Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

1/9/2004
Congregation Working With What God Offers

By Christa Hoyland Special to the Courier Journal

Some people could look at Grace Presbyterian Church in Clarksville and see a decline.

The congregation used to be larger, but now only about half of its 60 members attend Sunday services. Yet the pastor, the Rev. Charles Pye, doesn't see the numbers; he sees God working among and through the congregation.

"As soon as I came here, I really felt God's presence — here, now, with the size that we are, with the people that we have," said Pye, who came as a student minister in April 2002 and is now part-time minister. "God's presence is not because of what we were, but ... God is here because of what we are.

"No matter how few they are, we are a complete church," he said. "A church is about the worship of God. God is here. God is working amongst us, not to do what we want, but what God wants and in God's way." Pye does want the church to be revitalized, and he is teaching the congregation to achieve that through prayer and listening to God. "There's a willingness here to listen and to wait," he said. "Our mission as a church will come to us in God's own way, not according to our schedule. It's a wonderful gift to be in a church that is willing to do that."

Yet that waiting and listening make for "a slow process," he said. "It would be so much simpler if we all got a fax every day or an e-mail from God that said, `OK, this is what I want you to do.' But we don't.

"It's one word: Listen. It sounds like the easiest thing in the world, but that takes years. One of the hardest things to do in the world is to shut up."

Pye fosters that listening attitude by emphasizing meditation on God's word in his sermons, incorporating Scripture throughout the worship service and allowing time for quiet reflection. He also leads by example. In 1999 at age 46, he left his growing accounting practice in New York City to follow God's call to the ministry. He moved to Louisville with his wife, Carol, and their daughter Leah, now 12, to attend the Presbyterian seminary.

Four years later, he said, he is following God's direction to incorporate his accounting expertise and his ministerial gifts in what he calls an accounting ministry, in which he teaches "churches about accounting issues from a theological point of view." He also hopes to begin leading seminars to help people with financial issues by emphasizing the commandment "Thou shall not covet," rather than the popular teaching on simply tithing.

"We need to put a stopper on our desires," on the mentality that "more is always better," he said.

The congregation is looking at what it can offer, such as its prayer ministry, considering its size and its mostly older members. At the start of the war with Iraq, members met to pray for soldiers they knew fighting there. In the following months, the prayer ministry expanded to include anyone for whom the members wanted to pray.

The members — including some who come on their lunch hour — meet monthly for 45 minutes of prayer and a simple lunch. It has become a very meaningful ministry, Pye said.

"We couldn't run a soup kitchen; we don't have that kind of energy," he said. "What we can do is pray."

And they can visit the sick. Pye and several other members visit members and their friends who are ill or hospitalized. The church also offers space to a small Korean congregation, which meets on Sunday afternoons. About a dozen people attend those services, led by the Rev. Bong O. Chang.

And as former members return and new members join, Grace Presbyterian's offerings will evolve, Pye said. For example, some young families have come to the church, and services include a children's sermon followed by Sunday school.

"As God calls different people to the congregation, then we will hear ... God calling us to work within this congregation in a different way," he said. "God has plans and ideas and resources [of which] we don't have any idea. It's so wonderful to watch God working."

Shirley Hyden, who joined the church in 1996, said Pye's becoming pastor is an example of God's working. When the church's former pastor left in early 2002, the congregation spent a lot of time praying for a new one, she said.

"Our prayers were answered with Charlie," she said. "He just fit in." Hyden, 70, of Clarksville, found it easy to fit in herself thanks to the congregation's welcoming attitude. When she first came to Grace Presbyterian while she was dating her husband, Robert, she said, she was overwhelmed with the welcome she received.

"They made me feel right at home, like I'd been there all my life," she said. "I've been to churches all over the world, and I'd never felt the warmth and family atmosphere like I did at this church."

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