My season of being involved as a member at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth is drawing to a close.
How it All Began
In January 2018, my partner and I moved from Corinth (just outside of Denton, Texas) to downtown Fort Worth. At the time, I was engaged in a short-term ministry venture, which included preaching every Sunday. When that role concluded in March 2018, we started looking for a church home.
This journey, which came to be known as our search for a church, lasted over a year. During that time, we attended 61 worship services in 36 different congregations During this time, a few of the congregations we visited more than once announced transitions of their senior clergy person, including the early retirement of the Rev. Karl Travis as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth for medical reasons.
After a dozen visits to First Presbyterian, we became members of FPC FW in May 2019..
Small World Conections
First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth was more than just a Mainline Protestant congregation that was a short walk from our home; it is a faith community that had been served by people I knew, and deeply respected, and, from whom I learned a great deal.
The Rev. Dr. Robert (Bob) W. Bohl served as the Senior Pastor from 1980-1996. And, from 1994-1995 he served as Moderator of the General Assembly. I served alongside Dr. Bohl at First Presbyterian Church in Naples, Florida in the late 2000s.
The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Johnson Pense was one of the first women ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1969. She was an Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington in the 1990s, during which time she served as my confirmation teacher. In retirement, she was a popular Sunday school teacher and education leader at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth until her passing in 2020.
Finally, FPC FW is part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) – the denomination I’ve been a part of for more of my life than any other.
Meaningful Memories
During the three years we were members, a great deal happened in the world and in the life of this congregation.
I primarily volunteered as an adult Sunday school teacher. I led multiple on campus classes before the pandemic, and transitioned to teach online after COVID-19 led the congregation to temporarily discontinue on campus worship and education.
The following blog posts speak to my experiences in this congregation:
- New Beginnings at First Presbyterian (April 2021)
- Pandemic Regathering: 8 Experiences (April 2021)
- First In Person Worship Experience in a Year (March 2021)
- Top 10 Memories of 2020 (December 2020)
- First Sunday After the Election (November 2020)
- 6 Months (and Counting) Without In Person Worship (September 2020)
- 10 In Person Worship Experiences from 2020 (July 2020)
- Teaching Sunday School in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic (June 2020)
- Epiphany: Shining God’s Universal Love (January 2020)
- Sermon Length: Comparing My Experiences to Pew Research Findings (December 2019)
- A Sunday School First (November 2019)
- Expanding My Horizons (October 2019)
- Future Faith – Coming Soon (August 2019)
- Living Christianly (July 2019)
- Our Search for a Church 2.0 is Over! (May 2019)
- Walking to Worship (April 2019)
- TCT MLK Day of Service 2019 (January 2019)
- Search for a Church 2.0 – Pastoral Transitions (January 2019)
- World Communion Sunday 2018 (October 2018)
Goodbye
In April 2021, Rev. Dr. Brian Coulter started his ministry as the congregation’s new Senior Pastor.
In June 2021, I started a new role as the Executive Director of the White Rock Center of Hope in Dallas. In this role, I spend the majority of my time in Dallas, and invest significant energy connecting with the many East Dallas congregations that support this ministry. The rest of the time, we primarily worship at Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ in Dallas – a congregation we joined in 2017.
Just as life changes led us to become active members of FPC FW, they became the reason we chose in June 2022 to ask that our names be removed from the congregation’s membership roll. After attending only a few times in the last year it became clear we were no longer participating in the congregation’s work and worship in meaningful ways, and that this pattern was not our “new normal” not a temporary aberration.
So What?
Three years in a congregation is significant.
In my life, I’ve been a part of only a handful of congregations for this length of time:
- First Presbyterian Church of Arlington, Texas (1977-1994)
- King of Glory Lutheran Church (2004-2007)
- Naples United Church of Christ (2010-2015)
- First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth, Texas (2019-2022)
- Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ (2017-present)
Today, I pause to give thanks for my experiences at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, especially
- being challenged to live fully as follower of the Way of Jesus, especially through the preaching
- teaching the Growing Families of Faith, Boomers, and Journeys classes and learning within and beyond the classroom from many of these students
- participating in Circles of Christ (established in 2019)
I wish this congregation well as it seeks to live into and up to its mission of inspiring disciples and engaging the world.