Having just started up at a new church and getting to know not only the people but also a bit about the history of the church, I couldn’t help but notice all the memorial stones and plaques anywhere and everywhere around the premises. I decided to go around the other day the church building, our 2 halls, the manse and the units we have at the back of the church and there are at least 9 plaques/memorial stones around the place. There is a great sense of history in this church and seeing we’re celebrating 125 years of beloved Presbyterian worship in 2010, we thought it would be another great reason to celebrate.
I have realised though it’s not very hard to get people talking about the past history of the church seeing we have an extremely elderly congregation who have lived and grown up here and often talk about the many ministers who have served this parish and what they have brought to God’s people over the decades (I almost said centuries). God willing we’ll have our first centurion next year.
Reflecting on the past is an easy thing people do but to get them focused on the future is a much harder task. They want to see the church grow and bring in new Christian people, but the past seems almost too important to change. There are many now embracing change and it’s great to see people starting to be outward looking now rather than at focusing on what we already have. God is doing a great work amongst his people here and bit by bit, we will hopefully grow a new generation of believers and expand so we can find more places to lay more plaques to the ‘Glory of God.’
