24th Anniversary Thoughts

Last Sunday we celebrated the twenty-fourth anniversary of the first public worship service of what we would come to know as "Towne View Baptist Church." As with most anniversaries we took time to remember:

• "Hall of Fame" leaders like Monroe Swilley (pastor/baptist leader), Bob Franklin (director of missions), and Bob Eubanks (layman/baptist benefactor)
• generous, supportive churches like First Baptist Church of Marietta and First Baptist Church of Rome
• those who provided leadership and direction through successive moves from the motel to the shopping center to the school, to the trailers, to the building, and now to Lockhart
• God, who above all, has been faithful through all the twists and turns of the journey

In my sermon I sought to make the case that along the way:

• we have been a mission church- the result of another's mission
• we have been a mission-minded church- giving our money so that others could be missionaries
• we have been a mission-supporting church- encouraging and sending members to "do" missions as an expression of their Christian faith
• we now face the challenge of being a "missional church-" creating an environment where members see themselves as missionaries in their communities of work and leisure and where as a church we see all that we do as a part of God's mission for us.

Anniversaries are a time to look back (where have we been?) with gratitude and look forward (where do we go from here?) with hope.