Churchianity vs Christianity

Well good morning and welcome to the Twin Lakes Church 125th anniversary celebration. My name is René, I am privileged to be one of the pastors here on staff at Twin Lakes Church and whether this is your first time here today or your thousandth time here today, I believe you're going to have a blast today.

What we're doing is a little bit different from what we normally do, we've been going through the book of Galatians for example, verse by verse, that's often the kind of thing that we do during the sermon time. But today we're going to do something a little bit different than that because we're going to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming you could say to look back on what God has done here over the last 125 years.

And let's start with this, I just want to put this all in perspective for you, all right? So look up here because I want to invite you to take a trip back into time with me to 1890, the year that Twin Lakes Church, this church was started because it was a different world back then. In 1890, there's no air conditioning and there's still no air conditioning in this church to this day. So that one thing is kind of a tie to our past, it's just for sentimental reasons.

But there's no air conditioning, there's no washing machines, there's no sewing machines. Somebody told me between services that sliced bread was introduced to grocery stores after 1890. So Twin Lakes Church is older than sliced bread actually, that's true. There were no typewriters of course. In 1890, a woman named Nellie Bly has just become an international celebrity for trying to live out the hit Jules Verne novel 80 days around the world. And she was a celebrity because somehow she traveled all the way around the world in 76 days and six hours. And that was a new world's record by far that Nellie Bly accomplished.

And twice this year, I have traveled halfway around the world and back in 16 hours each way. The world has really changed. In 1890, Chief Sitting Bull has just passed away. The cardboard box was invented in 1890. The most popular musical megastar is John Philip Sousa. If you were over 30 in 1890, how many of you are 30 or over? Let me see your hands, raise them high. No, raise them high, Sue and proud. All right. If you were over 30 in 1890, you personally remember the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1890, if you were 70 or over, you could remember voting for John Quincy Adams for president. Anyone 70 or older has personal memories of the death of Thomas Jefferson. In 1890, Monet, while alive, has yet to paint his most famous paintings. In fact, in 1890, the Wright brothers haven't flown yet. The Titanic hasn't sailed yet. No one has ever heard of radio or TV or movies. If you travel, you travel on horse-drawn buggies or steam engines or on foot.

In 1890, you use outhouses for restrooms here in Santa Cruz because there's no indoor plumbing here in 1890. I found a Victorian era expert online who said, "It is an era that people of today would find as strange as a Roman encampment." And I found this picture of Maine Beach in Santa Cruz in 1890. Now, what is missing from this picture? What was that? The boardwalk's not there in any shape or form. Look at that. There's no casino building. There's no arcade. There's no restaurants. There's no hotels. There's nothing in 1890 on Maine Beach.

This picture of the Santa Cruz coast a little further south, a few years later, shows two lakes. Do you see those two lakes? Those are the twin lakes. You say, "Where are these lakes today?" You might know if you're a long-term resident, the northern one was later dredged so it would become the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor that you know today. And it was right between these twin lakes in 1890 that a small Victorian building is built, soon to be called the Little Brown Church by the Sea.

This is the very first image we have of Twin Lakes Church. This is the auditorium of Twin Lakes. It's an engraving that was in the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1891. What happened was a group of Baptists, not members of a denomination but generally agreeing with the Baptist statement of faith, they bought the land between the lakes. This is the original deed guide here and they bought it to set up as a conference center, kind of like Mount Herman is today, and to fund the construction of their auditorium.

They sold all the lots on 7th, 8th, and 9th Avenue for $15 a piece. I kid you not. How many of you want to go back into time just so you can buy two or three of those lots? Can you believe that? Some of you are going to spend more money on lunch than they spent on buying a lot down there by the Yacht Harbor. And in the past 125 years, man, there's been some great stories. This is the first image we have of this congregation. This is from 1893. That's the first congregation of Twin Lakes Church.

Let's hear some of their stories. Grab the message notes that look like this out of your bulletins as we celebrate the 125th birthday of Twin Lakes today celebrating God's overflowing grace. And you know what? I believe this is more than a birthday celebration. I think this is very practical application. I believe you are going to leave today more upbeat, more inspired, more confident, more ready to launch into your future.

