11/06/2023
175 years in Numbers, and in Lives Touched
Here are the numbers—a conservative guesstimate—of what 175 years of ministry might look like.
● Sermons = 12,780 sermons, lasting 281,000 minutes (at a laughable 22 minutes per sermon), which translates to 4,686 hours, or 28 ½ straight days of preaching!
● Holy Communion = 1172 celebrations, with who knows how many people partaking.
● I’m guessing at something like 5780 Baptisms
● Weddings = 1750
● Funerals = 7000
● Youth Confirmations = 4375
When you stop and try to track all of that, you realize the immense number of people and families whose lives have been touched and changed through the ministry of just one congregation…ours.
But it’s not about the numbers. There is only one number that matters—and that’s you--or the endless number of ‘you’s that have found what they are looking for in this place, through the kindness and willingness of this church to serve God and others.
Consider all the lives touched by:
● Hosting the Agape Immigrant Chinese Congregation
● Participants in our ESL ministry
● The Angel’s Attic Thrift Store
● 50 years of shaping young minds and hearts through our Preschool
● All the Youth group retreats, trips to the Appalachian trail, mission trips, bible studies, and pizza parties.
● All the Children’s sermons and Sunday school classes, and Vacation
Bible Schools.
● Hours and hours of Pastoral counseling
● Hospital or bedside visits
● The TLC that goes with the direct aid from the food pantry
● A set of coats for your kids
● Christmas when there wouldn’t have been Christmas through Angel Tree
● So many Foster children with their very own duffle bag, blanket, book and toy
● A fully certified and credentialed professor in the seminary dreamed of by Bishop Yamasu in Sierra Leone by the name of Daisy Gbloh.
● How many homes are air and watertight—so much more livable than they were before our 20 plus years of repairs and renovations took place in and near Frakes, Kentucky (Henderson Settlement).
I could go on, but maybe you’re beginning to get my drift. We are part of a legacy of faith for the faithless, hope for the hopeless and love for the lonely and loveless. We are heirs of God’s Kingdom: brothers and sisters in a revolutionary movement of life which does not revolve around us, but around our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as far as I can tell—so far so good. It is a joy to celebrate 175 years in the ministry of the Master. As we move throughout this year, we will be taking time to look back so that we might look forward in creating our own legacy of doing great things for God.
Archived Posts
Sometimes A Quote Says It All
As I said Sunday, our new sermon series: Reversing Heart Disease, is based on a book by Pastor Andy Stanley. He’s a great communicator and his book, The Enemies of the Heart, has his inimitable conversational style. This morning I want to share with you a few of the quotes behind Sunday’s sermon. That way, you get a sense of the writer behind the preaching (more or less).
The Gifts of Those Who Need Our Hope
I barely touched on a topic that is of interest to me during Sunday’s sermon. When we think of Christian service we often think of reaching out to help make the burdens lighter for the least, the last, and the lost. I can’t think of a better way to express the commandment of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourselves. But what about...
Blessed People Bless People
But that Blessing Can Come with a Cost as Well
I’ve enclosed several insights I got while I dug into the scripture from Genesis 12 last Sunday. For you who love Bible background here’s a few thoughts to share:
Back and Forth with Chat GPT
Many of you know that I’ve found a new consultant to bounce my ideas off in regard to preaching. My good buddy Chat GPT and I sometimes disagree—often miscommunicate—but usually come up with some fruitful illustrations.
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
Here’s a preview of our congregation’s Core Values
In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...