I wonder...

This Sunday we'll celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of Towne View Baptist Church.Ours was, in many ways, a typical baptist church start of it's day.  Noonday Baptist Association saw the need for a new church as Cobb County grew north and west, spurred by the recently developed Town Center at Cobb Mall.  Supportive churches were enlisted: First Baptist of Marietta in the early days; and First Baptist of Rome would serve as primary sponsor.  With support from the association and FBC-Rome key leaders were enlisted: a missions volunteer to provide support; a distinguished baptist minister to serve as interim pastor; a generous baptist layman offered wisdom and resources; volunteers canvassed neighborhoods, set-up chairs, and provided music.  And so, on the first Sunday of March in 1989 the Kennesaw Baptist Mission held its first service.

I wonder what those pioneers would think if they saw us worship last Sunday?  Only five are still around.

• I would guess that they would have imagined a larger congregation by now.
• Without knowing the whole story, they would probably be surprised that twenty-five years later we had progressed from meeting in a motel to meeting in a gym.
• Being, for the most part baptist traditionalists, they would not been thrilled to see our use of screens for worship- back then only the charismatics used transparencies with overhead projectors
• I think they would be surprised that in addition to our support of the traditional missions-support system our members are involved in numerous hands-on, personal ministry efforts 
• I hope they would be pleased to hear a female Jamaican-born deacon lead in prayer and a teen-ager read scripture
• I'm not sure that they would have foreseen that the Pakistani brother and sister who worshiped with us would have been greeted by church members from Kenya, Columbia, Korea, Romania, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, and Haiti  
• Hopefully, they would find comfort in our singing, prayers, concern for those who grieve, welcome to a new baby, preaching of the Good News, and commitment to future service

The song says, "may those who come behind us find us faithful." I am grateful for the faithfulness of those who came before us and pray that future generations who share in anniversary services will feel the same.