We were a little intimidated when we drove up to the First Baptist Church in Fairview, Ok this past Sunday and saw the massive amount of vehicles parked around it. In fact, my husband's exact words were, "What's going on? Is there a funeral or something?" I assured him that surely there wasn't on a Sunday morning, but I soon discovered that while no one was being laid to rest, the loving congregation at this church was most definitely celebrating an important life within their church and mourning the end of an era.
The Fairview FBC is a large and lovely building located on Broadway just west of the Major County Court House. The congregation first started worshiping together over 117 years ago in the very earliest days of the Fairview community. The church building has expanded over the years and now houses a large and lovely modern sanctuary and fellowship hall attached to the original design.
Worship started at 9:45 and we arrived pretty much on the dot to discover a bustling crowd of people, many of which we recognized from other congregations, and we soon realized that we had arrived on Pastor David Mendenhall's final day in the pulpit. This beloved church leader and influential member of the community had been pastor to this church family for the past 23 years and his retirement was an occasion of both sorrow and joy, loss and hope for the future, and we were blessed to get to experience this worship service with his flock.
The sanctuary was quickly filling up, but we found five seats together, only to discover we only needed two as our girls moved forward to sit with their friends. Since this was also this sweet families final Sunday before moving to another community, we felt it was appropriate that our girls get to sit together and worship together on this momentous day, and from a few rows behind them, I wiped away tears of sadness that these wonderful people would no longer be living in our town and blessing us on a regular basis.
The music that morning was incredible. Guitar and drums and piano and vocals invited us to praise God through music. There was a mix of contemporary and traditional hymns as they shared with us the favorite songs of their pastor that morning. We were blessed by special music by a quartet of men who had reunited after 10 years to commemorate this special occasion, and even the pastor's lovely wife shared her gift of music in a song that surely brought tears even to the most toughened hearts. (Personally, I don't know how she made it through, but I am touched by her willingness to please her husband and her Lord and blessed by the beauty of her voice and her bravery.)
We were also privileged to get to be a part of a baptism that morning. Once again tears ran down my face as a boy my daughter's age publically professed his love and belief in Jesus Christ and was immersed in the baptismal pool signifying the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and a new life with Him as Lord and Savior.
The final sermon of Pastor Mendenhall was full of memories from the past years together and urgings to move forward in God's will. He encouraged the Body to be in prayer for the new pastor that God has in store for them and to carry on with plans already in place for building at Falls Creek and other ministries. His words were smooth and caring and full of love, and you could just feel the connection in the room between these people who had spent so many years worshiping and working for the Kingdom together. The combination of tears and smiles on the faces surrounding us were beautiful to behold, and the feeling that God was in our midst impossible to ignore.
It wasn't a typical day at the Fairview First Baptist Church, but it was beautiful and blessed. Though the days ahead will never look quite the same for this church family, I'm sure that they will have a long and fruitful future as they continue to seek God's will and serve others through the body of Christ. We are so grateful that God guided us to this congregation on this special day, and we will continue to look to Him for guidance as we Steeple Chase in the days ahead.
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