Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. Last week we celebrated

our 10th anniversary and I realized that we have one more Wednesday in this month of

August. So why not celebrate the 10th anniversary two times? So in honor of you all who have

been listening to this episode, I want to dedicate this episode to you and want to address this

question, why church history? On the one hand, you've been listening. Maybe you haven't been listening

for 10 years, but you're listening. So I think you already appreciate the value of church history,

but it's probably good for us to just take a pause from looking at all these events and all of

these places and all of these people through church history to just ask the question, why?

What value is church history to us? I can tell you the impact it has had on me. I felt drawn to

church history because I loved history. I think history helps us understand who we are, helps us

understand our roots, helps us understand our place in this world. I remember reading the poem

by Langston Hughes, the Negro Speaks of Rivers. And in the poem, he recounts the great rivers,

the Nile River, the Euphrates River, and his ancient peoples who grew up along those rivers

and accomplished things. He even references the mighty Mississippi. And then he has this beautiful

line, my soul has grown deep like the rivers. And I think what he means in that line of that

poem is that as he engages in a very real way with the past, he himself has a better understanding

of who he is. And he has a better understanding of his place in this world. We can also turn to

our good friend Spurgeon. We bring him up a lot on five minutes in church history. And there's

a reason. He has a lot of smart things to say. And Spurgeon once said in the context of using

commentaries, I find it odd that someone who thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit teaches them

thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others also. And so he was encouraging people to

use commentaries because the Holy Spirit is not an individual gift. The Holy Spirit is a

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