“Baptized by Blessings” and “Energized by Evangelism” will provide two themes for 10:30 a.m. worship this Sunday, August 21 at Tyrone Presbyterian Church.
Grace Baptist baritone David Grazier will lead worshippers in three hymns of blessing – “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, “Count Your Many Blessings” and “Blessed Assurance”.
President of Tyrone’s Kunzler Corporation and a board member, teacher and singer at Tyrone’s Grace Baptist Church, Grazier will perform two contemporary Christian songs as the musical choral offering of the service.
As Grazier sings, Presbyterians will remember the year 1899, when they exhibited enough energy in evangelism to establish a Sunday School mission outpost along Columbia Avenue. Known as the Presbyterian Chapel, this white frame building served as a Presbyterian Sunday School for people in East Tyrone from 1899 until 1953. Eventually, this Presbyterian mission grew to number 152 Tyrone believers.
In those days of long ago, in the field surrounding the chapel, Presbyterians also conducted weekly Thursday evening evangelistic crusades for people unable to find transportation to the downtown Presbyterian Church.
On February 11, 1953, Tyrone Presbyterians sold the Presbyterian Chapel to Grace Baptist Church for the sum of $12,000. The construction of Logan Elementary School had displaced the Baptists from their old church home along Logan Avenue in Tyrone. The old Presbyterian Chapel became their new home.
In those days, Presbyterian Pastor Dr. Robert Linton Hutchison wrote these prophetic words about the sale of the Presbyterian Chapel, Our chapel property on Columbia Avenue has been sold to the Grace Baptist congregation for the sum of twelve thousand dollars. It is a source of deep satisfaction to the Tyrone Presbyterian Church to know that the purpose for which the Columbia Avenue Chapel was established will continue to be carried out by the Baptists, and that God’s Word still will go forth from the walls dedicated so long ago to the sacred cause of witnessing for Christ.
This Sunday, as Grace Baptist baritone David Grazier musically leads church members in their service “Baptized by Blessings” and “Energized in Evangelism”, Presbyterians can rejoice about the message on the Adams Avenue sign set on the site of the new Grace Baptist Church – “Building Families for Christ Through Fellowship, Discipleship, Serving and Sharing”.
Truly the humble dream of evangelism begun by some energetic Presbyterians on Columbia Avenue over a century ago promises to grow into an even greater blessing in the years to come – thanks to all the efforts of the people of Tyrone’s Grace Baptist Church.
