LIVING NOW WITH A GLORIOUS THEN
How to minister in the present when church members would rather dwell on their more prosperous past.
Stephen A. Bly
January 1, 1990
When I entered my first pastorate, within six months I noticed an exciting phenomenon. At least, it thrilled me. Every Sunday morning the first four pews on the left side of the sanctuary filled with teens. Thirty to forty eager listeners, Bibles in hand, sat ready to hear what God had to say. I mentioned my excitement at a Christian education committee meeting. "Well, that's nice," Harry Nickles smiled. Then his mind, and his heart, drifted back over the years. "But I remember when Dr. Anderson was here, right after the war. We packed in a hundred to a hundred fifty kids every week." Since only eight hundred kids are in the high school district, I must have looked startled. Then Harry added, "Oh, that was at the Sunday evening service. I suppose we had more in the morning." It wasn't the first time I had heard about Dr. Anderson's tenure. Nor would it be the last. To the best of my ability, I've reconstructed the oral history of his ministry at First Church. It doesn't always correspond to the church records, but only pastors read such things anyway. During Dr. Anderson's eleven years: Average church attendance was 380; Sunday school, 295; Sunday evening service, 240; and Wednesday night prayer meeting, 162. The Sunday morning adult choir had forty-one members, and the Sunday evening choir, thirty-four. From September to June, each year, a twelve-piece orchestra accompanied the morning service. The Easter Week Mission Trip involved from 90 to 120 participants. The touring youth choir contained sixty strong voices. Mrs. Anderson's Thursday Ladies' Bible Study attracted nearly two hundred. Dr. Anderson took six years to preach through the Book of Romans. There were at least ten baptisms per month. Dr. Anderson's noon businessman's ...
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