In the E.P.C.
Came into the PC(USA)
In Louisiana, with Raceland and Bayou Blue Churches
Start of back pain
Church relationships disintegrated
Almost died
Miraculously healed
In Safety Harbor as Pastor
In Safety Harbor without a Pastorate
In Chickamauga as Pastor
My peers, the youth directors, and the pastors, all encouraged me to pursue a full-time church ministry. So I came under care of the Presbyterian Church of America, and started my higher academic learning. After graduating from Belhaven College, I attended Fuller Theological Seminary for New Testament studies and then went to Reformed Theological Seminary, where I realized that I was no longer comfortable in the P.C.A. I believe women should be recognized as official leaders in the church alongside of men, and no one should usurp the shared authority of ruling the church. Jesus alone is the head of the church. Thus in any culture that accepts women leadership, women should be able to be ordained in all areas of the church. I therefore left the P.C.A. and transferred to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
There was some time between graduating with two master degrees and my ordination. This was because there was a glut of ministers on the market, my slow change from the PCA to the EPC and finally to the PC(USA), and also because we were following my wife's career as a mainframe computer programmer for Electronic Data Systems.
In the EPC
1995 – 1997
Bayou Blue
and Raceland
Start of Back pain
Confirmation Class
Officers Training
Reformation
Series
Back cured
Relationships Disintegrated
Nevertheless there were some good things we were able to accomplish; for example, confirmation class, officers’ training class, and a Reformation worship service series. My confirmation class required scripture memory, class discussion, a personal statement of faith, and interviews of two church members, asking about the church’s history, their personal faith, what makes a church leader, and how they as young adults could be responsible church members. Parents were responsible to make sure that all assigned verses were read and understood and that some were also memorized. The class ended with an examination by the elders. We thus involved the pastor, the children, parents, elders and other long-term members. Most of the children gave the class a high rating and said they enjoyed it, but thought it should be lengthened by a couple of weeks.
My officers’ training class watched movies, read materials and discussed issues. We ended the class by having the new elders read their own statements of faith, and responses to case studies. Some in the class said they learned more during those six weeks than they had in their whole lifetime.
One of the most creative things I did was a series of special worship services and sermons celebrating the church reformers. We started on Reformation Sunday with Martin Luther, then on following Sundays heard from John Calvin, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Sunday’s bulletins included an insert with the reformer’s portrait, dates, a list of major writings and some quotations. Instead of a regular sermon, each reformer spoke about their life’s work and issued a challenge for our faith today. I wrote the scripts for all the monologues, but had another person play the parts of Luther and Bonhoeffer. Since I couldn’t find others who were willing to take the other parts, I acted out the remaining parts. The only problem we had with this program was that the services were longer than normal, but no one complained.
After a year in Louisiana, my doctor told me that he could give me no more help and that I would have to live with the pain. I replied that I would not be able to live with the pain. I had already started to have suicidal thoughts, so he referred me to one of the best thoracic doctors in the United States, who worked in New Orleans. She was able to cure me with a series of back injections (prolo-therapy) and physical therapy.
During this time, though, my relationship with Bayou Blue, the country church, disintegrated. I wasn’t doing enough for them and spoke too much about community problems in my sermons. Some even thought that I must never have liked them because I didn’t live in their town. They could not understand that I had moved into a city that was located between the two churches I served.
Since Raceland, the town church, loved me, I continued to stay with them on a part-time basis. But about a year later, shortly after my back was cured, we started to have financial problems, and then my wife lost her job in New Orleans. Her previous account in Atlanta offered to relocate us, so we moved back.
Back in Atlanta
In Safety Harbor
Unintentional
Interim
Nevertheless, we found ourselves in a classical case of "an unintentional interim ministry." I had the opposite personality and leadership style than the previous long-term pastor, so after making some changes and redirecting the church to become more outward focused, a third of the congregation felt like the church no longer belonged to them. They started to grumble among themselves, did not communicate with me or the elders, and spread discontent through the phone lines and private conversations among themselves. This eventually led to my dismissal. Perhaps, if I had waited longer to make changes, and spent more time developing closer relationships with everybody in the congregation, this could have been avoided, but at the time those, who were communicating to me, were all for the changes and outreach.
