In sorting through lots of photos and documents, I came across this handwritten report by Karen’s uncle. It may have been an assignment for a seminary class as Uncle Harry was the pastor who performed our wedding ceremony.The only date is indicated as around 1925. The subject concerns the German Baptist Church in a small southern San Joaquin valley town.
The picture that emerges is of a struggling church locked into it’s own familiar culture. The preaching and singing was done only in German. The church could not reach the larger community around it and in fact lost it’s own young people (who had difficulty maintaining proficiency in German) to other churches.
The report’s conclusion is relevant today even though written 80 years ago.
“The great need that is felt in this church is greater spiritual power in the lives of its members and much effort is directed toward its cultivation and reception in our lives. As soon as possible, teachers must be trained to really accomplish and not just fill time and space… There must be more class rooms so as to avoid distraction and finally the preaching and singing of the services must become English if the work is to go on into its greatest work for as it is we can’t even invite many who are Baptists and would be glad to come if they could only understand the German language.”
The church today needs fully committed followers of Christ, trained leaders and teachers, and the ability to communicate understandably to the current culture the truths of God.