WHERE ONE MAN'S OBEDIENCE EQUALED A HUNDRED YEARS OF BLESSINGS

A long time ago, when railroads ruled, someone apparently named "Peter" set up a track "Switch" just north of Seymour, Indiana.  No one seems to know why, but a little housing community grew up around that spot and became known as Peter's Switch!  That community remains much the same today as it was then around the turn of the last century; comfortable homes surrounded by corn and bean fields.  It looks and feels like middle America!

In 1915 a farmer/preacher, who was a member of the Seymour Church of the Nazarene, saw the need for an outreach to this little patch of humanity north of town.  Henry Pearson spent his early Sunday mornings from 1915-1925 holding a Sunday School class wherever he could find a place to meet.  This hard working, God following man, is another example of an individual who simply was obedient to what the Lord was asking him to do.

The pages go blank between 1925 and 1948 and no one seems to know much about that time frame but in 1948 two men, who had been impacted by Pearson, each wrote a check for $6,000 and purchased an unused school building and the Peter's Switch Church of the Nazarene was born.  Now, 64 years later, the school building has been renovated into the Fellowship Hall, a beautiful Sanctuary has been added, and a lovely parsonage has been built.

1948

Still surrounded by the railroad tracks and the corn fields, it is a strong church community reaching its' area with the gospel and the message of Holiness. Nearly 100 years after Mr. Pearson followed God's leading to dig out a Sunday School in a neighboring town, it has become a thriving, growing, caring gathering place for Christ Followers.  Our Revival time together was wonderful.

Yet I wonder?  It seems as if we have "Switched" tracks in our attempts to begin new churches.  I wonder what will be the end result, should Jesus tarry, of our institutionalized, clergy facilitated "new starts".   I wonder if we have become so much of a "denomination" that we have ceased to be a "movement".  A movement of individuals, laypeople, who simply follow God's leading and become obedient servants building God's Kingdom one Peter's Switch at a time.  May the Lord continue to bless our Zion with clergy and laymen who are faithful to His command to "go and make disciples".    

Pastor Keith Ross