Since we moved to Powder Springs, I haven’t had many chances to go back to the church of my childhood. I didn’t grow up in a small town, but I did go to a small church which in many ways was like a church in a small town. The church we attended had only 100 members and truth be told, in some ways I liked that more than the church of a thousand that I’m at now (but, paradoxically, I am at where I think God wants me at, so there’s that.) Sometimes at larger churches, it seems people divide up by age or race. In a small church, you have no choice but to interact with everyone. We didn’t have a “teen Sunday School” or “20s and 30s Sunday School”, we just had Sunday School. In Youth Group, in our age group there were usually only 8 to 10 of us, and we knew everything about each other because we had grown up with each other and we had no choice but to get along with each other. When we went on a mission trip, most of us were teenagers, but we also had adults working with us. In fact, one of the hardest workers was a little old lady working with the children each day.

When I heard that our church was celebrating its 35th anniversary, I wanted to be sure to be there. I was eager to see friends I hadn’t seen in many years, and I knew many people would love to see our daughters for the first time. Adriene and I made the drive across Atlanta and enjoyed a short service, hymns, and dinner with old friends. I wish my parents had been able to make it also but they had other plans, I think they would have enjoyed seeing people, too. It was a bit of a shock seeing families that had young children when I left now having high school and college aged children. Or people that were my age or younger now grown up as adults, but it was nonetheless great to see them again. Some of the members have passed on since I had been there, but we were able to share good memories of them with everyone.

The church has always benefited from excellent teaching from the pulpit and two of the three pastors returned that night to speak shortly, also joined by the excellent Charles Dunahoo who served as an interim pastor. The original pastor of the church was unable to attend, but I was glad to hear Pastor Charles DeBardeleben and Pastor Robert Jackson speak again, if for a short time. In my spiritual journey, I’ve attended many different churches of many different dominations, but I think these two men shaped by beliefs and theology more than anyone.

I’m thankful for the people of the church and the way they shaped me as a child and a young adult. If we lived over on that side of Atlanta, I might still be going to church there, but that’s not where the Lord wants me at this stage of my life. I hope that someday I have the same fond memories of the people at my church now as I do of the people at my old church.