Why? Because the key to having confidence in your future is looking into the past and seeing how God has worked there, right? Because here's the deal. No one can see the future, right? You might long to, but nobody can see into the future. And it can drive us crazy sometimes. What's going to happen? It can seem so daunting. I don't know how God's going to solve this problem. Well, when you can't see into the future, what you do instead is you look into the past.

Now, a lot of us, when we look into the past, we tend to only look at our regrets. We've got this sort of endless blooper reel going of all the stupid things that we've done. But what the Bible says is instead have a highlight reel of the things that God has done in your past. Because when you look back to those monuments of faith and you go, you know what? God worked when everything seemed lost in my past and in the past of our community as a church, then he is going to work in the future too. And that is going to give you some courage to go on.

Now, most of this morning, I want to stay in 2 Corinthians chapter nine, go through a few verses there. But first, I want to go to a verse in 1 Samuel chapter seven, where God does a miracle for the Israelites. And then Samuel does something unusual. You've heard Trent refer to it at the very beginning of the worship service. It says, "Then Samuel, who was the prophet who was leading Israel at the time, took a stone, a big stone, and he set it up between these two villages, Mitzpah and She'en. And he named it Ebenezer. Ebenezer."

That's such a weird sounding word to our ears, isn't it? In the English language, it reminds you of what? Scrooge, of course. But it actually has such a beautiful meaning. What is it? The text tells us what it means. It means thus far, the Lord has helped us. Isn't that beautiful? Ebenezer. Ebenezer. If we have a fourth child, we're going to name him Ebenezer Schlepfer. That's how much I love that thing. My wife just woke up, "Fourth child?" No, I... But it does have a beautiful name.

What the story teaches is that once in a while, you've just got to stop and make something a little monument. It doesn't have to be a rock, right? It could be a photograph you have, or it could be a letter, or it could be something else that you keep. You don't have to save everything, but keep a few things into your monuments of faith archive. So you can look back and you go, "Man, God did amazing things in my past. That's how I know he's real, and that's how I know he's going to come through again." And here at Twin Lakes Church, we have seen this to be true again and again and again.

In fact, there's three ways we've seen this to be true. Jot these down in your outlines. Number one, where God guides, God provides. We've learned that lesson. Say this with me out loud. Can you say it with me? Where God guides, God provides. Please don't ever forget this. My mom, while she could still speak before Alzheimer's kicked in, I asked her one time. I was doing a funeral for a woman who'd lost her husband, and she had two small children. I said, "Mom, what would you say to somebody like that?" Because that was your situation in life with me and my little sister.

And she paused for a long time, and I thought, maybe I'm not getting through to her. And then she looked at me and she said, "You tell her the Lord will provide." In her Swiss accent in English, "The Lord will provide." And that's true for you, and it's been true in this church. Look at this verse, verse 8 of 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul says, and let's read this out together, all right? And God will generously provide all you need. I love this translation of the verse, "And God is able to make all grace overflow to you." Don't you love that? Paul uses that word for overflow three times in this passage, and it's a beautiful picture he's painting.

But let's start with this. How does God's grace overflow to us? Well, first, salvation, right? And then the common graces, the everyday graces, like bread to eat and air to breathe, and then the special graces where he comes in and he does supernatural things in our history, and we have seen him do this again and again. This church was started before there were any houses in that part of Santa Cruz. This is the earliest actual photograph we have of that church. There's one house across the street. All the rest is dirt. There's no other houses in that neighborhood.

And I just got to tell you something, it's kind of tough on a church when you're in a neighborhood with no neighbors. That's tough. And the next two years were very difficult for Twin Lakes Church. In fact, did you know that from 1914 to 1923, this church was shut down? I mean, as in Twin Lakes was closed from 1914 to 1923. This building was boarded up. All the windows in it were broken. This is one of the pictures from back in that era. It was the haunted house, the haunted church of the neighborhood.

And after nine years of being shut, a Sunday school class from First Baptist Street over on Roxas Street in Santa Cruz decided, let's open that place up just for Sunday school for little kids. And for several years, that's all. They didn't have church there. They just taught little kids Sunday school in this abandoned building because nobody else was using it. They literally pried open the doors. And then in 1930, look at this, these are the minutes of a meeting when 11 people met and formally decided to relaunch this church. And I have the minutes from that meeting in this book right here.

