Twenty years ago, December 3, 2000, our church went to church at a new church.
What is a church? It’s a group of Christians who regularly assemble in Jesus’s name to preach the gospel and to affirm one another as Christ-followers through baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
What is a church? It’s an event, as in, “What did I do on Sunday? I went to church.”
What is a church? In the vernacular of most, a church also can be a building.
Last Sunday, our church celebrated twenty years in our church when we gathered for church. COVID-19 prevented a celebration of the kind we wanted to have, but we rejoiced together at our Lord’s faithfulness to us since our move from South St. Paul to Inver Grove Heights.
Our history in South St. Paul, Minnesota, began in the mid-1800s as a church plant from the Riverview Baptist Church in West St. Paul. Years later in 1954 the two Baptist churches in South St. Paul – First Baptist and Calvary Baptist – merged and took the name First Calvary Baptist Church.
At the close of the last century, the members of our church made the bold move to relocate 3.6 miles to the west, and December 3, 2000, a group of people gathered for this first time at our Robert Street location.
The relocation was a gigantic step of faith. The church owned the land outright, and the new construction came in at a cost of $1,300,000. From sale of assets (including the existing church property and Rainbow Ranch, a church camp) and the generous giving of the members, the church had one million dollars in hand, but that left a mortgage of $300,000, a financial obligation they had not experienced for decades.
Further, at the time of the relocation, the church did not have a pastor. Their new pastor and the five others in the VerWay family would arrive in a few weeks and with them, the responsibility to support them. To relocate, to assume a mortgage, to commit to the care of a new pastor was a major undertaking. The reality of this dynamic was so serious, the membership had sober conversations whether the church should move forward or disband and disperse their holdings.
Obviously, they determined to press on. When they took occupancy, they continued to sacrifice in a way that benefits us today. They finished projects not included in the original construction – paving a second parking lot, building a large outbuilding, and furnishing a commercial kitchen – adding $300,000 to their commitment. They and the many who joined after the relocation gave generously and eliminated all debt by the end of 2008. We have enjoyed debt free ministry ever since.
Of the 90 or so who relocated, the vast majority who gathered December 3, 2000, have moved on to heaven, to warmer climates, or to new ministries. 13 remain with us. We thank the Lord for all who handed down to us the history, the facilities, and most importantly, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the last twenty years, we have experienced joy and sadness, gain and loss, times of plenty and times of want, salvations and baptisms, weddings and funerals, and ministries too many and too varied to list. Through it all our Lord has been faithful to us and to date has been pleased to allow us to continue as a local church. We thank him for his mercy and his grace, and we commit, by his grace, to be faithful in the years to come. We ask for his kindness to us, and at a time when we could grow weaker, we ask him to make us stronger.
O Lord,
We thank you for the heritage that is ours as the current members of First Calvary Baptist Church. We’ve inherited much from the saints before us. They have delivered to us the buildings we inhabit. They have presented to us wonderful examples of faithfulness to our Savior. They have placed in our trust the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have positioned us to serve you with many advantages. Like those in Hebrews 11, they lived by faith, and we owe them much.
If it pleases you to keep us a church for the foreseeable future, others will remember us. We ask you for wisdom to make good decisions for the present church and the future church. We ask you for the necessary grace to live holy in an unholy age so that we can pass to those after us a holy people. We ask you for strength to labor on when we are weak, discouraged, or dismayed. We pray for more to enter the waters of baptism. We pray for more members to aid us in the work of your kingdom. And we pray in these difficult days that when we could grow weaker, would you make us stronger?
Thank you for our church, and thank you that we are a church, and thank you for every time we come to church. May we always and only boast in our Lord Jesus Christ and his cross.
Amen.
As always, I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.
To read past Lunchtime Musings, follow me at medium.com/@mikeverway
Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision