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Editorial: Here’s to another 150 years
Op-Ed · October 01, 2015


Congratulations to Downey Baptist Church on reaching 150 years of existence despite all the challenges that could possibly face any group trying to survive for so long.


It boggles the mind to think that a small church — or any church — started near the end of the Civil War could still exist today.

From talking to members and former members, it seems clear that the key attribute is simple yet profound: Friendliness.

We are, after all, social beings, so friendliness is an important trait of any church. Yet we can’t help but think how today’s society may consider it “quaint” when looking for excitement, entertainment and self-affirmation.

Yet the Bible says that Christians who really try to follow God’s will show “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” Galatians 5:22-23. These “fruits of the spirit” sound a lot like the traits of a good friend, do they not? Friends are people who accept you for what you are right now, but care for you too much to let you stay that way.

One of the key events in Downey Baptists’s history was when the original church burned down on March 30, 1917. A janitor was burning trash when the ground caught fire and spread to the church. When church members gathered around what remained of their building for the past 52 years, they sang “The Church’s One Foundation is Christ Her Lord.”

How interesting it would be if we, in 2015, could look back and see how church members treated that janitor in light of such an accident. We don’t know for sure, but if friendliness is so strong in the church today, we wonder if that characteristic has roots that took hold long before the fire.

One piece of evidence we do have is that church members needed only two months to raise more than $2,500 to help rebuild, and that the church reopened in a new building before Christmas, on Dec. 16. As small as the church was, it should not be such a stretch of the imagination to guess they did not come up with the money by digging in their own wallets. Likely they held fundraisers and townspeople donated to the cause. Church members must have had a good reputation in the community.

Another bit of evidence comes from how more than 100 people returned from all over to attend the sesquicentennial.

Again, let us congratulate Downey Baptist Church on its long history, and wish them the best on their journey toward another 150 years.