25 Years of Growing in Hope

This past weekend was the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Hope Mennonite Church in Wichita. The church has been planning for this day for a year and plans were in full swing when Brett became their pastor in March. The last few months, especially, have been full of meetings and planning and it all paid off. Saturday was marked by community service events in Newton and Wichita and Sunday was a day of celebration on a gorgeous Fall Sunday!

Hope has a rich history of purposeful ritual and tradition and Sunday was the day to remember their beginning and the road they have travelled to this point. Former pastors returned as well as congregants who had moved away.

One of the church's traditions is to create a banner for each year. It marks significants events in the life of the church as well as members; births, deaths, anniversaries, graduations, etc. Certain banners hang in the sanctuary on a regular basis and for this event banners from every year were displayed in the building. As the service began there was a procession of banners from 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and this year's-2010. They were carried by individuals or families for whom that year was significant. The banners carry the theme "Sharing our Hope", except for this year, "Growing in Hope".

Also part of the service was the dedication of the sanctuary mural, painted by three wonderfully talented women from the church. The mural depicts the life of Christ and seasons of the Christian calendar in a beautiful design and array of color. I was MOST impressed when Brett told us that these women painted from a 25' tall scaffolding!  It is a goregous view that anyone leading worship gets to see.

We are always so blessed by the music, whether it be by the choir, acapella congregation singing or the "Hopeful Blues". This group can make great music!

At the conclusion of the service we all moved outside for the tree planting. This is another tradition marking significant events in the life of the church. A lovely blue spruce was in place and the children were allowed to put in the first shovels of dirt, followed by adults.

They ended the day with a catered banquet and lots of remembering. Perfect finish for a perfect celebration!

Praise be to God - the Giver of our hope!