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Today, Sycamore Baptist Church of Franklin, VA, where I am serving as their Intentional Interim Pastor, celebrates their 140th Anniversary. It will be a big day of celebration with guests, former ministers, former members, and friends joining for the day's festivities. Dr. Phyllis Rodgerson Pleasants Tessieri, former church history professor at SBTS, Ruschlicon, and BTSR will be our main speaker. Former pastors and a gospel group will have the after lunch time. It's always fun to dig into the history of a congregation and see how both God has blessed and sometimes has rescued congregations from their own stupidity and excesses. What has been your experience with church anniversaries? How do we make the story of the past the springboard into the future?

Hope you have or had a good day

It has been a great day.

In January of 1991, I was baptized at (and admitted to membership in) Fremont Baptist Church, an American Baptist church in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. The next year, the church celebrated its 100th anniversary, and even though I was really new and still wet behind the ears in some ways, I was designated the church historian, and tasked with program development for the centennial. It was a lot of fun. And the church survived. Last year was the 125th anniversary, and while it was noted, and a few special programs were held (family reunion sort of stuff) it was a lot more muted than the 100th. I hardly made it to any of the events, and indeed 2017 was probably the low point in my active participation in the congregation. This year my involvement has increased. I'm on the search committee for a new pastor, and hope to find some one young enough and gifted enough and dedicated enough to give the church at least a good start towards 150, even though it's unlikely I'll live to see such a thing.