Church Anniversaries Worth Celebrating

Denominational Anniversary

“Good history makes us think again about the definition of things we thought we understood pretty well, because it engages not just what is familiar but what is strange. It recognizes that ‘the past is a foreign country’ as well as being our past,” Rowan Williams writes in Why Study the Past?: The Quest for the Historical Church.

This slim book by the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury cautions against writing a “version of the past that is just the present in fancy dress.” He also warns against “dismissing the past as a wholly foreign country whose language we shall never learn.”

Remember, rejoice, rededicate

That makes sense to Peter Borgdorff, executive director emeritus of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America and chair of the CRC 150th anniversary year planning.

“There’s always a temptation to look back and glorify the past. But Wes Granberg-Michaelson, a friend in the Reformed Church in America, likes to kid me, ‘Why would you want to celebrate a church born in sin?’ And the CRC did come out of a split. That’s true of any Protestant church,” Borgdorff says.

So the CRC 150th anniversary year—devoted equally to remembering, rejoicing, and rededicating—begins with “a chance to assess the past. Our history includes good things. There’s also some pain and need for repentance.

“We need to confess our conflicts, our litmus test mindset of orthodoxy that has played out since our origins. We’ve politicized issues, going back and forth, yet always claiming the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And we’ve been a little smug in our relation to the Dutch churches and in refusing to join the National Council of Churches,” Borgdorff says.

A mass worship service and dozens of regional events will celebrate the denomination’s reasons to rejoice, such as all the strong institutions birthed by this faith community.

During the rededication phase, Borgdorff hopes church members recommit to following Christ…and to affirming the CRC’s place in the church worldwide.

He knows many Christians now identify more strongly with a local church than with a denomination. And while diving into local ministry is good, Borgdorff says, “You can become so focused on the immediate environment that you don’t see we live in a global village. We can’t sidestep issues in the Middle East and Africa.

“The 2006 Synod adopted a new ecumenical charter. We’re starting a conversation about whether to adopt the Belhar Confession, which grew out of South Africa and deals more specifically with racism and righteousness in public life than our other confessions do.”

A fall conference, Assessing the Past, Facing the Future, will offer reflection on where the CRC is headed.

Discuss distinctives

Rich Preheim has always worked in Mennonite denominational circles and is now interim director of Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee.

“I have read plenty of anniversary accounts. They leave me wondering if the book’s subject—be it a congregation or area conference or church institution—ever erred. It’s a challenge to deal with mistakes in a redemptive manner. It means being honest, confessing our errors where possible, and using the opportunity to learn and grow,” Preheim says.

He advises Mennonite church anniversary planners to think about how Romans 12:2 (“be not conformed to this world”) has shaped Mennonite and Amish identity. “Ours is a faith rooted in being different. We have long stood apart from the ways of the world, often for good—and sometimes, at first blush, even downright silly—reasons,” Preheim says.

This nonconformity plays out in regulations regarding dress among “Plain Peoples” and the historic peace stance. Along with refusing to take up arms or pay war taxes, Mennonites have pioneered peacemaking and conflict mediation.

“But while some of us embrace, to varying degrees, our distinctives, others try to distance themselves. They’ve become virtually indistinguishable from mainstream Protestant evangelicalism. In accepting lipstick and high school basketball, some Mennonites have also ended up accepting other beliefs, such as the validity of military action.

“Mennonite conscientious objectors have been tremendous examples of faith and commitment. I fear their stories aren’t being told…or heard,” he says.

The Mennonite Church USA is a recent merger of two Mennonite denominations. Preheim wonders whether “our new identity has been hampered by the lack of understanding of our old identities.”

God’s people experiencing God

Pastors, buildings, and mortgage burnings make easy ways to trace a church’s timeline.

“But what do you really know when you know that this pastor served from then to there? It’s more vital, more important, and more interesting to retell people’s experience of God with God’s people,” says Lester Ruth, professor of Christian worship at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

For example, researching older hymnals and written prayers gives anniversary celebrants access to how people worshiped in another era. This method reveals the words and language they used to talk with and about God in worship.

