REMEMBER:  ONE WORSHIP SERVICE THIS WEEK AT 10:30 A.M, FOLLOWED BY A DELICIOUS CATERED MEAL ON CALHOUN SQUARE!!

I am studying the 1947-1948 brown, spiral 8”x10½” attendance book of the John L. Travis Bible Class.  The notebook contains a grid including meticulously handwritten class members names going down the page and each month of the year and the Sundays thereof going across.  The Travis Bible Class roster for 1947 contained 150 alphabetically recorded names and home addresses with tick marks indicating that person’s weekly attendance.  Class officers included a president, 2 vice presidents, a treasurer, 2 secretaries, a song leader, a pianist and John L. Travis, the teacher.

I am impressed by the number of men in 1947 who had perfect attendance in the John L. Travis Bible Class.  As I have laid my head on my pillow this week I  see those rows of tick marks running all the way across the notebook page like the ever present waves of an ocean,  fifty-two straight quarter inch slashes  of graphite recording the dedicated loyalty of a man in the house of the Lord week in and week out.  

And then there are the records of the Baraca Bible Class.  This class planned and presented a concert in November 1927 at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer.  Participants from the class included 2 professional singers, a professional pianist and a chorus of 65 men’s voices!  We have a folder full of details regarding the plans for this concert, including newspaper clippings of its success.

One letter to members of the Baraca Class dated October 25, 1927, and unrelated to the planned concert, is worth quoting.  It is from class president S. A. Smith, 

“On next Sunday morning we are hosts to our Lutheran friends.  They are coming over seventy-five strong to visit us and we should match them two to one so be there and bring a visitor or new member if possible, but be there next Sunday morning.”

These records comprise part of the character of our congregation…faithful attendance and careful record keeping for the sake of Christ combined with a dash of competitive spirit when it came to hosting the Lutherans!

This Sunday, Celebration Sunday for our Take 2010 campaign, gives us an opportunity to record our own faithfulness to Christ as we spread the good news of the Kingdom of God.  Perhaps 60-100 years from now some church historian will look back and find that this generation had been faithful in our own way to make a difference for God in our world.  Please come prepared to complete a commitment card to renovate our entire ground floor of the church building.  Every gift, every person is important!