MACON, GA — During Sunday morning services at Calvary Ridge Baptist Church, Gerald Foss, 61, was presented with the congregation’s Faithful Servant Award commemorating four decades of unbroken attendance, a milestone he reached, according to church records, in 2011 — fifteen years before he joined the church.

The award, a walnut-mounted brass plaque engraved with the years 1984–2024, was delivered by Senior Pastor Doug Whitfield during the announcements segment to sustained applause from the 230-person congregation. Foss, who began attending Calvary Ridge in February 2012, accepted the plaque, shook the pastor’s hand, and sat down.

“I didn’t know what to do,” said Foss, 61, a retired HVAC contractor. “The whole church stood up. My wife was crying. I wasn’t going to say anything right then.”

The error traces to a 2014 database migration that merged two member records — Foss’s and that of Gerald R. Foss Sr., his late father, who did attend for 41 years before his death in 2009. The records have shared a file ever since.

“In terms of the database, he’s been here since Eisenhower. We stand by the plaque.”

Church administrator Pam Dreiling, 54, acknowledged the discrepancy but noted that correcting it would require a congregational vote to rescind a public honor, which would require a quorum, which the church has not achieved in nine consecutive years.

“Technically the record is wrong,” Dreiling said. “But in terms of the database, he’s been here since Eisenhower. We stand by the plaque.”

At press time, Foss had hung the plaque in his garage and was privately considering whether fourteen years of faithful attendance is, in its own way, worth something.