If you have been following this blog, you will see that we haven't posted anything for Vol. 16. It is one of the few issues that is missing from my collection. I would love to have a copy!
The cover picture shows the prophet Ezekiel prophesying over the dry bones and bringing them to life. This illustrates the following cover article by Ken Pagaard. This should have been mentioned before, but better late than never; OLT at this stage still lists Ken's name as Pagard. A few years later he changed the name to Pagaard as this was his family name while they were still in Denmark.
Ken describes the renewal which occurred at First Baptist Church of Chula Vista. It was a strong, traditional church in the 50s and early 60s; it was actually started in 1929. Linda and I joined the church in April, 1967 when this renewal was still in process. I am not sorry I missed the fireworks of 1965. My understanding is that the church lost almost 50% of its membership. When we joined, the services were still fairly traditional -- most of the "Holy Spirit stuff" took place outside of the worship services. At that time of my life, I wasn't unhappy about that. I really had to pulled into the church -- I didn't believe in any of that "tongues stuff." What a difference a few years make. If anyone had told me that I would eventually be the pastor of FBCCV I would have laughed in their face. Thank God we can change.
Even though Ken's history is short, it is one of the few histories around that give some of the early days of the renewal.
This page continues the history, but give more information on our community households. It also tells of some of our National and International missions activities.
Larry Clark begins an article related to Inner Healing. He states that we really need to trust people to be telling us the truth when they say how they are feeling. It is a sign of mistrust to say, "Are you sure."
After Larry concludes his article, Ken presents us with another article; "The Establishment." He writes about the tendency for renewal to stagnate and become just another establishment. He expresses some disappointment with the leadership of the church in becoming "the establishment." He encourages us to continue being renewed. This article is completed on the next page.
Kerry Farrer reports on a meeting of Area Youth Directors. The report itself is interesting but it also brings up the issue of how much has changed in 30 years. Most of the churches in the area have very few if any youth. Most don't have youth directors. By the time I became Pastor, there was no Area Youth Coordinator. A few years later, Herb Dominguez who was mentioned in this article, became the Area Minister.
When we turn the page sideways to check out McFoone, we find that he receives a lesson in giving.
Kerry goes on to discuss the remainder of the Youth Directors Retreat. He mentions the importance of Youth Directors. I was really "saved" by the Youth Director in my home church, First Baptist Church of Bellflower, CA. I don't mean saved in the spiritual sense. I mean socially. I was very shy. I didn't want to go to church because I was sure no one liked me -- but Bill came after me, took me to the youth group and to camps; he even had me over to his house with a few others for over nights. Soon I had a group of friends and became a leader in the youth group. He really made a difference.
Linda Coale gives a nice analogy of Christian Commitment with that of commitment to a Psychiatric Hospital. I don't remember a lot about Linda. I know that she worked in our office for a while. I believe that she was in the Clark's (Mitscher) household. I don't even remember how long she was in the church.
Judy Alsop give a nice, short article about how we can be touched by living in a Community Household. She and her husband Ron are still actively serving God in Southern CA.
Just a note about Men's retreats -- these were very well attended and were high points. Personally, the only thing that I loved more than the men's retreats were the elders retreats (only men here also, but a smaller group.)
I left out another kind of retreat that was a real blessing. That is the "staff" of the church. We had a very large staff for a church our size (around 450-500) regular attenders. We were only able to have this size staff because our community living. The nine listed here are not the entire staff: there were those who worked in the office, printing, Abba Crafts, and the Pre-School. It was an amazing time.
This is another page of our artwork. The clusters of grapes and the vines were often used -- of course symbolizing passages in the Scriptures such as John 15 where Jesus states that He is the vine and we are the branches.
There are several interesting things listed in the calendar including our first court date for the community, but I also noted three weddings listed. I think that most of these are not only around but they are on Facebook.
The Elders Notes is interesting to me; I was the writer of them. I don't think we ever did very well on quitting at 9:30!
The last page is a continuation of our "announcements." I think that this just illustrates the fact that there was a lot going on at FBCCV in those days.
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