TBIYtC

Do you believe TBIYtC?

I truly hope so.

Because TBIYtC is such a basic part of our Christian faith.
I want to paint TBIYtC in big bold letters.


I do believe that this is my all time favorite acronym.
You can have your Y2K and 9/11 and RSVP and ASAP and PDQ and FYI and LOL and TGIF and WWJD –
I want to paint TBIYtC in big bold letters on our church wall someplace.
TBIYtC : The Best Is Yet to Come

As we celebrate the 83rd anniversary of Christ Church, I recall the story of the two pastors sailing up the Delaware River some 257 years ago after six weeks at sea from their home in Scotland.
One of the young men came as a loan – he would serve a term of one year and return home.
The other, Alexander Gellatly, came to stay.
From all I can see, he firmly believed TBIYtC!

Presbyterians were all over Chester County and had been petitioning for pastoral leadership for several years. Finally, their pleas were being acted upon.

Alexander Gellatly was 33 years old and full of energy and ideas.
Within a very few years several congregations were organized and most of these churches continue their ministry to this day.
Alexander Gellatly never looked back.
For him, from day one, TBIYtC!

For 172 years, one the congregations he started conducted a vital and crucial witness for the cause of the faith.
After 172 years the Oxford United Presbyterian Church discontinued its ministry – but, not before arranging for a new work to be begun in the newly created suburb of Drexel Hill.
For all their history, for all their ministry, for all of their witness,
they believed TBIYtC.

For certain, when the Presbytery purchased property in 1926 at the corner of State Road and Turner Avenue from funds generated by the sale of the Oxford Church, they believed TBIYtC.

When the folks began to gather in Drexel Hill in 1927 to form a new church, for sure they believed TBIYtC.

When the stock market crashed and the years of the Great Depression came upon our country and our community and the new church, the folks of the new church just knew TBIYtC.

When the war broke out and construction on the new sanctuary stalled, the congregation believed TBIYtC as ways were found to continue the work so the men would have a place to come back to once the war was over.

I have come to believe that one of the deadliest things in the life of an individual – and in the life of a church – is to stop believing TBIYtC.

When we stop believing TBIYtC we stagnate, we become sour, we start decomposing, we start dying.

In 1989, the Elders looked at all of the financial records – church bank accounts, the levels of giving from the members, the pledges, the projected expenses, the obligations – and concluded there were enough resources on hand, and anticipated, to let the church continue for about six months.

Instead of “cashing in” at that time, there was a feeling among some that TBIYtC.

So, what about you?
Do you believe TBIYtC?
I truly hope so.
Because TBIYtC is such a basic part of our Christian faith.

TBIYtC propelled Jesus’ ministry and enabled him to face the ultimate trials and tribulations on that final week of his life.

TBIYtC is what I see expressed by so many of our members as they faced their own deaths in the last several months.

TBIYtC is the only way we can face the year to come as a church that seeks to be viable and true to our mission and witness.

As we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of our church, let us not get caught up in nostalgia.
Look around and realize that many of the folks attending our church simply were not a part of it twenty years ago.
They don’t remember “the glory days”.
For them TBIYtC.

For so many of us TBIYtC.
And I say, unequivocally, for you, personally, as well as for our church TBIYtC.
Believe it!

Resolve this year to pray for our church, for our ministry, and for our witness.
Let the word go out TBIYtC!
Anyone who seeks a center of faith that empowers and enables a more complete life, a fuller life, will find it here.

TBIYtC – let the word go out that we are family – and all are welcome here.

Let the word go out that God is alive and the spirit is afoot here at Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, and TBIYtC!