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Welcome! |
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East Alton First United |
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Pastor Dan's Corner |
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This month marks the period of the sixties in our five-month-long celebration of our 25th/50th Building Anniversary. It was the time when you sold your old building, bought land in a new subdivision, and temporarily worshiped in the school gymnasium until this building was built. In short, the sixties were a time of great change for this congregation. I think this church’s experience in the sixties is a reminder that change, which we often avoid, especially as we get older, can be a good thing. We do that, I’m sure, because we don’t like the disruptions that change brings to our routines; the unknowns it introjects into our future plans; and the fear that change necessarily means decline. Yet fifty years ago, change meant growth, not decline. Five decades ago you were rightly anticipating a brighter, not a darker future. And a half century ago you took major disruptions in your established routines in stride. Today in our church is also a time of change, but like 50 years ago, I believe it can be and is a time of good change. Yes, we are changing some of our routines in worship and elsewhere, but we can adapt. Yes, there are question marks where the future once seemed more certain, but with faith we know God has our future in good hands just as much as in the past. And yes, growth in size is by no means guaranteed, but growth in outreach and vitality and grace can be whatever our numbers may be, and who says they can’t go up, too. So with faith in God’s good future and building on a good past, let us continue to see change as a friend and not a foe for the next fifty years, too, beginning with “teens.”
Pastor Dan
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