Starting a Collection

This past spring my mom and I were in the Goodwill in Brandon, Fl and we saw a commemorative church plate, I *think* it was for a Lutheran church.  We talked about how cool it would be to start a set of dishes by collecting plates from various churches, not to mention that it's fairly inexpensive when you can just pick them up at the local thrift store.  We didn't buy that one, but I guess my mom kept to the idea and I got this plate for Christmas to start the collection.

This plate commemorates the First Baptist Church of Palmetto, Fl.  It's dated 1892-1967 meaning the plate itself is 42 years old.  It depicts the "Old church" built in 1892, and the "new sanctuary" that was completed in 1926 at a cost of $114,000.00.  An education building was completed in 1959 at a cost of $146,000.00 which they were able to pay down by 1965.   I found the church's website, it would appear that since the plate was printed a whole range more renovations were made to building because of their dramatically increasing membership. http://www.fbcpalmetto.com/history

I found this one particularly interesting because the frequent mentions on the back of the plate about the cost of renovations and such were mostly to emphasize the importance they put on paying off their debt and to be good stewards of the funds they had.  They weren't making these renovations for the sake of having a large extravagant building, they were making them because the church seemed to have a genuine need for them, and they were insistent to not build beyond their means.

Anyway, if your church has a plate or if you come across one while thrift shopping pick it up for me would you?