You can spend an enjoyable part of a day “reading your way around” First Presbyterian Church. From the Boy Scout House to the flagpole or the front steps, through chapel and all around the sanctuary you will find plaques and markers that tell about special people and events in our church.

If you stroll through the church office, you will find one such plaque just outside the conference room. The inscription there reads:

Manor Conference Room
Dedicated April 17, 1996
To the Glory of God in Honor of James and Ann Manor
For Selfless Service to Christ’s Church in Times of Transition
“we were ready to share with you not only the gospel but also our own selves”
I Thessalonians 2:8

The dedication of this heavily utilized conference room in our church to Jim and Ann Manor was a way to honor the ministry of this pastor and his wife for the three separate times they devoted themselves to interim ministry here at First Pres. What made the ministry of the Manors so remarkable and memorable? In the words of I Thessalonians chapter 2, “they shared the gospel and their own selves.”

When the Apostle Paul and his colleagues wrote to their brothers and sisters in Christ in Thessalonica, they expressed the same type of care and compassion, and a passion for ministry.

So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

That’s what ministry is for each of us. It does involve sharing the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ (We have been claimed, restored, redeemed, and saved by our Lord!) And as believers who have been claimed, restored, redeemed, and saved, we have a grace and love in our lives that we can share with others.

Having known Ann and Jim Manor, I can easily attest to the fact that they not only shared the gospel but also themselves. That places Jim and Ann in a long line of disciples of Jesus and saints of God that I have seen sharing themselves and the gospel. (Our church directory contains the photos of lots of those people.) If we live our lives with such care and joy for others, they might just picture us in that way.

Prayer

Wonderful God, thank You, for making me a part of the good news. Help me to share Your love with all that I meet in my life.