I have similar thoughts when I participate in leading worship and look out on our worshiping congregation. I think about how our stained glass windows have witnessed thousands of souls worshiping, radiating love and adoration to our Creator. To be a part of that chorus of praise is an overwhelming sensation, and I suspect I only grasp a meager understanding of how truly awesome that is.

 

When I look at this picture from the 1950s of our church raising funds to support mission at the Mission Conference, I again feel connection. I think about all of the global and local mission efforts North Avenue supports now, and I am grateful that we have continued this legacy of meeting people’s spiritual and physical needs. I am proud to be a part of an on-going effort to bring God’s Kingdom here on earth—a process that, when I look at this picture I can confirm, has been going on for at least 60 years. When I submit a mission pledge, or volunteer at an urban mission project, or even worship with a neighbor experiencing homelessness, I am connected to that ongoing work. That feels just stunning.

 

We live in world with reigning digital seclusion. We often opt for slightly removed communication, definite physical separateness in our interactions with our world (think Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, texting…). Our world shrinks, becomes self-focused, we can (somewhat) create our online image to be whoever we want to be, not necessarily who we really are. In this we can be anonymous, unknown, unconnected. This disconnectedness can be so isolating and lonely.

 

But through the rich tradition of the Church, we can join in something huge and living—something that has existed long before us, and will continue on long after us. I’m talking about something more than just the immediate connection to a community, which is fulfilling as well. And I suppose it is those immediate connections that build this larger link. But what I’m getting at is that when we’re involved in a local church—and specifically at North Avenue—we’re part of an amazing heritage that proclaims the goodness and faithfulness of a God that generations, scores of people, have said is worth knowing. How incredible is it to play a role in that witness for God? We get to be a part of God’s story as it plays out at North Avenue, in Atlanta, and even around the world. 

 

I hope the next time you enter through the big wooden doors off of Peachtree, or look at the stained glass window of Jesus in the Temple, or take a peak of the picture of the church at the turn of the twentieth century on the timeline on the fourth floor, that you’ll take a few moments to consider your connection to the many people who have come before you, walked these same paths, and proclaimed Jesus is Lord of all.