From the Archives: Can You Hear Me Now?

Chris Withrow - June 18, 2025

If you are from the South and as old as I am, then you likely recall the old Southern Bell jingle: “Reach out and touch someone.” I laugh when thinking how this extinct phone company’s jingle would not be accepted in contemporary marketing campaigns. Remember the Verizon commercial of more recent years with the tagline: “Can you hear me now?”

Many of you are reading this history blog on a tablet, iPhone, or other personal device. Did you know that a single iPhone has 100,000 times the processing power of the Apollo 11 computer and that it could handle 120 million moon missions at once? Why does this matter? A lot was happening in July 1969 when Apollo launched… not the least of which was St. Stephen’s continuing evolution. This installment in our From the Archives series recalls the way we communicated during those early years and looks back at our earliest membership rolls and directories. What happened to enable humanity to move from rotary phones, phone trees, and snail mail to holding in our hands more ability to communicate than NASA once possessed in total? I ask this question rhetorically as we have seen this occur before us.

Browsing through the resource center to find St. Stephen’s old church directories is nothing less than a look into a time capsule. The lists and pictorial directories document the people, families, and staff who built our faith community.

Can you imagine if someone asked a first-time guest: “What’s Your Snap?” In 2025 it is a legitimate way people ask for someone’s contact. If you do not know what that means, then ask a teenager or call me. In our era of Church Community Builder (CCB), smartphones, internet, texting, and color laser printers we can beg the question: What did people do before the origination of these technologies? How did people remain in touch with one another?

When St. Stephen was established there were 69 original charter members. Within the first-year membership tripled. Communication needs arose quickly.

Think old school publications: It amazes me how creative our early church founders worked with pen and ink, an IBM Selectric and mimeograph machines (I can smell that purple chemical now). It took a labor of love to produce early publications, directories, and memberships lists. My best research reveals that 1973 was the first year we employed Delmar Studios to professionally publish our first directory. Despite this, someone continued to produce hand drawn covers and typewritten membership directories all the way until 1980.

See the display in the coffee table curio in the Resource Center and attached graphic exhibits to this article below.

Did you know: Our CCB web interface has an accompanying app for our phones called LEAD? The app enables you to access our church directory and contact information with a few taps on your phone screen. Thank you, Pam Smith, for teaching me about it. Check it out or ask someone for help finding it. (You must be a leader or assistant leader of any of our numerous groups to use this app.)

The next history installment we shall look at the deeply rooted missional characteristics defining our church. In January of this year Clonnie Lambert and I enjoyed an afternoon talking about the early days of two missions dear to his heart: Habitat for Humanity and Appalachia Service Project. Visting how some of these “Critical” missions began, how they have shaped our service mindedness, and how they have helped us evolve into being the hands, heart, and feet of Jesus Christ.

Other upcoming installments include Garden City Youth Retreats, The Treasure Sale, Room in the Inn, and much more.