Author: tbc

Construction and renovation in our Basement/Fellowship Hall area remains on target for completion in late May or early June.  Dry wall is up, plumbing lines and mounts have been installed, and duct work is near completion.  There are a couple of significant construction activities for you to be aware of this week:

• Kjellstrom & Lee, General Contractor, expects to have a crane on site on Wednesday, May 20^th to place the new HVAC compressor on the roof.  The steel support has already been installed to make this move in compressor location possible.
• By Friday, May 22^nd, we expect that all of the ceiling tiles will be reinstalled in the Fellowship Hall area.   We will literally see how much progress is being made when that part of the job is finished!

Be certain to use our God-Sized Vision mailbox located on the table in our Meadow Street entrance foyer to ask any questions that you might have.  Our committee members will respond to you quickly.  Also continue your prayers for our Construction & Renovation Oversight Committee leaders, as well as for work safety during construction.   Your prayers are an important component of the overall success of our endeavors!

While the demolition in the basement area was in progress, the team made a fascinating historical find!  A blackboard from many, many years ago reveals the names of Sunday School classes, counts of attendance, new members and other key information.  Previously hidden in a closet behind shelving, the chalk can still be read!  Because of the size, angle and location of the blackboard, it is difficult to get one good picture of it.   Take a look at the pictures included here.  Sunday School ‘Colonels’ included Delaney, Jennings, Chapin, Eubank, Thomas, Brown, Taurman, Orchestra, Officers.  Do you recognize any of those names?  Let us know if you do!  And wonder who the 12 officers were at that time?

The columns include number on roll and number in attendance, along with the collection amount for that Sunday.   Previously at Tabernacle, the Sunday collection was taken up during Sunday school as well as during the worship service.  Each class posted on the blackboard how much was collected on a Sunday and the previous Sunday, allowing for a week over week comparison.  The numbers still showing on the blackboard are from August 23^rd and August 30^th of that year.

Once construction in the Basement/Fellowship Hall area is completed, you will have the chance to take a look at what changes were made.  See the display in the basement area and on the TV monitor to refer to the list of changes and the drawing that shows where the changes are taking place.  The blackboard remains in its location in a closet, and is more visible now since we took the shelving down.  It won’t be long before you will have a chance to see if for yourself!

“We all come — in time — to view the good that inevitably results from adversity; and the history of the mission school that eventually became the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Richmond exemplifies that statement”. These are the first words in Margaret Emery’s The First Hundred Years: A History of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. His name was John A. Traylor, a successful young businessman suddenly stricken with tuberculosis. The doctors told him that he needed to change his work environment to enable him to be outside for the better part of the time. Thus, he gave up his lucrative flour business and purchased a newspaper route to deliver the Richmond Morning Dispatch to an area bounded on the north by Main Street, on the south by the James River, on the east by Harrison Street, and on the west by the road being established to the new reservoir (this road now the Boulevard, running north/south beyond the western limit of “the Fan”.

In 1886, when he began his outdoor work in the western section beyond Richmond’s City Limits, John was a member of the Young Men’s Missionary Society of Grace Street Baptist Church, as were a number of his young friends. The area in which John came to work was a thinly-settled farming community, with dirt roads and open fields. But there were children in abundance. Daily as he made his rounds, learning to know first one child and then another, his mind dwelt on the future of these kids and on what it would mean to each of them, and to their families, if they were given the opportunity to attend a church school. John could relate to the thoughts and anxieties of children under pressure, from whatever causes. He knew instinctively that progress would eventually bring opportunities for these little ones. But his own childhood memories probably fueled his desire to make life a bit better for them while they were young.

The school began it’s ministry on a bright day, a Sunday afternoon, at half-after three o’clock on May 15, 1887. One hundred and twenty-eight years later we find ourselves continuing to live out the mission God gave this young man and the generations of faithful disciples that followed him down the road. We began as a ministry to children and youth and continue to embrace the call as God brings them to us. This week we pause to offer thanks to God for this unique calling in each and every one of our lives. We also pause to recommit ourselves to the vision. Young families are returning to the city literally from the corners of the world and collectively they are finding a home in this place. The roots that were established generations ago have been repotted by the creator over and over again; we continue to bloom where we are planted.

I believe we are on the cusp of a wonderful chapter of life and spiritual vitality. The vision that God gave young John Traylor continues to be lived out through our hearts and hands. What a blessing it is to live into the dream, to make the sacrifice, and prepare the way. May God guide us, and the littlest among us,  as we live into our 128th year together.

Yours in Christ,

Sterling W. Severns, Pastor