Finding Your Future in Your Past

In chapter seven of You Only Have to Die: Leading Your Congregation to New Life, Jim Harnish invites us to "find our future in our past." He cites the Biblical story of the wise and foolish builder in Matthew 7:24-29 and reminds us of the secular version of the parable of the three little pigs.

The foundation on which we choose to build, simply and obviously, makes a different in the future life of the congregation. Harnish highlights the importance of the lesson he learned in beginning a new church. "The early values, beliefs, convictions, and attitudes become so deeply ingrained in the heart of a congregation that they never really go away"(p. 78).

When Jim Harnish was appointed to Hyde Park United Methodist Church, it was a much different setting. The congregation had been on the same corner for ninety three years, and the church building had been around since 1907. Harnish immediately understood the "stability of the sanctuary" as "as an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual strength of the congregation." Any transformation for the church's future needed "to be rooted in our past"(p. 78).

Harnish's comments seem perfectly obvious, but, as he writes, "the terrain of church life in America today is littered with the remains of of well-intended, Spirit-energized visions that crashed and burned because they failed to seriously consider the history and traditions of the congregation"(p. 79).

So what does that mean for us at First United Methodist Church in downtown Hutchinson, KS? How do we take into account the "inward and spiritual strength" of this congregation? For me, it means remembering several of the stories about our founding and history through the years.

There is the story of Rev. Frederick J. Griffith, a Civil War veteran known for his "obstinate faithfulness." He preached the first sermon in Hutchinson on March 10, 1872, and he was responsible for organizing the congregation on July 11, 1872. He was a self-appointed emissary for Rice County, of all places, who valued a commitment to Christ and a call to preach higher than any personal comfort or convenience.

There is the story of the Rev. John Fox, who was the pastor appointed to the church in 18784. He came with the understanding that he was to guide the congregation in building the first structure. The groundbreaking took place on August 17, 1874, but that was during the great grasshopper plague, and Rev. Fox was soon instructed by his Presiding Elder to give up the work. "Undaunted and resolute," he returned to the task the next day, turning his back on both the grasshoppers and his Presiding Elder. Determined to see the work through, Rev. Fox later recounted that thousands of grasshoppers were mixed in with the concrete and became part of the foundation of the new church building.

There is the story of Ralph Murray, who attended worship in the second decade of the twentieth century with his mother and other members of his family. This was after the 1907 building was constructed and in use. Ralph remembers sitting toward the front, with his mother on one side, and his siblings in the row behind. His favorite song was "Brighten the Corner Where You Are." He always wondered who "bright" was and what corner he was in. He sent the church a gift in the amount of $50,000 "in honor and memory" of his mother.

"Finding Our Future in Our Past," however, is something that moves beyond our particular history as a congregation. It means, as Jim Harnish reminds us, "digging farther back into the deep wells of our spiritual and theological traditions"(p. 84). At Hyde Park Church, it meant identifying themselves with "the central core of the Wesleyan tradition while also communicating that we are clear that the family tree of the Christian church is a lot larger than our particular branch of it"(pp. 84-85).

Harnish points out one of the "divine ironies" of the Hyde Park story, i.e., "that the members who have been around the longest are the ones who are the most excited about the future"(p. 86). That happened, Harnish notes, because people were able to give positive answers to four critical questions:

1. Are people's hearts right?
2. Do they believe in the mission?
3. Do they feel secure?
4. Do they still have their place?

Right now, I am not sure how many of these questions we can answer with a positive response. That is part of our challenge and opportunity in "finding our future in our past."