Can you believe it has been 10 years since we celebrated our 50th Church Anniversary? Time flies as we all know. As time flies by, our future always stands in front of us! Today, I’d like to look at our history, our time together as a church, and the future.
Our history began in 1957. There have been 13 Pastors throughout the history of this church. We have listed them in your bulletin. Each one had different styles, goals and visions for this church. In the first few decades of this church there were several different blue prints drawn to illustrate those Pastors visions for the Church building.
The vision of Church Buildings can sometimes reflect the zeal and passion for its ministry. It was passion for Christ’s Kingdom work that brought the vision for the Sanctuary and Education Building we have today. Of course, there was the 1983 Coalinga earthquake that God allowed that helped to shape the new Education/Fellowship Hall Building. The California Southern Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief and Baptist Builders ministries helped us during that time period.

In just the last 16 years that I have been here, we have seen God do marvelous works. One year our little church baptized 33 people, 17 of them were on one day. We’ve seen God orchestrate two mission trips through our church. One to Guatemala, where 700 plus decisions were made for Christ and another delivering supplies to Native American Tribes.
Over the years, we have seen God take the church’s young adults and mature them into leadership positions. Someday soon some of the young adults currently here now will be our bridge connecting this church to its future.
We’ve seen the demographics of our community increase in its Spanish Speaking population – effecting our ministry. We have had bi-lingual Worship Services, Spanish Bible Studies and Spanish Outreach events. And now, God has blessed us with our first Associate Spanish Pastor.
We’ve had the pleasure of being involved in our international student ministry. One student from South Korea and one student from Japan both received Christ and were baptized here. We’ve at times have had a multi-cultural congregation with seven different ethnicities at one time.
God has blessed us to use ministry through the internet, reaching up to 120 countries. Germany and South African Christians have communicated with us about how this ministry has blessed them. We have had live internet Bible Studies from the West Coast to East Coast of America. We’ve even streamed our Worship Services live on the internet. We’ve embraced multi-media in our Worship Services.
Finally, our State Mental Hospital Ministry, one of the darkest places to minister, saw many baptisms. I’ve learned that the darker it is the brighter the Light of Christ shines!
Like every church there are “pillars” of faithful leadership keeping the structure of the church operating. As time progresses, we look forward to seeing those that God brings into our church family to be future “pillars”. God will use them to change the way we minister to the changing world around us.
The world around us is not the same since our church started 60 years ago. No Training Union before Sunday Night Services. No regular Tuesday night visitation, no regular community door knocking, no Wednesday Night Prayer meetings and the list can go on. The transition from traditional church ministries to more modern methods has been difficult, yet change of society changes the strategy of the church. We have learned from the past, but we cannot live there. We’re not to hold to past failures, nor past successes, we’re to embrace the future. Many small churches have died holding on to the past. The local church has become insignificant and in some ways non-influential to modern day living.
We face the future every following day we have. Exegetical verse by verse Bible teaching appeals to the few who are hungry for the deeper truths of God’s Word, but for many today, the clear connection of relevancy to current moral and social concerns will catch the hearts of those who are seeking truth. God’s Word will always be powerful in reaching people, because the Holy Spirit Himself convicts of sin, reaching into the heart of individuals. The church should always rely on the power of the Word of God and His Spirit.

The Apostle Paul always sought creative ways to communicate the truth of the Gospel of Christ to the cultural standards he faced. Look what he did in Acts. 17: 22 – 23.

As Paul connected with the culture around him, we, too, must evaluate how to connect to the culture of the millennials and various ethnic groups around us. We have our own “Unknown God”, because He has been diminished into a god amongst gods, no longer is He “The Almighty God!” Millennials want answers, direction, security and the ability to make a difference, for good, in the world. They’re not looking to the church to find their way. Our church must seek innovative ways to connect with this generation while guarding the truth of God’s Word in its entirety.
Luke 5:4 reminds us that it’s not about holding onto our comfort zones, it’s about crossing into new zones for Christ,

To embrace the future, we must respond obediently to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Our passion and zeal for God’s Kingdom work should lead us to find the way to build the bridge that leads to future Kingdom work for this millennial generation. Philippians 4:13 reminds us:

And Luke 1:37 assures us:

The Holy Spirit will guide and teach us how to reach into the new zones of this generation. The future of our church, for His glory is the vision of embracing the challenge set before us. Philippians 3: 12 – 14 says: