Wayne Young, senior pastor of the Lodi English Oaks church, discovered that it was in 1905 when a group of 17 Seventh-day Adventist believers met in a tent in Lodi to organize into a church body. He challenged his congregation to utilize the approaching anniversary date as an outreach opportunity. After hundreds of hours in research and planning, a package of praise and worship events marked the centennial on the weekend of Oct. 14-16.

A Friday evening vespers of “Music and Memories” opened the series. Several former pastors shared testimonies, recalling special moments during their ministry in Lodi. Rose Schaffer-Olson, wife of the late Pastor Hayward Schaffer, shared her experience.

“On Sabbath, June 22, 1974, we caravanned, with police escort, across town from the old Central church to the new sanctuary just completed on Century Boulevard,” said Schaffer-Olson. “With the choir leading, the elders and congregation entered and held their first worship in this new church home.”

Sabbath morning, Wanda Hanson turned the focus to missions. Youth readers Hannah Myhre, Sarah Sinz, Graham Allen and Cambria Hunter contributed to her report. They reminded members that soon after the Millerite disappointment, early Adventists were alerted to a worldwide mission under the motif of three angels. To illustrate this idea, a large world map on the platform, with cords radiating from Lodi to the ends of the earth, identified places where some 80 members have served.

Jose Rojas, director of the Adventist Volunteer Ministries Network and the Office of Young Adult Ministries for the North American Division, led the worship service. He related a personal experience he had some years back with Lodi’s very own congregation. “At that moment of need in my life, you demonstrated your open acceptance and care for my family,” said Rojas. “Don’t lose that gift of primitive Godliness,” he urged.

Doctors Fred and Tom Bunch led a Sabbath afternoon “Journey of Faith." Slides pictured several locations where the church worshipped until 1914. Then a much larger edifice was built on Central Avenue, and it served the congregation as home for 60 years until the move to the English Oaks campus.

Attendees also got to watch a screening of primitive motion pictures from the 1930s showing the construction of the Lodi Academy gymnasium. The centennial celebration concluded Sunday morning with a brunch and a tour of local historical sites.