This is actually the original book that has those minutes handwritten in it. And Valerie is our church historian. She's told me, I'm going to let you touch this, but be very careful with it. So no, no, I'm just kidding. But I, you know what this is? This is an Ebenezer for me. This is an Ebenezer for our church because 11 people decided, you know what? It's worthwhile. Let's get this thing going again and decided to relaunch Twin Lakes and look at how God provided for them.

The minutes move from being handwritten to typewritten. This was from a board meeting in 1936. I love this. It was moved by Mr. Bowen, seconded by Raymond Smith, that we give a vote of thanks and appreciation to the women for their improvements in making an indoor restroom. 1936. For 46 years, this church only had an outhouse and apparently the guys were fine with it. The women said, that's it. We're raising money for an indoor restroom.

But check this out. The treasure says on the bottom, balance on hand, 19 cents, all bills paid. That was their lifeline. That was their margin. 19 cents. You know what this is I have in my pocket? You can probably barely see it. It's so insubstantial. That's 19 cents. And you know, you put this to me together with this. That's an Ebenezer right there. Talk about your mustard seed of faith. Everything we see here, this tree that's grown grew from this seed when 11 people signed their names in this book. 11 with 19 cents left over after paying all the bills.

Man, don't ever look at the way something starts and think this is insubstantial. This doesn't have any hope. All the odds are packed against us. Because there was ever a reason why in 1930, these people would have said that's not a good idea to start a church. What was happening around here in the 1930s in America, the Great Depression? Nobody had any resources, but they believed where God guides, God provides. And it's true for you today. Don't give up.

Now, things were still real rough at first after this. The church went through several pastors. In fact, we were going through the archives this week and we found this picture. This is true. This is the picture of one of the pastors at the time. This is apparently the Reverend Dan Aykroyd, ladies and gentlemen. No, just kidding. This is Floyd Guernsey, a man who pastored this church for a couple of years. But listen, from 1890 to 1943, the average tenure for a pastor at this church was less than two years. This place was real rough on pastors.

But the next pastor changed the average. It was this man, Roy Kraft. And Roy was here for almost 50 years. How many of you heard Roy speak or were under his ministry in some way? Look at that. What a great man of God. You know what Roy told me personally? He said that when this church called him to be the pastor, every pastor that he talked to said, "Don't take that job." They said, "That's a church that for 50 years has been dying, that for 50 years have been killing pastors. Pastors don't last at that church. Do not take it. Why would you want to throw your life away in ministry in Santa Cruz?"

Literally, he told me that personally, that that's what people told him. Aren't you glad he didn't listen? Man, I'm stoked. And he discovered once he came here that where God guides, God provides. And here's one of the ways he learned that. The little brown church was condemned. And this little congregation was growing, had no money, and so now what? Well, they realized they had to raise money for their first new building. And they didn't think of themselves as builders. What were they going to do?

Pastor Kraft told me the first building was estimated to cost $30,000. And he told me, "René, it might as well have been 30 million." Because he said, "We didn't have anything. We were a poor congregation." And they didn't know what to do. And he said one Sunday morning before church, he was literally vacuuming the church, praying about this. "Lord, what are we going to do?" And a man walks into the church that he doesn't know and says, "I live here in the neighborhood. I haven't been able to sleep. Can I give you a check for $1,000?"

And that was the first check of over $1,000 that the church ever received. And that established momentum. They built several buildings that are still there today. You can still see the steeple on 7th Avenue to this day. But even those buildings got too small for the church. And they decided they needed to move out to the wide open spaces of Aptos. Who would go to Aptos? There's nothing in Aptos. But again, they had insufficient funds. But again, God provided and it keeps happening.

And if you have been here over the last year, you've seen it happen. But before I get into that story, let me just address this. Because some of you are thinking in the back of your minds right now, yeah, okay, where God guides, God provides. René, I've been in need a long time. God is not providing. If this is true, why is it that seemingly some needs go completely un-resourced? Good question. Like why did God let this church die from 1914 to 1923 to be completely empty?

Well, one part of the answer is that I think God's definition of growth is sometimes very different from ours. God's definition of church growth, God's definition of character growth, God's definition of success is different from our definition. And sometimes, just maybe, God lets us, like God let us shut down as a church to show what he can do with a hopeless cause. A few chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9, Paul admits, you ever been here? Truly, in our own hearts, we believed we would die. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises people from the dead. And he raised this church from the dead many times.

In some ways, he did it this past year. You remember, if you've been going here anytime, in 2013, you so generously committed pledges of over $10 million to the 2020 Vision Project. And the first phase included a children's home in India. And by the way, that's been dedicated. The bulldozers are at work. The ground has been broken on that thanks to you. It included a million meals given to Second Harvest, and that was already done.

But what about our children's ministry building here? You might remember, this is one of our Ebenezers in a surprise decision this past April 1st, and it was no April Fool's joke, the Water District Board decided not to consider any new permit applications, including ours. That was it. It was over. Done. It looked like we were dead in the water. No pun intended. But you might remember they decided to call a special meeting at the Seascape Resort about a month later.

Here's a panorama of the hundreds of people who were crammed in there and the hundreds more who couldn't fit in, who had to stay down in the lobby. Show of hands, how many of you were there at that meeting? Many of you. It was so tense. It was like the most suspenseful movie I have ever seen, because that night there were just four board members. One of them was stuck on the East Coast, so just four. Who could vote on this? And after the first vote, whether or not to give us our permit, they were deadlocked at two to two. So nothing changed. Still no permits.

And they decided, I still don't know why they did this to this day, but they decided to take another vote instead of just letting the previous decision ride. And they decided, okay, we're going to take another vote, and here's what happened. There was one vote for, one vote against. One vote for, and they came down to a board member who had voted against the first time around. Was it going to be deadlocked then? Then they would surely just say, you know what, we're going to let our decision stand from the previous meeting. No permits.

And so we were sitting there going, what's he going to say? And he was a verbal out loud processor. Do you remember this? And he said, well, you know, I could vote this way. And you could hear everybody go, oh, he goes, but I could go to events, vote against it. Everyone went, oh, and he did that for probably 15 minutes. Or I could go this, oh, I could vote the, oh, and I was just like, I'm getting a migraine. And then finally he said, but this is going to be my vote. He pauses. Everybody goes, he says, I vote yes.

And here's the way people responded caught on a cell phone. People were just so stoked, right? It was so exciting to see the crowds move just surging this way. And there were ups and downs for the next six months, but eventually we got the permit. This newspaper is an Ebenezer for me. But I will tell you some very cool things. First of all, you know, I think God delayed to raise our own consciousness about the water situation in those intervening months. We have drastically cut water usage here at the church in some months this past year, we were using 60% less water than the year before. And so that is a very, very, very good thing.

But here's the best thing of all. You remember we said, okay, everybody be present, be prayerful and be positive, right? So we were present in large numbers and we were prayerful, but did we keep it positive? Were we able to keep it positive? I had my doubts. I thought to myself, people are not going to be able to get into this meeting. All those people in the lobby, they're going to storm the board, give us our water. I was worried. I'm a little bit worried. And after that meeting, I got this letter from somebody who worked for the water board that night does not attend Twin Lakes Church. And this person says, about our behavior that night.

Wouldn't you love to know what this person says? Here it is. I want to commend your exceptional behavior and understanding. For example, while the many in the lobby were disappointed and frustrated that they could not hear the discussion, everyone was so polite and cooperative. They conducted themselves as true Christians. You should be very proud. And that means more to me than the vote we got in favor of the project. Praise God. Because you know what? Would you agree with, I know you agree with me on this. It is more important to be a person God is building into than to be a person building a building. Does that make sense?

And this is what God wants us to be. That's what you have been. And for me, that letter is another Ebenezer trusting that where God guides, God provides. So listen, if you are right now feeling like you're in God's waiting room, if you're waiting for the results, waiting for a healing, waiting for an answer, waiting for God to come through in some way, remember, God has worked in the past. Remember, his timing is perfect. Remember, he's doing something now and expect great things.

I love the way Pastor Kraft used to put it. And I'm not going to quote him. I'm actually going to have Pastor Kraft come back in time through technology and let him say one of his favorite sayings. Listen to this. And I think one of the greatest tragedies in life is to go through life and expect a little from a great God. That was one of his themes he talked about all the time. Don't expect a little from a great God.

