What a great weekend we have enjoyed here at Community Wesleyan. There was a tremendous joy evident in all the events. Beginning with the hugs of surprise reunions at the parsonage open house, continuing amid the happy chatter of the delightfully fancy Meet N’ Greet reception, and throughout the service of thanksgiving on Saturday evening, joy abounded. Looking back, I’m so glad we added the Saturday events. I estimate at least 120 enjoyed the praise and thanksgiving time. It gave much more time to peruse the meticulously collected photo albums and bulletin boards telling our church’s story. It also gave time to try to guess who went with which baby pictures. I wonder if anyone guessed that early grade school picture was me. I also think it added greatly to the anticipation of Sunday.
Sunday’s Celebration events were climactic in every way. The coffee and cookie time was grander than ever and enjoyed by many. In service, who can forget the heart for winning others to Jesus of our aging founding pastor, Rev. Tom Boghosian as he urged us on. The music was stirring especially the rousing chorus of “Look What the Lord Has Done,” the grand piano, organ and reunion choir rendition of “To God Be the Glory,” the Sign Choir’s moving “Yesterday, Today, Forever,” the bell choir’s fresh reminder, “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands”, and Dave Schwarz’s challenge with “Find Us Faithful.” Like our two services, the celebration was a mix of traditional and contemporary elements. At the suggestion of Dick Rugar, we used this day to also receive new members, of whom he was one. Another one, Nancy Collins, gave her testimony. A very well put together slide show summarized our church’s history and ministry very well. District Superintendent Wayne Wager Sr.’s message on Jubilee, a Time to Realign was both a warning and an encouragement to us to take advantage of this crucial time in our history to seek the kind of renewal that will return us to our original passion for souls.
What a blessing also to hear Pastor Eric’s official announcement that our goal of 50 ministries in the past 30 months had been exceeded. We praise God for enabling this. And since we want that spirit to continue, we hope many will send out one of the special postcards we made. That is our next outreach and service ministry.
In hindsight, one of the wisest decisions we made was to use a caterer and have the dinner at church. The turnout was tremendous. The downstairs was arranged to seat about 220 and some seats were used twice. The program was fun yet helped us reflect on the history of our church. The reminisces from former pastors Wolfe and Crandall and testimonies from Fran Filmer and Steven Sgroi gave us good perspectives too. JoAnne’s song, “Keep the Flame Burning” that we sang at the close of both the service and the dinner program seemed to sum it all up so well.
There are so many to thank for making it all possible. Pastor Wager was impressed with the planning we had done. I was personally blessed by all those who pitched in the last few days to put on finishing touches. There were set-up volunteers swarming the place for days ahead. Volunteers worked on at least 4 picture related projects constantly during that last week. Gardeners totally redid the church sign garden. People were practicing music and sign and bells whenever they could find a spot to do so. Then after it was all over, volunteers were cleaning up for hours. I say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped bring it all together.
What a joyous time in the Lord !