An eighteen year old woman wrote, "Chuck helped my relationship with God grow to an all time high. I found myself praying more and more, being less selfish, and actually interested in going to church."
The study and reflection notes that went along with the sermons were appreciated, and some were keeping them with their personal Bibles.
One man said he learned more about the Bible and how it applied to life during the year with me than all of his life previously, and he said that his son was so enraptured with a couple of sermons that he demanded his own Bible.
Another man said that he was finally able to see Jesus clearly being presented in the pulpit, and got something out of every sermon.
The dismissal freed me to pursue work on Natural Church Development. I created Power Point presentations that is being used by the redevelopment and revitalization groups in the presbyteries of Florida, as well as some coaches of Natural Church Development.
NCD is a scientific survey and method for revitalizing a church. It measures and gives guidelines for improving eight essential qualities of a congregation:
1) Empowering Leadership;
2) Gift-oriented Ministry;
3) Passionate Spirituality;
4) Functional Structures;
5) Inspiring Worship Service;
6) Holistic Small Groups;
7) Need-oriented Evangelism; and
8) Loving Relationships.
The major emphasis is for a congregation to use its greatest strength to pull up its weakest quality, and therein improve the church's quality and again start growing numerically.
I have also helped teach the material with Susan Snedeker-Meier, introduced the NCD program to the Presbytery of Orlando, taught on Passionate Spirituality at a two-day seminar the Presbytery of Tampa Bay sponsored at Eckerd College. My work with Natural Church Development has also opened up other consulting and teaching opportunities as well. (See retreat below.)
(For greater detail on Natural Church Development click here.)
09/02 – 02/04
Even though my worked convinced them that they did not need to call a Korean-speaking pastor, they were able to call a second-generation Korean American to take over the position. So my work with them will end at the end of March.
During this time with the Korean Church until I moved to Chickamauga, GA, I worked at Washington-Mutual Loan Fulfillment Center in Clearwater.
For more information on the retreat see the the Journeys of Faith.
02/04 – 04/05
Divided Congregation
Concentrated on church unity and mission
Reasons for
the Dismissal
COM Mistreatment
(Community aftermath)
The PNC were composed of "the movers"—people who wanted to relocate the congregation onto recently purchased property next to a major highway. The sanctuary was getting crowded, and the movers hoped that greater visibility would bring in members.
Unfortunately, half of the congregation did not want to move and believed such a building project would be a great waste of money. While getting to know the congregation, I realized that the congregation did not have a good understanding of what church was about, and mistakenly believed that it only took a new building to attract visitors and bring in new members.
So I concentrated on working on mission and service as a whole church in their current situation, not waiting for some future time with a new builiding. I taught them to be other-centered, to respect one another’s viewpoints without judging motives, and to expand their knowledge of Scripture. I held a church picnic, outreach and outdoor worship service; went through Becoming a Contagious Christian; and started two spiritual-formation groups; and hosted small group dinners for everybody at the manse.
When I first arrived, those who did not want to move the church was suspicious and distrustful of me, but they came and talked with me, and eventually became my chief supporters. I did not see any use to build and move when the congregation was not currently functioning together and actively serving for Christ in their community.
Unfortunately, the movers took the opposite approach. They bickered among themselves and started to believe I would never move the congregation. They didn't think I was moving toward the goal at all. This came to a head when at the encouragement of the previous Clerk of Session, that I speak about sin, and seriously call the congregation to repentance and holiness during the upcoming Lenten season. Thus I planned to preach against grumbling, gossip, and divisiveness, and as usually, the texts and topics were published in the church newsletter. They movers saw the upcoming sermons as a direct personal attack by me, and had the COM come to remove me from the pulpit.
