NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Southside Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, Texas, received a piece of history after a March 26 phone call to the Southern Baptist Historical Commission: It received the last church anniversary certificate to be given by the SBC agency.
Each year as a service to churches, the Historical Commission has provided a free anniversary certificate to churches celebrating 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and other such anniversaries and has published resource materials on how to celebrate a church anniversary. The commission has mailed hundreds of these certificates to churches across the Southern Baptist Convention in the past decade alone.
Southside Baptist Church, which got the last one, will celebrate its 75th anniversary in October.
The Historical Commission will be unable to provide anniversary certificates to churches in the future because the agency is being closed June 19 of this year by SBC messenger approval of the convention’s “Covenant for a New Century” restructuring.
However, church anniversary certificates will now be provided by the Southern Baptist Historical Society. Churches wishing to receive an anniversary certificate should call the SBHS toll-free at 1-800-966-2278 with the date and/or year their church was organized or constituted. As a service to the church, the SBHS will then send them a complimentary anniversary certificate.
“Every church has a history and a time to celebrate it,” said Slayden Yarbrough, SBHS executive director. Yarbrough noted an anniversary certificate appropriately displayed in a commons area reminds church members of their rich heritage. “The Southern Baptist Historical Society looks forward to helping Baptist churches recognize the milestone of their church anniversary. Together, church histories form the history of the denomination.”
