? Well, first of all, those people of long ago were human beings like you and me…with feelings, hopes, dreams…hurts, failures and disappointments…despite their funny clothes and ridiculous hairstyles, and names like Fannie, Bertha, Constantine and Buford. They talked of trains and trolleys, farmhouses and outhouses, depression and world war, big bands and radio dramas, and brush arbors and tent meetings. But, if you can get past all of that, deep down, there’s really no difference between us. They lived within the confines of their culture, bore the imprint of the values and traditions of their peers, and experienced the common joys and frustrations that we have in the twenty-first century.

That’s not all. When you really love people, you have a passion to know their history. We Pentecostals thrill at believers’ testimony of their experience with God, even though it happened a century ago. Every detail of their spiritual journeys provides us with further confirmation of the miraculous working of God’s power. When they tell their stories, we form a bond with them, and we see God from a new perspective.

But even more importantly, when we look within ourselves, when we truly begin to examine who we are and why we have come to be, and we sort through all the threads of our existence…guess who we find woven into the tapestry of the present? That’s right. We find all those same people, known only in crinkled, sepia-toned photographs, whose fading memories seem so irrelevant and boring today. Their ideas, their values, their experiences, their words, their music, their stories still exert untold influence on us. Much of what they believed has become definitive forms of our present doctrine and faith. Other subtler ideas still have a measurable effect on our attitudes and our vision for the future. They are us and we are them. The more we know about them, the more we will know about us. Don’t like history? Many of them probably didn’t either…just another example of how much we are alike.

Of course, we have progressed…or at least changed…since then. Different clothes, different music, different vocabulary, different technologies, different thinking…the list of superficial differences goes on. But the human commonality that joins us has not changed. They are our equals…not necessarily our superiors…and certainly not beneath us…but the same as us in all the important ways. Also, the spiritual commonality we share is bedrock. They were souls saved by grace, as are we. We preach from the same Bible as they did. The God we worship is the identical God that they worshipped! Jesus Christ: the same, yesterday, today and forever!

No, we don’t pretend that our history is all glorious. Many of our predecessors made serious mistakes in judgment. They did things that would not work today. They failed to do things that might have had a profound impact on the present generation. But we must understand their faults in the light of existing knowledge. Our values have evolved in ways that may make our forebears seem shortsighted. Yet, for all their failings, the many right, bold and courageous things they did should inspire a flood of gratitude in our hearts toward them. If we are better in some respects, it is because they planted the seeds of positive change in us. Perhaps the declines of our generation may be due to our disdain for past ideals.

If we fail to value the history of past personalities and events, we will be forgotten too. If you wish your memory to be rehearsed and cherished, then treasure the names, dates, people and events that comprise your past. Your decisions become the history of future generations, and you forge that history in your every act. Anniversaries give you a chance to tell your story. They weave meaning into the life of your church and fellowship. Don’t let people find meaning for themselves in someone else’s history. We have a history that needs to be recorded. If you have something to tell, tell it. If you have something to learn, ask. It is the stuff of heritage.