(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Telling the Story." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Keeping the Story Going.")

Telling the Story: Beyond Books

While most of us assume that a book-like product is the goal of the congregational history effort, it is important that we not let our imaginations be limited to just that one outcome. Books are indeed important ways to make historical discoveries available to a wide audience. They last and we know how to use them. And the discipline of writing a book enables a collection of facts to become a history.

But there are many other ways you can share what you have learned. A congregational history fair, for example, can be a wonderful occasion to bring old-timers and newcomers together for exploration of a common heritage. Through displays, skits, multimedia exhibits, dinners, worship services, and times of informal sharing, you give your congregation the chance to enlarge its memory. People can bring their own memorabilia and contribute to a time of mutual discovery.

Not to be missed are the many ways people can learn the congregation's story through its daily life. A videotaped interview with an elderly member can introduce parts of the story to members of a women's organization or the Council who might never find time to sit down and read the book you write. You need to consider, however, deliberate strategies for helping those who lead the various organizations of your congregation to use the congregational history as a text for orienting their own work.

For example, what would happen if the congregation council decided to reflect seriously in its regular meetings upon the significance of the history you have made available? Would it help them develop a clearer sense of the distinctive mission and purpose of your congregation? How can you help them and other groups in the congregation get a clearer picture of the congregation to which they belong? What kinds of presentations and discussion series could make their history come alive for them? Are there current problems or challenges that parallel earlier periods in your congregation's life and that might help members discover new possibilities for now?

Church anniversaries, even those that mark less glamorous milestones such as the 22nd or 43rd year, can become more meaningful times of remembrance with the help of your history. Founders' days can take on more depth, too, once members have deeply probed the past.

The challenge for your congregation is to resist the temptation to think that the job is done once the history volume is on the shelf in the library. New opportunities arise with each new member class, the installation of new parish leaders, and each change in pastoral leadership. Your history committee will need to consider ways to keep alive the historical consciousness your congregation has achieved.

Consider ways to make your history available to other groups whose stories intersect with your own. People working on family genealogies, local history societies, and denominational archivists and historians all can benefit from what you write. But these groups are also potential allies for finding ways to keep the history alive rather than letting it molder in a bookcase.

In essence, you and your team need to become public relations agents for the story you have to tell. In adult education classes, in displays in the narthex, in shared ventures with neighboring congregations, in the establishment of a congregational archive, keep finding ways to keep your story alive. By so doing, you contribute to its unfolding beyond your telling. You push it ahead into the next generation.