An almost lost church history

During early 2019, my home church was getting ready to celebrate our 40th church anniversary. As one of the earliest church members, I was asked to put together a church history. At first I was really excited about the challenge ahead. I had this vision of assembling a comprehensive, chronological history that included pictures and all of the notable milestones along the way. 

However, I quickly realized that this would not go as smoothly as I had expected. When I began gathering materials for my project, I found that there were gaps in the history. Many notable highlights had not been recorded. Pictures were supposed to be an integral part of the story, but many photos had been lost, and the photos we did have were not labeled, making it hard to piece together the timeline. I had to take a deep breath and launch into doing some detective work to put together a full history of our church.

Along the way I learned some lessons. I hope these tips will help you to preserve your church’s history so that you can tell the story for your church’s special occasions. 

Tip #1 – Have a plan for preserving your history. 

Church leaders should have a consistent method for collecting important historical data.  This might include appointing a church historian to make sure that all important events are detailed in a notebook or digital format so the information is preserved. Don’t forget to include dates, special guests, photographs, etc.  If your church uses a weekly bulletin, you might consider detailing special events there so that you have a consistent document that collects this information. 

Tip #2 – Centralize where you will keep important historical information.

I found that even though our church had church clerks, secretaries and administrators, there was not a central location where detailed information was kept about important history and events. I found myself contacting former pastors and former church members to piece together parts of the history that were missing. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to locate some of these individuals, and when I did locate them not much fruit was found. 

Tip #3 – Do an Annual Review of Church Highlights. 

In an effort to preserve future history, I created a one-page sheet that will be completed annually in January to collect important information from the previous year.  This highlight sheet includes:  Baptisms, New Church Members, Members Lost During the Year, and Dates and Details of Special Events/Milestones. This Church Highlights sheet will be kept with the Annual Church Reports that we submit to our Convention each year. 

Tip #4 – Communicate to future pastors and staff/volunteers about the process.

Be sure to create a mechanism for letting people who may be responsible for collecting historical data know what the process for preserving that information is. Do your best to be sure it is clear and accessible. If you make it too complicated, others won’t keep it up.  Simple is always best!

Tip #5 – The Baptist Convention of New England was a great information source.

I realized that some of the information that had been lost could be accessed through the Baptist Convention of New England. Each year our church completed the Annual Church Report, and that data was available through a central database. I was able to find out exactly how many baptisms our church reported during its 40-year history. That information ended up being a great encouragement and highlight during our celebration event. 

If I can help you think through how your church is preserving history and important church data, please feel free to reach out to me at scoelho@bcne.net.

Sandy Coelho serves as lay leadership development coordinator at the Baptist Convention of New England.