So when I doubt that God is sovereign and gracious, I look back at this Ebenezer and I remember how God worked. Now we have two more points. I'm going to go through them very quickly, but they're so important. In 125 years, we've learned this lesson where grace is known, love is shown. When grace is known, love is shown. Look at this. Don't miss this. Paul talks about how grace motivates. 2 Corinthians, the rest of verse 8. And God is able to make all grace overflow to you through salvation, through his provision, so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.

He's talking about how really an understanding of grace motivates. And this is important because we're trying to do something here at Twin Lakes Church. Maybe that's rare. I wish it was less rare. We're actually trying to build a church based on the gospel of grace, not guilt. Because you know how much guilt motivation motivates? You know how long guilt motivation lasts? As long as the guilt. And that's why pastors in guilt-motivated churches have to keep cranking up the guilt all the time.

But when you're motivated by the fact that God's grace overflows to you, giving is just going to overflow out of that. What kind of giving? Next verse. As the scriptures say, they share freely, give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. Good deeds come not because I'm trying to earn brownie points from a stingy God, but because an infinitely generous God has lavished his grace overflowing onto me. So man, it just kind of echoes off of me and reverberates and overflows onto other people too.

This is just one example. Did you know that over the last few years, TLC has given over seven million pounds of food to Second Harvest Food Bank, equating over six million meals. You could call it the feeding of the six million. This is more over that span of time than any other church in America has given to any other food bank. But, praise God, but here's my favorite thing about this statistic. This was grace motivated. We like barely had to mention this. And you came so generously and said, "Well, we just want to give to this. This is such a generous church." Why? Not because of arm twisting, but I think it's because you are overwhelmed by the overflowing grace of God to you.

So we were thinking about this. We were going, "As a grace overflowing church, what do we want to be doing for our birthday?" We don't want to pat ourselves on the back and say, "Look how awesome we are." Or we want to say, "Look how awesome God is and we want to give." And so here's what we're going to do. It's going to be very exciting to send out letters to these organizations this next week. Flip your notes over to the second page where it says, "21 birthday presents. For our birthday, we're giving others the gifts." Great local groups like the Freedom Women's Center and Siena House. Great international groups like the church in Monza, Zambia.

We're going to give them enough to get a generator for them. And we're just going to be able to write letters and make phone calls and say, "Guess what? These groups are going to receive differing amounts but at least a thousand dollars." Why? Because God has blessed us. And so we want that grace that He's given to us to overflow onto other people so that we're known as being a place of overflowing, no strings attached, no requests even made, grace to other people. So important to remember.

Because you know, sometimes people talk about, "What's your vision, pastor? What's your vision? What's your church's vision?" You know in the Bible, every time it talks about God's people having a vision, you know what it's about? It's about a vision of God. It's not about what's your vision about buildings or programs or staff hires. Your vision is a vision of God. If we have a vision of God as a sovereign and gracious God whose grace is lavished in an overflowing way on us, that is going to establish everything else that we need as a church and as individuals.

And in fact, before our final point and our wrap-up, I just want you to hear from somebody here at TLC who was changed by God's overflowing grace. Listen carefully to Lauren's story. TLC has been a life-changing part of my life. I grew up in a really legalistic church and being a kind of a sensitive young gal, I learned that I probably, no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn't get to heaven.

And so as a young adult, I found myself leaving the church hoping that at least I could have a few good years on earth before I went to hell. Found myself in alcoholism and spiraling deeper into a dark pit that I certainly couldn't find any hope and happiness at the bottom of a bottle. And it wasn't until I came to Twin Lakes and started to hear about grace and that it was the possibility that God loves me and that there's nothing I have to do to earn salvation was just mind-blowing. It was like the most incredible joy-filled thought that I could have.

But then at times it's the doubt and the feeling that, no, I still need to do something kind of comes back. But it's a daily walk and I come to church and I have that joy and knowing that Jesus loves me, I'm saved and there's nothing I need to do to ensure that. I've, coming up on 12 years sobriety, I'm just, I'm looking forward to graduating with my master's degree and I'm planning to go into Christian counseling with a specialty in addiction. And I also became a Stephen minister here at the church. So I'm continuing to grow and expand my walk with the Lord and help touch others and that who are also struggling.

