January 11, 2007

Members of the First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs gathered in front of the church after last Sunday’s service. The 150-year-old church seeks to attract new families to its congregation at a time of rising costs and aging membership.

By Virgil Hervey

The First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs sits like a silver-haired dowager, keeping watch over the center of the village. The stories from her rich 150-year history are the stuff of legend.

An organist’s apprentice in the 1950s, seeking to rid the organ of mice that were chewing on its bellows, let a large snake loose in the choir loft. Once the mice were gone, the snake slithered down the stairs to the sanctuary and made its first public appearance during Sunday worship.

And in the early 1900s, a neighbor’s chicken disappeared for a few weeks and was finally spotted one Sunday as church was letting out, emerging from a wooden shed on the side of the stone building, trailed by six little chicks, which were promptly named “The Presbyterians.”

According to long-time parishioner Jim Felder, Rev. Dr. Buckley S. Rude, seeking to diversify the congregation in the early 1960s, reached out to African American families around the village, literally going door-to-door, inviting them to worship at the Presbyterian Church. To this day such families as the Brisbanes, Felders, Johnsons, and Childs are mainstays of the church.

At a crossroad
Though pastors have come and gone over the years, the congregation has stayed pretty much the same with one significant change: it’s grown smaller. Currently numbering about 100, the church membership has over the last five years lost many church stalwarts, such as Mabel Weiss, who have not been replaced by new members. On a normal Sunday, between 30 and 40 people attend worship service.

Recently, after four years of struggling unsuccessfully to attract young families with children, full-time Pastor Angie Schenck resigned as the congregation sought new directions, both fiscally and philosophically. Schenck declined to be interviewed for this article.

In many ways, the problems confronted by the Presbyterian Church are the same as those confronting the village, an aging population and decreasing revenues during a time of rising costs, especially for the maintenance of an older infrastructure. Ironically, the church is looking to change its fortunes by bringing itself more into sync with the village’s values, according to Kay Reimers, a session member and chair of the newly formed Revitalization Committee. In recent years Reimers, a lifelong member of the church, has been a leader in the movement for change.

“The Bible gives us the material for the ages, but also gives us the task of shaping that material to fit the needs of our time,” she said in a recent interview. “A faithful Christian, in order to be faithful, must reconstruct and not simply replicate the Christian heritage.”

Reimers believes that, in order for the church to stay relevant, it should play a political role, “but only in relevance to Jesus’ message.” The church should address such issues as inequality of wealth and stewardship of the earth, but not pretend to speak for God. Belief in the “otherness of God” should be maintained, she said.

“God is on the side of the powerless,” Reimers said.

Reimers suggests that emphasis should be moved away from “salvation through Jesus,” and thinks the search committee should explore the concept of progressive Christianity in seeking a new pastor. She would like to see a balance between a traditional worship service and a progressive social agenda that emphasizes social justice and environmental issues.

Keith GunderKline, a church elder and also a member of the Revitalization Committee, said in a recent interview that he agrees with Reimers that the key to increasing the church’s membership is to change to a more progressive brand of Christianity.

According to GunderKline, the congregation as a whole is open to looking at change, and the session has endorsed this exploration. Last fall, the church held a retreat where the congregation, in preparation for molding its future, looked at the church’s history and its present state.

“Right now we are still wrestling with who we are and how we worship,” he said. “And what does progressive Christianity mean theologically?”

Many strengths
Due to reduced income and high maintenance expenses, the church has been running at a deficit. There are adequate reserves for some time to come, but the church is looking to balance its budget by relying on a part-time minister, Reimers said. She feels the church will attain financial stability again in a couple of years and will once again hire a full-time pastor. In the past few years, heating bills in the winter months have been higher than the pastor’s salary, she said.

But there’s life in the old girl yet. Recently, the church held a rummage sale to raise funds to install a lift from the entrance level to the sanctuary level to improve the church’s handicapped accessibility. A few years ago, the organ was entirely rebuilt and a new console and ranks of pipes were added. The nursery, which in recent years had been a sometime operation during worship services, is now staffed with a paid babysitter.

Music has always played a big role in worship at the Presbyterian Church. Antioch’s Walter Anderson, the first African-American head of a college music department in the nation, served as organist in the 1950s and 60s. During Schenck’s tenure, she enlisted the help of Brian Walker, whose band Pure Rhythm still plays once a month on “Jazzy Sunday Mornings.” The Soul Stirrers, a gospel group consisting of the unlikely combination of Al Denman, Jim Felder, Dayna Foster, Molly GunderKline and Jeanna Breza, also makes regular monthly appearances. Recently, James Johnston, the current Antioch music department head, was hired as organist and music director.

Sunday school for kids in grades K–6 and the youth group of teenagers from the McKinney School and the Yellow Springs High School have been active under the direction of Libby Rudolph and Theresa Mayer. The younger group numbers about seven and the junior and senior high group has about 9–10 kids, Rudolph said. These groups continue to be strong.

The youth group gets together for events such as bowling outings and pizza parties, and has also held fundraisers. Recently the group raised $141 for the subsidized lunch program at the high school, which no longer receives federal funds.

Most of the kids from the youth group also participate in the youth choir, under the direction of Johnston. They rehearse once weekly and sing on the same Sundays as the Soul Stirrers, Rudolph said.

Last year, Rudolph started up a group of artists who meet on the first Monday of each month in Westminster Hall, the church’s fellowship hall. It is a loose-knit group that is open to the community. The 10–15 artists might agree on a theme or centerpiece for a meeting, or they will just bring in their own works-in-progress and bounce ideas off each other, she said. Rudolph views it as a way to bring artistic energy and creativity into the church building.

Other programs bring people into the building as well: four different Alcoholics Anonymous groups meet there in the evenings; Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts use a meeting room in the basement; and the Web Coffeehouse is open in the basement on Saturday nights. The church also rents out Westminster Hall for such varied events as belly dance workshops and wedding receptions.

The church’s sanctuary is well-known throughout the region for its wonderful acoustics. Chamber Music Yellow Springs has a contract with the church to hold its concerts there.

Recognizing that the Presbyterian Church was an important center of activities for Yellow Springs, in the late 1950s, villagers contributed heavily to the construction of Westminster Hall. For the past three years it has been the venue for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner, which is organized by the Interfaith Council. Organizers decided to hold the dinner at the Presbyterian Church because it was the consensus that it has the best kitchen, said the Presbyterian Church’s Dayna Foster, the point person for this year’s dinner.

Every year, in conjunction with Street Fair, the church holds a Strawberry Festival in the spring and an Apple Fest in the fall. It has become a tradition for locals to attend the Strawberry Festival at the Presbyterian Church on Friday nights before Spring Street Fair.

No shepherd
For the time being, as a pastor search is conducted, worship will be facilitated by a variety of guest speakers, local and lay pastors, and ordained ministers to serve communion on the first Sunday of the month.

It is not unusual for the church to be without a pastor, according to Lila Reed Jones, who in 1955 published The First 100 Years, a history of the church.

“There were times between pastorates, at special events and on other occasions, when ministers other than our own supplied our pulpit graciously. These services were more than ordinarily appreciated,” she wrote.

This past Sunday, villager Tom Dozeman, an ordained Presbyterian minister, presided over worship. Next Sunday, Jan. 14, the worship will be presided over by the Rev. Judith Barr from the Miami Presbytery’s pulpit supply, and the following week, Keith GunderKline will conduct the service as a lay pastor.

In his sermon, Dozeman equated the church’s present state to a “vulnerable moment in our rite of passage.” He also called it an oasis where the congregation could “gather strength for the next phase of our journey.”

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com