Looking Forward Intelligently - Look Back Attentively

British Historian E. H. Carr stated, "You cannot look forward intelligently into the future unless you are also prepared to look back attentively into the past."

I read that quote in an article from Christianity Today Magazine - April 2006 - entitled "Pentecostals the Sequel" .

With our church having accomplished 75 years of working in the Peterborough area - it is a valuable article for us to read. It helps us to understand a patch work of our own history. In the article the author states the following...

• Pentecostals comprise 3 major streams and 59 diverse categories of worldwide Christianity.
• Pentecostals can be found within all 150 non-charismatic Christian traditions.
• Pentecostals come from 9,000 ethnolinguistic cultures and speak 8,000 languages.
• Pentecostalism is more urban than rural, more female than male, more majority world (66%) than Western world (34%), more poor (87%) than affluent (13%), more family-related than individualist, and more young than old.
• Pentecostals are an active presence in 80% of the world's 3,300 largest metropolises.

We are part of a very big family. We have many cousins so to speak. Imagine the family reunion - if one was every called. But just like any family there are things in our closet that need to be addressed...

As I have been digging into our own archives over this past year I have discovered many amazing things. One lady had "scrap-booked" most of the pastors and special speakers that ever ministered in our church - during her years of attending. Below the photos there are words in her hand writing describing when the special guest was there. Her collection was assembled in a crude way on the inside cover of an old photo album.

Another interesting tidbit of information was a section of the minutes of some difficult board meetings of the past. The full blow by blow description of the workings in the Board Meetings, of about two months of meetings, were left for future people to read. (I know that all Board Meeting's minutes are kept somewhere for the folks in the future Boards and the Congregation to read about the progress.) The unusual part of this collection in the archives tells a tale of the strain and struggle of the leadership of that day - at that moment in our past.

Someone felt strongly to include this information and must have felt that it was important to remember. As I thought about it after reading it all, the person that included it in the archives seems to indicate a warning.

I have thought of the words for days now. The anguish of all parties in the meeting was very evident as you read what is printed.

Again the quote from Carr, "You cannot look forward intelligently into the future unless you are also prepared to look back attentively into the past."

I feel that the individual that included the notes about the difficult Board Meetings of the past was telling future generations - "Look and listen... this is what happened to us in our day... It was very hard to go through.... if you don't want this happening to your generation - avoid these kinds of attitudes and problems."

In fact History has a way of warning clearly what could happen again tomorrow.

The First World War - was to be the last great war - World War I... but we call it World War I - because there was a World War II. They didn't learn. The wars kept coming over and over again. In fact if you count up the World Wars that have happened since the early 1990s you may be somewhere near 6 or 7 now. War happens when strong willed people demand their way... and the result is people die - lots of people die.

Churches have wars too. Strong willed people demand their way. And the results are similar - people die - lots of people die. Oh - no they don't die the way people do on a real battle field - their children die spiritually and morally. Then many of the angry people die spiritually and morally too.

"You cannot look forward intelligently into the future unless you are also prepared to look back attentively into the past."

I am committed to seeking God in greater ways than ever before. How about you?

Finally.... looking again to 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 in the KJV

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place."

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 in The Living Bible

"then if my people will humble themselves and pray, and search for me, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. I will listen, wide awake, to every prayer made in this place."