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
The Lost Benediction
Depending on the length of the sermon, I try to add a little something extra in my benedictions. This week I wrote up a benediction but then realized we’d be singing and waving our umbrellas to some New Orleans jazz.
Change of Focus This Week
Instead of sharing with you about yesterday’s sermon I’d like to invite you to do some background reading for next Sunday’s “Only Murders in the Bible.” Seeing that it is All Saints Day this Sunday, we are going to look at the very first Christian martyr, Stephen.
You Might Be Thinking It’s All About You If…
In working on Sunday’s sermon I asked my computer’s AI if she/he could come up with a few suggestions in answer to the above: "You Might be thinking it’s all about you, if…."
Prayer Changes Things
Here is a transcript of the prayer I prayed at the end of yesterday’s sermon.
Optimism, Faith, and Hope:
Practical Steps For Increasing All Three
Here are some practical, spiritual, and relational ways to grow faith, hope and optimism:
Listening Heart
It’s kind of crazy when you think about it. Wisdom in the Bible is all about listening. Of course it makes sense that wisdom would start with listening to God, to God’s law and commandments, as well as the promptings and leadings of the Holy Spirit.
Here are some quotes that
didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon.
(But it doesn’t mean that they don’t offer real insight into the power of risk over the fear of failure...)