Ruth also recommends interviewing older and former church members, asking for family diaries and journals, checking newspaper archives, and exploring dusty church closets. And it’s good to videotape current worship services for future generations.

“Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago found things they forgot they had, including an eight-millimeter movie and audio tape of the last service in their previous space,” Ruth says.

Conference and denominational archives often have old church records. Academic historians at denominational colleges and seminaries can recommend books about worship and life in specific eras or areas of a denomination.

Ruth’s Early Methodist Life and Spirituality documents that 19th century Methodists in Delaware and Virginia knew John and Charles Wesley condemned slavery. But they worried that “not owning slaves would have cut them out culturally,” Ruth says. So Methodists brought slave purchase details to church, where leaders would decide how long they could work a slave before freeing him or her.

“We look back and wonder, ‘What were they thinking?’ Fifty years from now, maybe someone will watch a video of a worship service done in TV quiz show style and wonder the same thing,” Ruth says.

For the Charles Wesley Tercentennial, Ruth and other Asbury Seminary members are taping testimonies of people touched by Wesley hymns. They’re also running a contest to develop new settings for Wesley texts.

“I hope that Methodists reclaim Wesleyan identity and use this tercentennial to explore the Trinitarian theology in Charles Wesley’s hymns. Good theology has an artistic quality. I’d love to see songwriters become as good as Wesley at theology and lyrics,” Ruth says.

Sports and Mennonites Don’t Mix. Or Do They?

Rich Preheim, interim director of Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee, says Mennonites try to follow the directive “be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).

“There have been understandable prohibitions against tobacco and alcohol use, gambling and such. Some church circles have also prohibited lipstick and competitive athletics. Participation in competitive athletics was considered too worldly, a waste of time, antithetical to love and community, self glorifying, and so on,” Preheim says.

“One of my favorite stories happened about a hundred years ago, to a minister who was on the faculty of a Mennonite college. As he was walking across campus one day, a football bounced away from a group of boys who were playing a pick up game.

“The minister professor, being a nice sort of fellow, kicked the ball back to the players. That apparently got the rumor mill going, because he soon had to defend himself against charges of violating church standards.

“By the way, the college in this story qualified in 2006 for the NAIA national soccer championship tournament,” he adds.

To learn more about Mennonite culture, Preheim recommends reading An Introduction to Mennonite Historyby Cornelius J. Dyck.

You can also learn a lot by visiting Menno-Hof, a museum in Shipshewana, Indiana, that tells the story of Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterities—all part of the Anabaptist family.

The Winning Words of Charles Wesley

“Most of my academic interests boil down to the Trinitarian aspect of all worship and the aesthetic and artistic qualities of sound
theology,” says Lester Ruth, professor of Christian worship at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

His Charles Wesley Tercentennial project of taping testimonies of people touched by Charles Wesley’s hymns combines all three interests.

Ruth himself has been touched by the Wesley hymn “Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose.”

“That song helped me get my wife. Early on, I asked if she had a favorite hymn. ‘Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose’ is not a song I grew up singing in Methodist churches in Texas. But she sang it in her church growing up in Ohio.

“So before our next date, I went out and memorized it…so I could recite it and impress her. And now we’ve been married for 21 years,” he says.

The song, which is about the comfort Christ brings into life, has become a favorite for Lester Ruth as well. “When I was a pastor, and things were difficult, I’d often sit alone at the piano in the sanctuary and play and sing that song,” he says.

Testimonies from the past

As Methodist churches observe the Charles Wesley 300th Anniversary, Ruth suggests that older congregations, especially, explore their history, and all congregations reconnect with Wesley hymns.

“It’s good for churches to look honestly at their history,” he says. His book Early Methodist Life and Spirituality tells the story of dozens of early American Methodists—black and white, slave and free, women and men, well known and obscure.

His book A Little Heaven Below: Worship at Early Methodist Quarterly Meetings can help Methodist churches that wonder whether being true to their roots means focusing more on liturgy or on seekers.

