I hope every member has placed on your calendar NOVEMBER 14TH, our day of celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Unity Moravian Church. My wish is that every member of our church family will come to worship on this day as we share our memories and look forward to our goals as a community of faith. As a reminder, we will have several ways to celebrate our 30 years of ministry. During worship we plan to have a special video presentation that will allow us to see where we came from and where we are going as a church. Following the service, we will gather in our Fellowship Hall to share a covered dish luncheon. Please bring to this meal extra food for we hope to have many former members participating in this special day of celebration.

Following the meal, we will gather back in the sanctuary for our Church Talent Show. There are also two surprises that will occur this day and you will need to be in attendance to find out what these surprises will be. As I pause to look at our church, I think about what 30 years means. 30 years is 360 months, 1872 weeks, 10,950 days, 262,800 hours,15,768,800 minutes, and 946,080,000 seconds. Or one can view 30 years as 30% of a century, almost a generation, or approximately 40% of the average life span of an individual born in the U.S. At age 30 most people are in their early years of work but for sports figures at age 30 most will be retiring within the next 10 years. For a number of people 30 is considered the age where you begin to view, analyze, and think about one’s lifespan. At age 30 one is seen as old by a child who is 6 but is viewed as young and vibrant if you are 70.

30 years ago in 1980 some of the number one hits on the Billboard Charts were Funkytown by Lipps Inc., Sailing by Christopher Cross, It's Still Rock and Roll to Me by Billy Joel, Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen and Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes. In 1980 the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, the Oakland Raiders won the Super Bowl and the Los Angeles Lakers were the NBA Champions. The average cost of a new home was $68,700, a new car was $7200. The miracle on ice occurred in Lake Placid, NY, Mt. Saint Helen erupted in Washington State, Pac Man was invented, post-it-notes were first sold, Voyager 1 sent back pictures of Saturn, fax machines were invented in Japan, and millions of people tuned into the show Dallas to see who shot J.R.

But these events or tidbits of information tell us nothing about what has happened in this church. Though we are going to celebrate these 30 years on Sunday, November 14, even those few hours together in worship and fellowship will only touch the surface of who we are as a church. I think the very best way to look at our 30 years, the best way to learn and find insight into what it has meant to be a church, the very best way to truly celebrate what it means to be a community of faith, is to talk and listen to those in this church who have been here for these 30 years. Through these stories all of us can find out the commitment, hope, enjoyment, frustration, fulfillment, which has been passed down for these last 30 years. These members have been the catalysts in providing all of us with this facility but more importantly they have provided us with a heritage and a history that has shared the presence of God with so many people.

So as we all move toward this day of remembrance and celebration, I invite members to spend some time with those in our church community who have been a part of Unity Moravian Church for these 30 years. Let them share with you their stories, their remembrances, and their dreams for the future. If you don’t know who these members are, the Charter for our church is at the end of the hallway before entering the Narthex. Our history is important and we hope that as we move through this time of celebration we will discover more about who we are as a community of faith. More importantly though; as we listen and learn may these stories, thoughts, and feelings challenge us to do even more in the future at Unity Moravian Church.

- Pastor Zimmerman