Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ... let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith
- Hebrews 12:1-2

Praise God For the Past;
Live with God in the Present

by Charles Bailey and Mark Vaselkiv

Over the past ten years God has blessed this Church. The blessings are a sign of God's faithfulness, grace, and mercy. We must remember those blessings and praise God for those times. But, we should not live in a state of nostalgia for the past. God does not meet us there.

How was God faithful, graceful, and merciful? In 1989, God provided Ron Scates. Once again, the church had pastoral stability. Shortly thereafter, God gave this church a vision - "Moving People Toward Christ." In May 1990, it became our mission statement. God sent Jerry Cooper as Associate Pastor in August 1990. God has used Jerry to facilitate both the Adult Sunday School and missions growth in this church.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit began moving through worship, and we added a "hip" praise and worship service. Although the church still can't clap on rhythm, it nonetheless has served as a major growth catalyst. More young families started coming to church and coming to Christ.

Young families have children. In July 1992, God sent Rhonda Herman as Director of Children's Ministries. In 1997 God sent Chris Ritchie as Director of Youth Ministries. During this time, Leo Wanenchak, then Director of Music Ministries, began a vibrant Children's Choral Program. The young families finally had people brave enough to minister to their children. All of these ministries grew abundantly.

In 1995 the Session made a decision to expand our building to provide additional space for Sunday School rooms for both children and adults. The Beyond These Walls... campaign emphasized what the Lord was doing at Central and in the lives of its people. The money raised by this campaign allots 10 percent to various missions projects. The campaign succeeded in several ways: it unified the congregation in priority to expand these ministries, raised more money than was pledged, and provided $240,000 for missions, which made a considerable difference in Habitat, Genesis Jobs, Bible translation, and others. In 1998 our new building came on line. Sunday School attendance is at an all time high.

Most of the bases seem covered. We have formal worship leadership, we have missions leadership, we have Sunday school leadership, and we have youth leadership. God has provided! Praise God's holy name! Our God is a faithful God!

But these past events are irrelevant if we fail to live for Christ today. In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis points out that Satan tempts us to live in the past. But God destines us to live in eternity. God, therefore, wants us to "attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to that point in time which (we) call the present."

Our existence, therefore, must be in one of two places. We must think either of eternity and our future union with Christ in heaven. Or, when not mediating on our future union with Christ, we must, as C. S. Lewis states, continually be concerned with "obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure."

In short, God's past faithfulness reminds us of the glory of heaven as well as what God can do for us right now. Praise for past blessings should not be pining for the "good old days." The question is what we are doing for God today? God has shown that he is faithful. Now we must respond to that faithfulness by living for God today.

The Story of Ron's
Coming to Central

by Phyllis DeSmit

Ron Scates was first approached by Central's search committee in the fall of 1987, having had his candidacy suggested by Pat Hartsock. The two of them became acquainted through a group of pastors from various parts of the United States who have covenanted to support each other in their ministries. The correspondence between Ron and Central ended as Ron was about to accept a call from First Presbyterian of Lubbock, TX. Shortly thereafter, the Scates suffered the tragic death of their two-year-old daughter, Anna.

Susan Polk, a teacher in Baltimore, had been in Ron's college-age Sunday School class while attending school in Texas. Because of Ron's association with Pat Hartsock, he recommended Central to her when she moved to the Baltimore area. In the fall of 1988, Susan was in San Antonio for a wedding. When she greeted Ron, she mentioned that she sat next to Carol Corey, wife of the nominating committee chair at Central, in the choir. The question was, "Have you accepted the call to First Pres and, if not, would you be willing to look at Central again?" Ron responded affirmatively. He and Anne had agreed not to talk to any church until six months after Anna's death. The weekend Susan came to Texas was exactly six months later. Contact was reestablished, and the wonderful result is that Ron became the 9th pastor of Central Church. God's path is not always straight, but His way is always blessed.

