November 2, 2025
Both Trinity and St. Peter’s began as part of the German Reformed Church in America! Through mergers, we are now part of the United Church of Christ. We just celebrated the 300th Anniversary of the German Reformed Church in America! How it started was a schoolteacher named John Philpp Boehm came from Germany to Penn’s Woods (now Pennsylvania) in 1720. He settled near what’s now the city of Norristown.
At that time, there were many other German Reformed immigrants, but there were no German Reformed Church ordained pastors here. John Philip Boehm’s father was a pastor, so Boehm grew up going to church in Germany. Without a pastor, German Reformed Christians gathered in homes on Sundays to worship. When three congregations heard about Boehm, a schoolteacher whose father was a pastor, they asked him to be their “reader.” He led religious services at the three congregations. He would travel100 miles a month on horseback, down dangerous trails, and coming across Native Americans.
The congregations he served wanted him to perform baptisms and celebrate communion. He said, “No.” His father was a pastor, so he knew you had to be ordained to be a minister and go through a process of training, education, and be approved by the denomination. So, he said, “No.” People kept after Boehm to give them communion, asking for 5 years. The answer was always “No.” Henry Antes, who hosted a congregation in his home in Fegleysville, told Boehm, “You will have to answer for it at the last judgement if so many souls are lost who could have been saved.” Finally, after 5 years, although he wasn’t ordained, John Philipp Boehm said, “yes.” He celebrated communion with the congregation at Faulkner Swamp on Oct. 15, 1725. That was 300 years ago, and that is considered the start of the German Reformed Church in America! Boehm celebrated communion, but wouldn’t perform baptisms, because he wasn’t ordained.
A couple of years later, he finally got ordained in New York by the Dutch Reformed Church. John Philip Boehm got ordained due to many persistent people who wouldn’t take no for an answer!
25 years ago, I served Salem UCC in Berks County which started in 1735. John Philipp Boehm was their first minister. When I was at Salem, I often heard them tell the story of how his church people begged him, and how he finally presided over communion. The German Reformed Church, our tradition, began because people wouldn’t take no for an answer!
Many Christians are like that! If you’re not a Christian, or churchgoer, I’m glad you’re here today. I want to explain why your Christian friend won’t take no for an answer! They keep asking you to go to church, or read something, watch something, go to a bible study, or talk about faith over coffee. They just keep bringing it up! Christians persistently invite!
I don’t want you to miss the opportunity to be personally involved in someone’s faith story. It’s great when you can bring family members to faith. I want you to have someone outside your family who can say about you, “this is the person who was instrumental in helping me discover or rediscover my faith.” I want you to be stubborn in inviting someone to come closer to God. Stubbornness is a virtue when you want what’s best for someone.
You never know how one small invitation may change someone’s life, until you offer it!
What keeps us from persistently inviting a friend to read something, watch something, go to church, go to a Bible study, talk about faith over coffee? Well, we think, “Oh, I already know what they’re going to say!” “I know what’s going to happen if I ask!” I mean, think about it, nobody would ever get married if they got stuck worrying what will happen if I ask?
How about we honor people with the opportunity to answer for themself? How about we ask and let them decide? Our words don’t have to be perfect. There’s no need to overthink it. Just ask!
The Apostle Paul was someone who was always ready to tell someone about Jesus!
In Acts 25, Paul has been arrested, because the chief priests and elders charged him with bringing Greeks into the temple and teaching against their ways. They wanted to kill Paul. But Paul was a Roman Citizen, which gave him the right when accused to appeal to Caeser, to be tried and defend himself in a court in Rome.
King Festus was holding Paul under arrest before he would be sent to Rome. But the king had trouble understanding what the Jews were charging Paul with. In Acts 25:18-20, King Festus said to his friend, King Agrippa the 2nd, “When Paul’s accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. 19 Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. 20 I was at a loss how to investigate such matters.”
King Agrippa was more familiar with Jewish customs and traditions. He agreed to help King Festus understand the matter. And he was interested to hear what Paul had to say. When King Festus would send Paul to Rome, he would have to send a report about Paul with the charges against him.
So, Paul was brought to the audience room to speak to King Agrippa, his sister Bernice, King Festus and the high-ranking military officials and prominent men of the city. Paul was given the chance to defend himself. But ever since he became a Christian Paul’s mission on earth was to tell more and more people about Jesus. So, Paul was thrilled to be in a room with important men who didn’t know Jesus. Paul takes the opportunity to talk about him to these men, because it may be the only opportunity for them to hear about Jesus.
Pretty soon, King Agrippa realizes, “Wait a minute! Paul isn’t defending himself, he’s trying to convert all of us!” In Acts 26:28 says, “Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’”
Paul says, “I pray that you and everyone here may become what I am, except for these chains!” Did Paul convince King Agrippa? It doesn’t sound like it. He may not have convinced any of the important people in that room. So, was Paul foolish to try to ask them to follow Jesus? Well, Paul’s words made it into the Bible, the best-selling book in the world! You can read his words in Acts chapter 26, and you should, millions of people have! That’s why I’m so glad Paul didn’t chicken out on speaking about Jesus or worry about offending someone.
The reason Paul asked that roomful of men to believe, and the reason Christian friends persistently invite is because God loves everyone and sent Jesus for your salvation and to turn the world upside down with his love. The news about God’s love is to good to keep to ourselves!
My homework for you is to ask God to tell you who needs you to be that persistent inviter. When you consider it takes inviting a person 7 times before they come to church, you have to keep asking, it’s the only way!
Think about those German reformed Christians in the 1720s who didn’t take no for an answer. Think about Paul who didn’t tone down his words. Invite someone to read something or watch something or go to church or for coffee and don’t take no as the final answer! Stubbornness is a virtue when you want what’s best for someone else! Amen.
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 