Harnessing Your Church's History
Doug Scott
As I've moved into parishes and become acquainted with people, especially as I've begun to plan for that congregation's future, I've found it especially important to know and appreciate the congregation's past,
—Doug Scott The history of a congregation is no more real to most church members than a list of names were to the little girl in the old joke. She saw the names of military personnel on a bronze memorial plaque and asked her mother, "Who are all those people?" "Why, they are members of our church who died in the service," the mother replied. "Which one," asked the daughter, "8:00 or 10:30?" We may briefly study the history of our faith and perhaps the life of a denomination, but for many members, a church's history amounts to who ran last year's church fair. For others, it's the last congregational crisis, which they would just as soon forget. For some, history is the row of dusty board minutes squashed in stationery-store binders on a neglected shelf, or a list of faceless clergy, or the old crank who complains, "We never used to do it this way!" For others still, history is nostalgia for the old Book of Common Prayer or the King James Version. That's too bad, because a congregation's history is rich with meaning. As I've moved into parishes and become acquainted with the people, especially as I've begun to plan for that congregation's future, I've found it especially important to know and appreciate the congregation's past. History Shows God at Work Here
A few months ago, our congregation was pressed by a few extraordinary expenses. Since we faced a summer of low attendance and even lower offerings, many were inclined to doubt that God was active here and now. So I announced that next week I would preach the most important ...
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