Join me this year
in reading through the Bible.
It will change your life!
- annual challenge by Ron Scates

Fretboard Fellowship - As a new Christian, Peabody-trained guitarist Steve Turley realized his dream of starting a ministry where his musical talents could be used for the glory of God. In 1997 this ministry was born at Central and has expanded to 27 more churches in 3 states.

Baltimore Presbyterians Pro-Life - In September 1990 four members of Central chartered a Baltimore chapter of the national organization under Page Brenner's leadership. She became a member of the National Board in 1991. They sponsor the Precious Life baby shower. Lynn Roth is also active in this ministry.

Christian Community Center - This ministry was part of Helping Up Mission until it became a separate entity in 1991. Betty Horn was Director from 1952 until 1996. Dottie Smoot was the first of many, many Centralites involved with the center. Dave & Jan Turnbaugh are the current directors.

Central Lights - This ministry was begun in 1998 by Jean Stuart and Sandy Finch to provide Christian fellowship, special music, devotions, and a variety of programs for Central's seniors and friends.

Small Group Ministries - This ministry grew out the Congregational Care and Discipleship Committee of Session and was spearheaded by George & Debbie Pattee, to provide a means to identify and train small group leaders, initiate small groups, and support existing groups.

Habitat for Humanity at Sandtown - Scott Corey and others wired-up Central's connection to this ministry in Baltimore of rehabilitating rundown houses for poor families. Five houses have been completed.

Social Action Committee - coordinates social action activities and challenges the congregation to consider their responses as believers to social needs and injustices in our society.

Paraclete Laycare Ministry - trained lay caregivers help the congregation with life's challenges such as unemployment, depression, illness, etc. Various support groups and marriage mentoring are also sponsored.

Genesis Jobs - a ministry begun in the late 1980s to help welfare recipients prepare for and keep jobs in the workplace. The 1990s saw many "early-retirement" Centralites volunteering.

Carol Wilson and her son were having lunch at Bibelot's when they overheard the women at the next table discussing writing and Christ, topics of great interest to them. Eavesdropping soon turned to joint conversation, and Carol asked Joyce Sackett for the name of her church. Carol and Norm have been at Central for almost a year now.

Showers of Blessing: Torrential rainfall filled the stairwell and water came welling up under the door into Fellowship Hall where the Session was meeting. Art Moorshead opened the door and the flood rolled in. He kicked off his shoes, rolled up his pant legs, and, with other Session members, waded into ankle-deep water with brooms, to push back the incoming tide. The meeting dissolved and clean-up ended about midnight.

1994 Hazardous Duty: When Scott Corey retired, he was able to give more time to the church. At a Christian Ed meeting one night, Carol said "We could make this into a Sunday School room, and Scott could do this." While he was building this new room - the Balcony Room, over the gym - Scott fell off a ladder and broke his leg.
Bart Houseman's comment:
"I hear you've become a ladder-day saint."

In 1996, after 30 years of serving faithfully as an usher, Bill Mosher turned the ushering leadership over to Gerry Espey. During a reception in his honor, Bill received a communion plate from early in Central's history engraved with his name and years of service. He continues to usher almost every Sunday to this day, spry at 85.

With special music provided by an accordion player, Central wished Leo Wanenchak well in 1998 as he left after ministering through music at Central for 23 years.

About Frank Meeder

by Ellen Wallace

My first recollections of Frank Meeder are of his standing week after week at the entrance of the Narthex, with little black book and pen in hand, scurrying from visitor to visitor in almost a bee-like frenzy. He wrote our names in his book the very first week he saw Dick and me and completed our "bio" with names and ages of the children, what we did professionally, and where we lived. Then, in subsequent weeks he would rush up to greet us and to tell us about other nurses, accountants, mothers of three-year-olds, people who lived near us who were members at Central, etc. Often, he would physically pull us to the side where he had enlisted a member who shared a potentially common bond for us to meet. Also, at least once, he called our home to say how glad he was that we were attending and looked forward to seeing us the next Sunday.

In a few weeks, Frank had us standing at the entrance to the breezeway as greeters ourselves, which served both as a means of introducing us to regular attendees and members, as well as a means to introduce them to us.

