"Know thyself" Part 1

The Greek aphorism gnōthi seauton has been attributed to a number of ancient philosophers but regardless of authorship its call to introspection remains true: know yourself. Were it only so easy.

It s not just individuals that must do this. Churches need to know themselves as well. They need to know what they believe and they need to know their history. I'll come back to beliefs in a later post.

Churches have histories like people. Even in Canada, some churches go back 300 years. That's a lot of ministry. I remember rooting around in the basement of Emerson Baptist Church when I ministered there, the second oldest Baptist church in Western Canada. Like the show Ancestors in the Attic, exploring the old records and artifacts gave me a great sense of why the church (and community) had the character it did. The stories of the first meetings down at the local pub with barrels and planks as seats. I found posters for the church family picnic in the 1920s at Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg. The whole congregation would jump on the train and ride to the lake for the day. Sounds like it was a lot of fun. I found Temperance movement posters as well; though interestingly, by the time I was there I might be offered either coffee or a beer when I went on a pastoral visit. Not typical Baptists! The baptism and death records traced the waves of immigrants (Mennonite, German, Ukrainian, Russian etc.) and the hardships of families as small pox and influenza struck down scores of members. It testified to the hardiness and perseverance of this congregation. It also hinted at some of the longstanding struggles and weaknesses they faced as a congregation. It helped me understand today.

I've been on the lookout for church historical documents. Because of my previous pastoral experiences, I think the history of a congregation is an important source of information for present day decision makers. I enjoy hearing the church stories of days gone bye. Sometimes when change is needed it can be frustrating to hear "but we tried that 27 years ago, and it didn't work!" Yet that shared history also seems to give security and a sense of identity to the church. It can highlight problems and needs to be addressed.

So who is the keeper of your church's history? Who gathers together the stories and the legends? How will we decide where we are going if we don't remember where we have been? Hmm.