You can go home again

Thomas Wolfe once pinned the book with the title "You can't go home again." I think Mr. Wolfe is wrong. Next Sunday Thrift Baptist Church is celebrating it's 100th anniversary. Started in 1914 in a then rural suburb of Charlotte, NC, Thrift was named after the mill that gave the church the land and $500. That would have been $11,652.45 today. Thrift is a special place. A special place because it's my home church.


I honestly can tell you I am a huge historical buff. I remember many a homecoming that I would listen to Geneva Bennett read the church history and then she would get to the part and in 2014 we are going to open the time capsule! I would think in my mind I will be 36 years old then and that's a long time away. Granted I was probably only ten at the time.

Said Time Capsulewas probably only ten.

The official invite from the church states "Thrift Baptist Church was organized in 1914, but on August 2, 1970, the Church congregation met in the current sanctuary for the very first time. It’s our intention to follow a very similar order of service in our worship services. We are currently inviting former ministers to come and share in the celebration as well as our re-dedication of the church to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The former generation has also placed a “Time Capsule” in the building and suggested that we open its contents as this time. We will also take the opportunity to place a new “Time Capsule” for the generations that follow.

Why is this "homecoming" so special for me and my faith? Because in 1914 my great-grandmother Edna Craig was one of the first to be there. She told me before her death at 99, that sometimes it would just be her and the pastor, no one else. My grandparents and several family members served there, my great grandmother played piano which holding my grandfather on her lap. My mother and father went to church there, I was dedicated to the Lord's service there. While growing up I watched as the church exploded in the 1990's. Sometimes there were more members there then seats. We had a huge number of members I remember well over 400. And back then before the mega churches of today, Thrift was a mega church.

I saw a lot of things at my "home" church, I watched as church politics sometimes got nasty and members left over it. I myself had to have a discussion with one of my family members who was upset when in earlier part of the decade we were removing pews to be replaced when the church was being renovated. (I remember saying "But it's not about the pews.") I saw as the church tried to cope with the changes in area.

I also saw the faithfulness of our God. I saw how as times changed, so did people's hearts. I once saw my grandfather stand tall and tell a deacon at the time that if he didn't feel like African Americans should be there, that they were still friends but they were just going to disagree. Unfortunately, they never talked again.I remember looking up to my granddad at the time when he said and I quote "God loves all people no matter what color they are." Now Thrift has Charles Williams as their minister of music, and he is the most Godly man I have ever met. And he is African American. I remember asking Charles to pray for me, without hesitation he grabbed my hand and just started praying. I have never had someone do that before or since.

I was blessed by Godly men and women and their leadership. I was a state champion in Bible Drill, the place that actually taught me the books of the Bible in order and required us to learn verses. I remember the excitement of seeing my Mother out in the audience at Eastern Hills Baptist Church when I was announced as a state champion. I don't know where that certificate is now, but I can still remember my Mother's smile.

Later on, after I tried to find my way, call me a religious mutt, because I have tried them all Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal all in my late teens and earlier twenties but something was missing so I decided to go back and try the church that raised me. When I returned to Thrift it wasn't as I had left it. It was trying to keep up with the community by serving some long time members and some new ones. I was blessed to be the teacher of the McDuffie Sunday School class and taught three members of the class that actually taught me Sunday School. I taught for seven years and learned more about the Lord then ever before. You try to walk into a room with eighty year old men and not be prepared!

I remember the car races in Royal Ambassadors, the camp visits to Hickory Cove, and the incredible experiences I had in the children's ministry.

Sadly, my grandparents and mother have went on to be with the Lord. But they loved Thrift. My grandmother (I called her "Meme") would ask me everyday when can we go to church? She wanted to be there every Sunday night and Wednesday night. Sunday mornings were more difficult for her, she couldn't make it because of how bad the Alzheimers had set in.

I was saved on May 10, 1988. I was baptized on my birthday May 24, 1988 all at my home church. I dreamed of one day marrying my wife there still hasn't happened but I am hopeful! (Though it will properly be more her choice then mine, let's be honest) Both of my grandparents funerals were there. My Mother's funeral wasn't but the pastor at the time and director of education were involved in her funeral. My Mother's funeral was almost two hours long, full choir, and the pastor Albert Helms that baptized her from Thrift was involved. (And he even had the date down as to when it happened!).

I would not be the man I am today without the people of Thrift Baptist. Many of them have long went on to be with the Lord. But when you die you leave a testimony in the people that you touched.

I visited the church of one of the former pastors of Thrift today, from his pulpit he mentioned me being there and how as the pastor of Thrift for ten years he remembered how I was always there in the services every single time the doors opened. And how it blessed him as a pastor now in the later years of his life that I stopped by to visit.

Thrift has stood the test of time. My great grandmother would be shocked to see it now. But it was never about the church--it was about the people and the relationships we all shared. To God be the Glory Thrift you will always make an impact and I will be there next Sunday to celebrate with you!