Frank has moved on now, probably greeting those who arrive in Heaven and introducing them to the other saints who have already arrived.

Jubilee Events Mark 50 Years

We began the year with Murray Smoot back in the pulpit 50 years and a day after his first sermon at 7308 York Road. Central has always had missions in its heart so in February the Jubilee Missions Celebration presented Don McCurry and B. Wilson. We were led up to the May 1st & 2nd Jubilee Celebration by Jubilee Landmarks during both services starting on April 11. This allowed everyone to walk through Central's history as told by those who where there. A barn raising and picnic provide two casual times to fellowship, while Sunday's worship services praise God for His bounty over the years.

Jubilee Celebration Committee
Bruce & Jean Stuart Scott & Carol Corey
Rhonda Herman Sally Russell Eileen Pohlhaus
Mark Vaselkiv Mike Henderson Doug Turner
Dottie Jones Debbie Pattee

Beyond These Walls...
A story from and about the 90s

by Kevin Hula

T. A. "Bodie" Filipi, my great uncle, lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. Earlier this year, my wife Sue and I flew back to the Midwest to attend Uncle Bodie's 95th birthday party. About 70 members of the family, friends from church, and neighbors joined my uncle for lunch. As the dishes were being cleared, Bodie stood up and introduced every person in the room by name. He then asked us all to stand up and tell everyone what church we went to and where. While we did this, he passed out an index card to each family there. He instructed us to write down our names at the top of the card, then the name of our church and the name of a specific project that our church was working on that we thought was worthwhile. We passed in the cards, and he noted that he had been very blessed to live 95 years. Rather than celebrating by receiving gifts, he wanted to celebrate God's grace by giving one dollar for every year of his life to every church represented by the family and friends there. Editor's Note: This is just one example of how, little by little, from brothers (and sisters) in Christ whom we have never known, our Beyond These Walls contributions came rolling in!

Headin' for the Mountains

by Denise Simms

The Annual All-Church Retreat was started in 1994 by Rhonda Herman with the help of Robin Henderson. The popularity of the Retreat, now in its sixth year, has grown steadily, become a tradition at Summit Lake Camp in Emmitsburg, MD every Memorial Day Weekend. Retreaters experience spiritual renewal as well as fun and fellowship in the beautiful and rustic informality of a camp site. The retreat blends the 8:30 and 11:00 worship style and encourages relationship-building among all generations, new and long-standing members alike.

www.centralpc.org

by Karen McCaffrey

Imagine if you had told the "21 intrepid souls" at the first service in January of 1949 that Central would grow to over 700 members, that the brown manse they were sitting in would evolve through four building campaigns into 41,236 square feet of space at one of the busiest intersections in Baltimore County, that the temporary pastor would spend 34 years in their pulpit. They might have believed you, thought it possible because of how big God is.

But what if you had said that missionaries in Thailand, Brazil, Cambodia or Romania could communicate instantaneously with church staff - and each other - via e-mail? Would they have believed you if you told them that information about everything that happened at Central would be available to anyone in the world who owned a computer? Probably not.

We all know that the improbable has happened. When civil unrest reigns in Southeast Asia, we are kept up-to-date on missionaries through e-mail. Publications aren't finished until they are adapted and added to the web site. We currently have over 260 pages on our web site. In 1999 the average pages hit per day is 307. The "Becoming A Christian" page has been hit 417 times so far this year. Visitors from over 50 countries have hit our site this year!

Transcripts from 23 sermons are available online, and these have brought a couple of interesting exchanges. One Sunday Ron received an e-mail message from Ruth Gledhill, a religion columnist for The Times of London, she wrote that she had been surfing the web and ran across Ron's mention of her in one of his sermons!! A pastor in South Africa has e-mailed both Ron and Jerry commenting on a sermon series and requesting further information on Central's programs mentioned on the web site. Upon further communication he was quite surprised to find out that we were a smaller congregation than his flock of 2,800.