Message from the Past Brings Hope
100-Year-Old Time Capsule Opened at Christ Methodist Church
Lora Parsons
The Ashland Beacon
Somewhere around 1890, when the population of Ashland was around 14,700, the 50 founding members of Christ Methodist Church met for worship services in the Pollard School House. They used that space for about a year until the first dedicated building was erected. Following several years of growth, a new space was needed. Construction began in 1924, on the building that currently stands as the church’s 100-year-old home. The leaders at the time met a current need of their present congregation, while also looking forward, toward the legacy of believers they knew would follow, when they planted behind the cornerstone a time capsule that was opened on Sunday, March 17 by the church’s elders.
The full story of the time capsule’s discovery was printed in the March 11th edition of The Beacon, but the short version finds that Steven Wheeler researched time capsule locations on YouTube, finding that behind the cornerstone was the customary location for them in buildings the age of their church. His suspicion proved true when he located the wooden box while Pastor Michael McAlister recorded. After a sneak peek to verify that it contained something worth sharing, they decided to wait so the elders of the church could do the honors. Following their regular morning worship service and a soup and salad luncheon, past and present church members gathered for the reveal. The propped-open doors of the sanctuary welcomed more than 80 interested community members. Sharing a song and prayer of thanksgiving, it was evident that those in attendance were grateful for God’s faithfulness, the source of their rich church history. And, it was exactly that rich legacy that was illustrated by the contents of the century-old box and by those hands that carefully opened it.
Pastor Michael McAlister gathered together, Charlie McDowell, Sandy Kovar, Joye King, Thursa Keathley, and Bertha Warnock (five elders of the church), who carefully lifted the lid and pulled a fragile, dust-covered Bible, yearbook, newspaper, and book of Methodist ideology from the small crate. McAlister reacted with a sense of pride that a Bible had been among the findings, sharing that the church’s founders likely wanted to show that “our foundation is God’s Word. This encourages us to stand on [it] today." Quoting a portion of the church’s historical documents, he also mentioned that it has been the church’s “spirit of loyalty and obedience to the Holy Spirit'' that has led the church to endure for so long. It doesn’t take long to see that this church’s foundation and faith in Jesus are what has led to its success. Finding a Bible in the time capsule was confirmation that their forefathers were squarely focused on leaving a Biblically-sound trail for those following behind.
The second book pulled from the box was also a logical find: a Methodist yearbook from 1918, likely the most recent copy when construction began. The historical documents that were displayed as part of the church’s centennial celebration illustrated the lengths that had to be taken to keep accurate records during a time when paper and pen were the primary tools for such tasks. Including the yearbook was perhaps the best method of preserving information about the clerical statistics of the broader Methodist church.
While the Bible and yearbook might be expected items in a church’s time capsule, the final two items brought with them a certain degree of curiosity. The first of these lesser-known items (at least to those outside the Methodist Church) was The Book of Discipline. The introduction of this text explains that it is “an instrument for setting forth the laws, plan, policy, and process by which United Methodists govern themselves." In short, it explains how to live in harmony with the Methodist Church, as it is “a document suitable to [its] heritage and [is] an expression of a future with hope." A clear picture of what life as a Methodist Christian looked like would have been preserved by adding this text to the time capsule.
The second of the less-familiar items was a newspaper called the Western Christian Advocate which was published between 1834 and 1929 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Francis Asbury, one of the first two Bishops of the Methodist Church in the United States once said: “The propagation of religion by means of the press is next in importance to the preaching of the Gospel." To this end, early newspapers in the United States were often dually focused on current events and religion; they were used for spreading Christianity and sharing how to respond to news through the lens of one’s religious beliefs and practices. Including the July 17, 1924, edition of this newspaper served as a reminder to the Church that it is the world that should be influenced by the presence of Christianity, not Christianity that should be influenced by the world.
The excitement of the initial finding of the time capsule was certainly something to be celebrated, but it is the contents of the time capsule that should prompt all believers--not just the members of Christ Methodist Church--to reflect on the message that the time capsule speaks. The Bible provides knowledge about how to live one’s life as a Christian; The Book of Discipline provides details for how to live one’s life as a Methodist; the yearbook provides context for the church as compared to other Methodist churches; and the newspaper offers evidence for how the Christian worldview would prompt one to respond to the social issues of the day. Those who placed each of these items in this box seem to be calling to us from the past with a clear message: Is the trail we leave behind in line with Biblical teaching? Does it leave a path worthy of being followed? All churches today may be standing now on the shoulders of giants, but we're simultaneously called to be the giants whose shoulders others can stand on 100 years further down the line. The time capsule provides us all with a unique opportunity to look both forward and backward at once. Who have we followed? And, who will we lead?