Materials:

Greeting: Name tag color and/or shape coded for four groups, shapes may be an oil lamp, a quill pen, a churn, a round footed pot. A table decorated with oil lamp or lantern on which to write out names on cards.
Center 1: Old hymnals or song sheets.
Center 2: Pictures, slides and slide projector, VCR and tapes, maps, session minutes, cookbooks, etc.
Center 3: Old clothes, rocking chair, period furniture props, polaroid camera.
Center 4: Pillows, cushions, comfortable chairs.
Meal: Red-checked table cloths and oil lamps
Cornbread/cracklin' bread, white beans, fried pies, etc.

Leaders:

Greeters dressed in 19th century attire to welcome those arriving, write their names on shape-coded tags.

Center 1: An older person who has served as song/choir leader and/or organist/pianist, preferably in your own congregation.
Center 2: Someone handy with projectors and an interest in the congregations's history and its artifacts.
Center 3: Person to act as "photographer" and help participants compose their period costumes.
Center 4: A gifted storyteller who can relate with flare brief but memorable episodes in your congregation's history.

Schedule:

Arrival: 10-15 minutes Participants arrive, receive their name tags, and a schedule of their progress through the centers.
Centers: 15-20 minutes You may want to use the last five minutes of each period for traveling time. Ring the church bell or buzzer to announce the period changes.
Meal: 30-45 minutes
Total: 2 hours and 20 minutes

Descriptions:

Center 1: Stewardship of Music Heritage
The ideal person to lead this activity is an older person who has served the church in past years as an organist, pianist, or song leader. If the church has some old hymnals tucked away in a corner or closet, they can be brought out and dusted off for use. If such an older person is not available from your church perhaps you might find someone from a neighboring church. Otherwise, you may want to use your current organist or choir director. Upon the entry of each group, the leader briefly recounts earlier years of the church, the instruments used in its worship (such as reed pump organs) and the type of singing. If the church has used several hymnals, these might be displayed. A hymnal with shaped notes provides interest to young and old alike–also displays of pictures of choirs and former music leaders. After the brief historical review, the leader plays and leads the group in singing a couple of hymns representative of years gone by.

Center 2: Stewardship of Written and Pictorial Heritage
More than one person may be needed for this center. Display materials so that younger children and older adults can all see. Having persons deliver materials a week in advance for inclusion in the displays will provide time for meaningful arrangement and preparation of interpretive captions. Pictures of earlier church buildings, Vacation Bible Schools, and other church activities together with pictures of the surrounding town or community during various periods of its history will be helpful. Older church session record books or copies of pages from them can be used. Your session clerk might be enlisted to help young children find their names on the roll of births and baptisms as a sign of their inclusion in the covenant community. A brief slide or video presentation of pictures of people and church activities covering periods from the church's beginning up to the present closes the session.

Center 3: Stewardship of Our Heritage of Daily Living
More than one person may be needed for this center. Pictures of church members in full period dress may be borrowed and enlarged and placed on the walls for atmosphere and ideas of how to dress. Bonnets and hats, frock tail coats, vests, and dresses suitable for use are needed. If a corner of the room is arranged with an old marble-topped table and lamp, an oval-framed picture on the wall and an ornate straight-backed chair, it can provide the backdrop for the various groups. Encourage the members of each group to combine into several different subgroups for multiple pictures. (All the pictures will be displayed later in the fellowship hall for viewing before and after the evening meal.)

Center 4: Stewardship of Memory
Selecting the leader for this center is crucial. If you have an older person who has the gift of storytelling and the actual memory of events, you are most fortunate. Probably, the only difficulty will be the challenge to such a person to select a couple of stories out of her or his wealth of memory to share in the brief time period. You may, of course, have to select a person with the gift of storytelling but who has no personal memory of past times. In this case, your storyteller will need to talk with older persons in the congregation and glean material which can be woven into a narrative relating to incidents in the life of your church family. If you have a church parlor, it will make a good setting for this center. Cushions for those who would like to sit on the floor and listen will add a family feeling.

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