The COM said they would have a "cooling off" period of one month, and "research" what was going on, during which time I was not supposed to talk to any of the members. It turned out that they did no research. They did not talk to any members except the elders who said they no longe trusted my leadership, so they forced me to leave.
Within
three years, Chickamauga
Presbyterian Church called an extremely extroverted church planter, who
split the congregation, taking a portion to the EPC.
Shortly before the split, the congregtion received an extremely large bequest from the will of one of their richest members. The congregation, with Presbytery's approval, gave half of the money and the property next to the highway to those leaving so that they could eventually build a new church. As of this writing (10/7/13), the movers still have not built a building, although they have a vibrant weekly worship and fellowship.
Those who stayed within the PCUSA called a woman pastor, who got the congregation to be involved with their community, and attracted new members. Chickamauga Presbyterian Church is healthy and growing.
Temporary Jobs
US Postal Service Coder
Jake Marshall Service
Pulpit
Soddy Daisy, TN
I then began to work full-time as a coder for the post office, and now and then assisted Veronica with delivering newspapers. After working there for a year and a half, our division was shut down. The postal service did not want to renegotiate the lease on the building even though we were one of the cheapest sites, and had above average statistics.
After going through various temporary jobs, I eventually landed up at Jake Marshall Heating and Air Condition Service Company. I started as a data-entry clerk, then doing various reports for the company's comptroller, and then replaced their accounts payable clerk. Although the comptroller wanted to train me as her future replacement, I was not interested, and stayed as a full-time accounts payable clerk until moving to Curwensville, PA.
During this time between churches, I regularly preached as pulpit supply in small congregations in North Georgia, and East Tennessee, while serving on congregational redeveopment for Cherokee Presbytery. When not preaching, I first started attending Lafayette Presbyterian Church, a small congregation whose pastor was slowly dying of cancer, and then later a Northside Presbyterian Church, a large congregation in Chattanooga, TN.
In the midst of this time, I helped two small congregations in Georgia come together for Thanksgiving and Christmas programs, and then formally become yoked. Toward the end of this time, East Tennessee Presbytery was tried to get me to become the part-time designated pastor at Mowbray Presbyterian Church in Soddy Daisy, TN, but the existing designated pastor was not willing to step down, and then the First Presbyterian Church of Soddy-Daisy was using me as pulpit supply and was planning to call me as their interim when I received a call to Curwensville Presbyterian Church (PA).
05/11 – present
Community
Pastor
Stable but Declining
The previous pastor was more conservative than Huntingdon Presbytery,
and decided to transfer to the PCA. He tried to get the congregation
to leave with him, but the church did not want to split. He also had the
reputation among the majority as over emphasizing sin and duty. So I came
as a conservative moderate with an emphasis upon joy in the faith,
forgiveness, and celebrating the grace of Christ.
The PNC and I had hoped that those who had been disenfranchised by the
previous pastor's fundamentalism would return, and that only a few of the
current membership would leave; but that has not been the case. Some
of the existing members immediately left after the congregation called me,
recognizing that the young man providing pulpit supply would not become
their pastor. Those who left
because of the previous minister continue to hold grudges against some of
the current leaders, and say they will return some day, but not now; they
are enjoying their retirement. Others have transferred to other
denominations with more children and young adult programming.
Too Conservative
So with the continued loss of members to death, the decline of giving because of jobs and the economy, the continual loss of money from reserves to pay my salary, and the prospect of two or more families retiring and moving away, I am looking for another call before a fiscal crisis happens.
I regularly teach an adult Sunday evening and the men’s early Tuesday morning Bible studies, a Sunday school class, and lead the devotional for an ecumenical monthly Sunday breakfast program. I occasionally help with the youth, serve on Presbytery’s Discipleship Umbrella Team, taught a worship leadership class, and an elder training class. Since here, I’ve taught in-depth Bible studies on Amos, Micah, Hosea, Ephesians, James, and 1 Peter; taught from Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack; and David T. Lamb’s God Behaving Badly.
Also see Present Call and Accomplishments