[Our church celebrated the completion of the three-year capital campaign with a church meal after worship on Sunday. The campaign helped us to add a handicap sidewalk cut-out, a new front entrance kitchenette, an expanded glass entrance, a completely renovated sanctuary, an elevator for all floors, an expanded 3rd floor mult-purpose space, and a new pastor’s office on the 2nd floor. Due to unanticipated construction costs and some church members who have died or moved away over the past few years, we announced on Sunday that we are short by $25,000. Based on the spirit of the people at the celebration meal, there is no doubt that we will reach that goal by the end of the year.]
Today is a day about saying thank you to everyone who has helped to make this day of celebration possible. It’s very fitting that today’s worship theme was about generosity because without your generosity, we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s also a day to thank God who has blessed us richly through our three year capital campaign journey. In the words of the song, “The Color Purple” which our choir sang for our capital improvements dedication Sunday in February of 2017, “Look what God has done.”
Our presentation is going to be brief but I do want to offer some words of historical context to help us celebrate our more recent building improvements. Plus, I love history, so there’s that.
This past Monday, was the birthday anniversary of Rev. James Quinn, the Methodist Circuit Riding preacher who started our church back in 1800, three years after the founding of Athens and four years before the founding date of Ohio University. Yes, our church and our surrounding community are that intertwined. And by the way, James Quinn, our founding pastor from 1800 and our own Rev. David Maze look a lot alike, like they could be twins or something.
From 1800 to 1814, those first handful of Methodists met weekly in someone’s log cabin. When they met, they would have simply shared how they experienced God since the last time they met and they also encouraged each other to live out their faith. And footnote. This is exactly what we are seeking to do through our small groups, where we share how God is present in our everyday lives. That’s at the very core of what it means to be a Methodist. We share how God is at work in our lives with each other.
This handful of Methodists grew to a point where they needed a larger space to meet and so they built their first church building in 1815. Over the course of our two hundred plus year history, our church has had four church buildings, the one we are in being built in 1958. As many of you know, the reason this needed to be built was because of a fire in 1955 that destroyed the building before this one.
The first worship service in the new building was held on February 9, 1958, sixty-one years ago at a cost of $850,000. Thanks to insurance money from the fire, the congregation needed to raise only $648,000 which ironically is about the same amount of money that our church needed to raise for our recent three year campaign.
It took two campaigns over a span of twenty-three years for the congregation to pay off the building we are in today. They paid it off in 1981.
Thirty-five years after that campaign was completed our church began a major capital improvement campaign which has included the front sidewalk curb space, our front entrance kitchenette, the expanded glass entrance, a totally remodeled sanctuary including air conditioning, the addition of an elevator to all floors of the church, an expanded 3rd floor multi-purpose room, and a new pastor’s office on the 2nd floor.
The name of our three year campaign has been, “Putting Athens First.” We decided to go with that theme because it’s a play on words of the name of our church, “Athens First” and it reminds us that God has placed us in this unique spot to “put Athens First” by reaching out to our surrounding community with God’s love.
The mission component of the campaign helped us to hire two staff people to begin our monthly Athens First Saturday Community Involvement as well as other college student and community ministries. Several people were part of Athens First Saturday yesterday with projects here at the church as well as out in the community. Athens First is continuing to put Athens First and that will continue.
Many of you received a letter in the mail this past week to thank us for our pledges and our gifts toward our capital campaign over these past three years. All of these gifts have been greatly appreciated. Thank you.
May the words from the song, “The Color Purple,” continue to remind us of how blessed we are as the people of Athens First. Let us pray.
Generous God, look what you have done by giving us this beautiful space in which to worship and serve you. As beloved former pastor, Rev. Dan Kiger said about our campaign when he preached here just a little over three years ago, help our church to always be a haven of blessing and peace for the people of our community. Thank you for the gifts and the generosity of your people and may we continue to be like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus who offered their very best gifts to Jesus. It is in his name that we offer our honor, glory, and praise. Amen.
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