Feature
Celebrating God’s Faithfulness
By Melinda Hemphill “
elebrating God’s Faithfulness,” the theme of our 175th anniversary in 2023, has been the constant truth as we have experienced the guiding hand of God’s Word in our lives personally, in the congregation, and in this growing community. Just like in the 1830s when Scottish settlers from South Carolina came to the previously-Creek lands and began worshiping in rural Coweta County in 1836, God’s faithfulness and character are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Some of those early families were - sell, Johnson, and Carmichaell families. Some of those families still have descendants as current members of White Oak. As we have observed the Septaquintaquinquecentennial since formally organizing in 1848, we have continued to celebrate God’s faithfulness. When we had the Psalm Sing and Ice Cream Social in August, I thought about how it must’ve been in the last two decades of the 1800s when Rev. John L. Hemphill was pastor at White Oak, before there was electricity or air conditioning, before there were any build- ings on the property besides the small, rectangle sanctuary that was built in 1896, before hymnals and instruments aided the congregational worship, and as the local area was much more rural than even today. I was thinking of people I knew across the decades who have now gone on to be with the Lord, what their experiences would’ve been as they sang “Better Than Silver and Gold” or “Every Day I Will Bless Thee.” It wasn’t until this con- gregation was 100 years old that White Oak members began singing hymns, and on this night we began the singing with “Great is Thy Faithfulness” after a Call to Worship from Lamentations 3:22-23. Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. John Cook, spoke about the Psalms being the early hymnal and songs used in worship of the Lord. These were the songs Jesus would’ve grown up on and sung in worship, and they were often quoted during His last week on earth. Lynne Dodds spoke about how she grew up in this church and that her mother had specials in weekly worship.
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“Let Them Praise His Name” (“number 26 in the back”) and “The Praises of Heaven and Earth” (what I call the Jehovah song) praises the LORD from Psalm 148 and are fa- vorites of this congregation. My husband’s grandfather (grandson of the aforementioned pastor) had a favorite song that was sung at his funeral, “Under His Wings.” For all of our military family members, Psalm 91 has always been a comfort. The evening ended with sweet fellowship time as friends and families enjoyed homemade ice creams, often includ- ing fresh local strawberries and peaches. This was also the night we received our new anni- versary t-shirts and aprons. Other memorabilia of this special year includes Christmas tree ornaments, a commemorative cookbook, and a family tree document for the church library. Throughout the year the congregation enjoyed its annual traditions like women’s min-
istry brunches, Vacation Bible School (including space in the program for special needs children), men’s choir on Mothers Day and Veterans Day, women’s choir on Fathers Day, Reformation Celebration, Wreaths of Remembrance, Breakfast Supper (Sunday night after Thanksgiving when the men cook), Wednesday Night Connect, trips to Bonclarken for retreats, camps, Synod, and World Focus, Christmas “Lessons and Carols,” caroling in
24 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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