Let's Take Time to Celebrate Life!!!!

Family

I just heard from a church I pastored and it was like talking to family. It was my first pastorate and what I remember most were the people . Sharon Handlin was the person who called me all the way from Eldred Illinois. She was at one time the procurator of a small store. Eldred, itself is a farming town of 300 people with one church. The attendance of the church runs about 100 every Sunday. Soon they will celebrate their 125th anniversary. That is quite a feat in this day and age of win or lose. There seem to be more splits than reconnections. Eldred is an example of how staying together matters. In the beginning of my Pastorate 30 years ago there was almost a split because one pastor decided that you needed to speak in tongues to know what it meant to be a Christian. This did not go well with the Baptists in attendance. One person blew the whistle on the show. She had been in church and was more concerned with the fruits of the Spirit than someone touting there was something more important than speaking in tongues. The church has hung together with the same names that were there so long ago. I celebrate family in the person of this church, a place that learned and shared what it meant to stay together through thick and thin.