Isn't that awesome? You see how it happens? She got grace and now she's overflowing with grace. And if you come to the annual meeting, you're going to see a seven minute collage of some other great testimonies. But finally, number three, as we look back, we learned what God supplies, he multiplies. What God supplies by his grace, he then multiplies by his grace. Paul says next verse, "For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and bread to eat. And in the same way, he will provide and multiply your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you overflowing," there's that word again, "in many expressions of thanks to God."

You see the picture he's painting, God gives his grace, it overflows to you, then it overflows from you. And when people receive it, they overflow in thanksgiving to God. And it's this sort of beautiful water cycle of grace just overflowing all over the place. And that's happening here. God is multiplying. Just a couple of quick examples. We started a website a few years ago, had no intention of doing anything then ministering to local TLC members. God has multiplied. Last year, people from 147 countries visited TLC.org. That's three quarters of all the countries in the world. There's only 196 countries in the world.

Every weekend we have on average over 2300 who watch the sermon videos. That's our internet campus. And that number represents real people like Josie. That's her speaking by the board at the leaders retreat of a church in Brazil that uses our sermons from our website. Somebody invited her to church. She said the message of grace liberated her. And now she is a leader at that church. That's, we didn't have anything to do with it other than start the website. But God multiplies by his grace.

One more example. That is my favorite. This year we celebrate 50 years of Camp Hammer, our camp in the redwoods. You're going to hear more about this later this year. But in that span, over 40,000 campers have heard the gospel. Many of them have returned as our 2000 plus summer staff at this point. And many of them have become one of the over 200 people that are now in full time ministry who've come out of Twin Lakes Church. Pastors, missionaries, youth workers. Because what God supplies by grace, he multiplies by grace.

So let me put all this into perspective. Do you know what this unusual thing is here? This is the top of the original steeple of the little brown church by the sea that was built in 1890. And you see it coming down in this next picture when the church was demolished. There it is plummeting to the ground. This is an Ebenezer for me. It's an Ebenezer. You know why? First of all, to the faith of our forebearers who had the vision to build a church in a neighborhood with no neighbors. But secondly, it reminds me that buildings may come and go. What matters is that they're tools.

What matters is the people whose lives God is building inside of those buildings. Now, some of you may be thinking of this. You're looking at right there and you're going, "Man, you know what? There were so many great stories here, stories about that church, stories all the way up to now. I wish I'd been a part of it." You're thinking, "I wish I could have been a part of some of the amazing, exciting tests of faith that Twin Lakes Church was in on. I regret that I missed those." Yeah, well, you know what? Stay tuned because I guarantee there will be many more down the road. And you can be a part of those too. How exciting.

You know, God is not done with this church yet, not by a long shot. He's got a lot of exciting things in store for us. And by His grace, we can all be a part of that. How? Let me give you three quick points of application. Mark mentioned it. Three weeks is Easter. You see this Easter card. There's a ton more in the lobby outside. Please grab a stack. Invite your friends and neighbors. Every one of those changed lives started with an invitation.

All right. Second, you may be sitting here going, "You know, I kind of like to become a member of Twin Lakes Church. Get involved." But does it really have a place for somebody like me? I'm not really that holy. I'm not really well versed in church and in the Bible. Look at this. This is from one of the very first bulletins from Pastor Kraft's era in the 1940s. And this saying stayed on the bulletin for decades. "To all who mourn and need comfort, to all who are weary and need rest, to all who are friendless and need friendship, to all who are lonely and want companionship, to all who sin and need a Savior, and to whosoever will, this church opens wide its doors. And in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ says, 'Welcome.'" And those words are still true to this day. Welcome.

No matter who you are. I hope you will check out our new members class. It's our 101 class. It's next weekend. Mark and I teach it with Valerie. Free lunch. I hope you can check it out. Details are in the bulletin. And then finally, these points all apply to you personally, not just to this church. You may be going through a tough time right now, but I know this is true. I've seen it in my own life. So do not quit. Do not give up when times are low. And all you've got is 19 cents. Because God has not given up on you.

With all of this in mind, all we've been talking about so far, I want you to give praise to God as you watch this video. We have tried to compress 125 years of church history into five minutes. But enjoy this. And the first music you hear will be Nelda Barton, our church organist for many years playing piano. Watch this video.