Thank You, Central
Okay, so today’s post is going to be very personal, but I hope you’ll indulge me for one week.
As this post is being released, the Central church of Christ (where I preach) is just a handful of days away from a milestone day. This coming Sunday, we will celebrate our 60th anniversary as a congregation. We decided to wait until this late in the year to coordinate the anniversary with the beginning of our Gospel Meeting. We are praying that helps us have a huge crowd and a joyous time of fellowship.
Of course, I have only been at Central from a small amount of those 60 years. Even though I’ve been associated with the congregation through dad and mom for well over 20 years, I’ve only preached there for a little over 6 years; roughly 10% of the congregation’s history.
But, as I said, we have been associated with this church family for north of 20 years–something like 24, or well over 1/3 of the congregation’s entire history.
And they have been so good to us. When Mary Carol was born 19 years ago, she was born in Paducah, so this congregation–where we weren’t even members–had a gift card shower for us. Each time we would visit for holidays, members were so kind and interested in what was going on in our lives. When the elders asked us to move here, “selling” the kids on moving was as easy as pie. (They literally only asked two questions: “can we take our dog?” and “when can we go?”)
But now, being right in the middle of it for 6+ years has only made this place more special to our entire family. Sure, there have been problems and no place is perfect, but there is just no ability to describe how special this family is. People visit from out of town and leave telling me, “This is the nicest, friendliest place I’ve ever been.” It happens all the time.
Even beyond that, though, it is a place that honors God. The friendliness and kindness is not because we are anything special. It is because we are blessed by an amazing God and we are just showing His kindness and love all the time.
I know there are other congregations that are much older than 60 years, but we are grateful to be celebrating this milestone. We even have a handful of members who have been with this family for the entirety of the 60 years, and we are so thankful for them. They’ve been with this church family through mountains and valleys. And it is supremely exciting that we have other members who have only been part of the family for a few weeks or months.
I don’t say it enough, but I’m thankful for this congregation, and I’m praying that each member is deeply encouraged by marking this milestone. To the whole family at Central, thank you.
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
