Earlier this month I had the honor of helping the Center Bethel Church of God, located in Alverton, PA, celebrate 182 years of ministry. You might ask (as I did), why 182 years? Apparently the 180th celebration had to be curtailed two years ago. They had planned to do a celebration in 2020 for the 181st but those plans, as happened with many things in 2020, were derailed by COVID and thus the congregation came together to celebrate 182 years of faithful ministry to the community.
It’s was a wonderful morning of celebration. Pastor Lee Kline and the good folks at Center Bethel put together a beautiful service that featured lots of special music, stories and recollections from the past, videos from previous pastors and a special message from none other than John Winebrenner (aka Ed Rosenberry). 
In true Church of God fashion, they wrapped up the day with a delicious noon meal! Center Bethel is doing a tremendous job of loving and serving their neighbors and their community!
I learned something in the course of the morning that has had me thinking and reflecting ever since. First a brief history of the founding of the church. Apparently, John Winebrenner had preached in evangelistic services several times over the years at the Mennonite meeting house in Stonersville (which is now Alverton). In 1838, the Pennsylvania Eldership appointed John Hickernell to the “Pittsburgh Mission” which included five counties and a circuit which covered two hundred miles. In 1838 a series of meetings where held in the Landis schoolhouse (near Hawkeye) and a church was organized. Thomas Hickernell organized a church in 1839 in a home in Bethany (now Ruffsdale). Between those two churches, John Hickernell organized a church in 1839 that met in the Mennonite meeting house in Stonersville. The Bethany meeting house was lost due to a flawed title. The church at Landis schoolhouse broke up because most of the families moved to Iowa. This resulted in the three congregations combining in Stonersville under the name of Center Bethel.
Here’s what I learned: the families that relocated to Iowa established the Church of God at Harmony, Iowa. Do you know the significance of Harmony, Iowa in the history of the Churches of God? Years later, a young woman who was raised in the Harmony Church of God would leave home to attend college at Findlay College. She would eventually leave Findlay to follow a call to serve as a missionary in India. Her name was Clara Landes! Of course, the work she helped to start so many years ago is the location of some of our best Gospel work today!
As I’ve reflected on this over the past couple of weeks, I couldn’t help but think about how folks involved in the establishment of a church at the Landis schoolhouse might have felt about its breaking up due to the relocation of many of its families to Iowa. They had tried to start a church and it didn’t turn out the way they had dreamed or expected. Maybe they felt like they failed in that moment, but history tells a much different and greater and richer story. They failed to launch a church at the Landis schoolhouse, but those families that moved to Iowa established a new work at Harmony. Through the ministry at Harmony, a young woman name Clara was raised up and discipled to follow Jesus and her commitment to Christ led her around the world and today we have brothers and sisters in Christ living and working in India and Bangladesh as a result of her faithful work! In addition, others from the Landis effort went on to help establish Center Bethel and the brothers and sisters there went on to establish the Mt. Pleasant Church of God (ARC) and the Grandview Church of God (ARC)!
What started at Landis didn’t ultimately succeed but look at what fruit has grown out of their willingness to step out on faith and try to do something for the greater good of the kingdom of God.
We’re living in an age where we’re going to be required to try some new things that might not always work. We may even have some tremendous failures along the way. There may be some moments where we question whether or not we should have even tried because it seems like we didn’t accomplish much. At moments like that I’m going to need the example of our brothers and sisters who gathered at the Landis school house so many years ago… while they might not have succeeded in their plans at that place and at that particular time, look how God used their faithful obedience and look at the fruit that stretches around the globe because of the lives of a few who continued to step out and take risks for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Christ’s Peace,
Lance
CGGC eNews—Vol. 15, No. 38
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