Ruth recommends studying church records and interviewing older members about specific issues. “In congregations that started among single ethnic groups, it could be interesting to document the congregational shift from the dominant language to English. Or you could look at the ethnic shift in last names on church baptismal or membership rolls.

“In interviews, you could ask about the dynamics in making those ethnic and language changes. How did the congregation keep older members from feeling disenfranchised during those changes? This is an issue that lots of Asian American congregations face,” he says.

Singing Wesley hymns

For churches interested in exploring the Wesleys’ theology and hymnody, Ruth has several suggestions.

• Look for verbs of seeing or sight—see, look, behold, and so on—in hymns Charles Wesley wrote for the great festivals, such as Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Tie this in to a Wesleyan theology of the arts.
• Buy a critical edition of The Works of John Wesley Volume 7: A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists. It gives scriptural references and allusions for every line or stanza. Discuss how Wesleyan hymns embody a lively understanding of Scripture.
• Order a facsimile collection of Charles Wesley’s Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord. Or read the public domain text here. “There is archaic wording. You may need some guidance to sing and pray these songs. But an instructive pastor could help singers see how the nativity hymns emphasize humanity participating in the divine nature. Today, we don’t often say, ‘In Christ, we can share in the divine nature.’ But this perspective opens up the possibility for holiness in this life,” Ruth says.

Learn More

Brush up on the British love of flower arranging and church flower festivals, which have many themes. There’s even a flower arrangers prayer. Watch an online video about Christian Aid’s Fair Trade campaign.

Download Through Every Generation: 150th Anniversary Worship Resources for Christian Reformed pastors and worship planners. Reflect on Banner articles about faith formation and rethinking CRC identity during the 150th anniversary. Read Our Family Album: The Unfinished Story of the Christian Reformed Church by James Schaap.

Learn more about Mennonite peace makers at Third Way Café and A Common Place. Get ideas forMennonite Heritage Sunday.

Check out Charles Wesley 300th Anniversary highlights, such as a choral festival, events in the U.K., andBritish and North American resources. Download the script for “The Charles Wesley ‘Hymnical.’ ”

Start a church history book club that helps you explore congregational stories, individual spiritual journeys, and more.

Google church and Ku Klux Klan and you’ll come across news stories of how ministers let the KKK address, donate to, or otherwise participate in worship services. This happened not just in the South but also inIndiana, New York, and Washington.

Get church history and anniversary planning resources from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,Presbyterian Church in America, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, and Presbyterian Church (USA). Seek out scholarly resources on religious experience in the U.S. and Canada.

Browse the 113th anniversary booklet for Calvary Baptist Church, an African American congregation in Salt Lake City, Utah. Plan a Presbyterian Heritage Sunday or Methodist Property Sunday (U.K. tradition). Follow this model for an annual anniversary service.

Read Reformed Worship stories on dedication services and anniversaries at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, LaSalle Street Church.

Browse related stories about comparing denominations, Trinitarian worship music, and worshiping as thepeople of God.

Start a Discussion

Talk about how to observe a church anniversary in your congregation or denomination:

• What kinds of dedications or annual or special anniversaries are coming up for your congregation? What themes would you like to focus less or more on compared to past celebrations?
• How likely is it that your anniversary will include an outreach element, whether to neighbors, an overseas partner church…or to people who have drifted away from your fellowship?
• What do you think about the idea of including confession in your anniversary observance?
• How often do you collect written, audio, or video testimonies or life stories from your members? What is your system for archiving these—so future generations can know this part of your congregation’s history?

Share Your Wisdom

What is the best way you’ve found to address and talk about best practices for planning church anniversaries?

• Did you find a way to gather life stories from your members or former members? If so, did you create a handbook for using and sharing those testimonies during your church anniversary?
• If you checked with your regional or national denominational headquarters about their historical archives, did you come up with a checklist or plan for what to save and what to ship to those archives? If so, will you share those materials with us?
• Which book, drama resource, visual art, or conference helped you create a more meaningful church anniversary?