By Jim Nichols

If you are of a certain age and have attended a local church congregation in the past, you probably have a memory of an announcement such as: “Please sign up for an appointment time for you or your family to have a photograph taken for the upcoming church directory.” This seemed to occur about every eight to ten years and the Olan Mills Company ran the show. Probably the main function was to sell copies of the photos to family members, but the secondary was to compile a more recent member directory.

We have replaced those today with online directories; just get out your phone. That brings ease of modification so that the directories are more current, but, to me, I miss something.

What I miss is going through a drawer at home and accidentally finding a printed directory from 10, 20, or 30 years ago or more. Not only do I find a younger version of myself and family, but I find the “cloud of witnesses” who have gone before me at that place.

I doubt that Olan and Mary Mills in 1932 began a photography business with the Bible book of Hebrews chapter 11 in mind. The American Great Depression was just ending, and they just needed work. Starting with a business that was door to door, they gradually developed a series of studios and added school and church directories to their repertoire. Officially, the company ended in 2019. There was a predictability to their church photos. Every family or individual appears with the same “library” backdrop and in one lower corner at a slight slant it read “Olan Mills.” I remember hearing jokes saying, “That’s not a picture of Olan Mills; it’s a picture of our Aunt Lucy.”

You may remember that Hebrews 11 resembles a roll call of famous (in retrospect) followers of God. The context of the chapter is that the Hebrews writer is attempting to instruct us readers about what “faith” is. Struggling to find a clearcut definition, the writer instead gives us a list of individuals who seem to have demonstrated faith through their actions and lives. We see names such as Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, and many others. As we learn or remember the contributions of each of these, we see models of how we might live, though in our current circumstances rather than in theirs. It is a powerful message.

The church directory did not make it into the Bible canon, but it does mimic the Bible list. In the old, printed directories we see the faces of members of the congregation, and it can trigger memories and appreciation. If we are thoughtful about it, we realize that those people have shaped us, perhaps to a significant extent depending on the time involved. We see people who have been the teachers in our Sunday school classes, either as children, adults, or both. We see others who accompanied us when we had our first experiences with citizens who lived in houses much different than our own and who ate many different foods. We see several who have sat with us in our physical, emotional, and spiritual struggles; just having them present with us at that time helped us recognize truths and options that we were unable to see until we were in the living room together. We see past leaders of the congregation and have flashbacks to their positive and negative contributions as they sought to be God’s people.

Do any of these directory faces belong to someone of the historical and spiritual importance of Moses? Rahab? Samson? Isaac? Is there anyone here as important to God as Samuel? David? Gideon?

Perhaps we have limited God’s action to special people in special places and times. The trap for us there is it seems to make faith inaccessible for most people, including us. These directory faces represent God’s followers who reflect goodness, kindness, trust, bravery, and insight within our own lifetimes. They may not have fought literal lions, but they have shown us consistency, forgiveness, and all the fruits of the Spirit. 

The old, printed church directory is simply our version of a personal cloud of witnesses; they are a part of us and we of them.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain