Bishop (Reverend, Dr., Chaplain) A. Doug Beacham. He has done so much to not only document and to share our history, but to make our history through his leadership in the IPHC. He has donated to archives, used it for his books, and made history as he has led the IPHC over the last fourteen years as Bishop and for a career spanning several decades.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nI offered a short speech at the breakfast:<\/h3>\n
Our history conveys the story of our conversation with God. The archives can give us a timeline of values.<\/p>\n
How we have been shaped by doctrine, by the Holy Spirit, by our people, by challenges, by successes\u2014all of that is part of this timeline. But remember, our timeline is eternal. We see God as our beginning, and we see a life beyond this one.<\/p>\n
While politicians battle for temporary wins inside of mortal lives, we raise our eyes, fix them on Jesus and see the gateway to eternal life and to the triumph of truth, justice, and goodness that lies in our future.<\/p>\n
The IPHC\u2019s story and its timeline is as imperfect as the humans on it and as perfect as the God who has given us fresh visions for each time and who has given us the gifts of the Spirit which we use to draw others to Christ.<\/p>\n
We have gone to the furthest corners of the earth with Christ\u2019s love. We have won souls, not through rhetoric or through force, but through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We have done great things with nothing in our bank account but faith.<\/p>\n
And when God corrects our path, when He draws us close to His presence, then He heals us from our independence, our excesses of legalism, our ideologies that get out of balance. The archives hold the evidence that real people in a real world with no guarantee of success and with no acceptance offered by the world have been used to bring down the sickness of dignity and healed it with passionate worship, and the illusion of honor and healed it with the humble act of serving the poorest, the least educated, and the least valued.<\/p>\n
We, the IPHC, stand for allowing God to call us and to lead us. If he calls a woman, we say GO. If He calls us before we are equipped, we say GET READY. We value souls above the politics of race and gender, above status and wealth, above human knowledge and human battles. We follow the Good Shepherd.<\/p>\n
The archives holds the evidence of our story.<\/p>\n
I have given my utmost to make the archives accessible to you, just as Bishop Beacham asked me to do and as God showed me. It has been a privilege to serve you these last three years. But I have accomplished nothing on my own.<\/p>\n
Cherie McDade has done far more work than I can possibly list.<\/p>\n
My mother has spent countless hours scanning and encouraging and guiding me. She is a living history book.<\/p>\n
I am surrounded by good hearted historians and archivists who care more about the business of sharing and preserving our story than they do about competing with me or with each other, something particularly dear to me as my life has been spent inside of universities where such goodness is rare.<\/p>\n
Thank you Stan York. We miss you. Thank you Larry Jones. Thank you Dan Woods. Thank you Zach Tomlinson. Thank you Ricky Nelms. Thank you Betty Thompson. Thank you Karen Lucas. Thank you Harold Hunter. Most especially, thank you Bishop Beacham. Working for you has been the greatest privilege of my life.<\/p>\n
If those of us who understand and who value our history and the power of testimonies, who know the power of our memorials built to remind us of God\u2019s grace, if we continue to work together, I believe the next time we share a table at this breakfast we will celebrate the complete digitization of our history, making it completely accessible, free of charge, to historians, theologians, pastors, to the descendants of our early leaders and laypersons, and to the new souls who are grafted into the story of the IPHC every day.<\/p>\n
Yes, I hope to see new souls among us next time we meet. New IPHC members who see a place for their stories on this timeline. New voices and hearts who join with ours and who sing new songs and who will work alongside us here and who will meet us in eternity.<\/p>\n
We are a people of vision. Our history testifies to that fact. And God\u2019s work is always relevant. It is not old. It is new in our moment, fresh as it transforms those weary pilgrims who come after each saint. Our history is built on a two edged sword so it is for battle and it is for peace. It is for life here and it is for the life after this one. It is for the humble and it is for the seeker\u00a0 and it is for the one who fears and it is for those with courage. Our history tells us of the terrors of the night, and without these stories, how can we know what the Good Shepherd has done in those valleys? How can we know of why we sing on the mountain if we know nothing of the climb? If we have never heard the testimony of those who walked in Christ\u2019s footsteps, how will we know, how will we see, how will we hear of all that He has done, of all that He is, of all that He will do?<\/p>\n
Prayer connects us and creates our atmosphere. It is a pocket of spring on the frozen floor of winter.<\/p>\n
People, we do great things because we listen to God and to those who have gone before. Our teachers speak to us from their handwritten letters. They shout from their sermon notes scribbled on worn paper and from across the generations they say: This is the way!<\/p>\n
If an archives holds only the most valued objects, then they show us what they, our people, valued most when we hold Bibles frayed on all corners, pages worn smooth, notes scribbled in the margins, pages stiff because of tears that have fallen and dried there, notes and bookmarks holding spots within its pages telling the story of a life lived. Value calls out from the names scribbled in the front, from the dedications written, from the testimonies scribbled in the notes that say: He is faithful.<\/p>\n
I have been called to this work for this time. I am a daughter of this denomination and I love it and its people in a way that an outsider simply cannot know. This work is not just for anybody to do in their spare time, holding out hope that volunteers will work it into the edges of busy lives. I am calling on the IPHC and for every conference to invest in this work. It is precious. The artifacts in our vaults are our memorial stones.<\/p>\n
Thank you for letting me share from my heart.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kristen Welch, Director of IPHC Archives and Research Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6498","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Pb62Bx-1GO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}