wfn.org | Pastor regales Small Church Breakfast crowd with story of church's

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Note #6060 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

spectacular vitality
29-June-2000
GA00112

	Pastor regales Small Church Breakfast crowd with story of church's
spectacular vitality

	by Bill Lancaster

LONG BEACH, June 29 -- A small church pastor from Santa Barbara, Calif.,
regaled a breakfast crowd with the story of how her church moved from the
point of nearly closing its doors and merging with another church to the
point of having to decide whether to go to two services or expand the
building.

	The Rev. Dale Morgan, pastor of Santa Barbara's St. Andrews Presbyterian
Church, spoke to the Small Church Breakfast Thursday at the 212th General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting here.

	St. Andrews chose to expand their building because they had started a
13-year venture by wanting to share God's love and adopting a theme of being
a family-centered church.  At first, "every activity would be done with all
church members--no small groups," Morgan told the crowd. They had no
children, but had a children's sermon every Sunday.  "Some days I had to ask
young adults to come up to talk with me," she said.  "Soon, the children
came."

	They wanted to travel together but couldn't work that out, so they
transformed the sanctuary into a sailing ship and "traveled the Aegean." 
Since then, they have taken a different trip each summer.  That was the
first stage of their plan.

	In the second stage, they adopted a new theme, "light on the hill," because
they were on a hill and the lighted church was very visible.  They began a
live, outdoor, night time nativity scene with a professional brass choir
that drew thousands over the years.

	They re-enacted Good Friday on the church grounds, washing their hands like
Pilate, carrying the cross, casting dice.  They held a sunrise candlelight
service on the church's patio. They had a Dixieland jazz band for a service
in the morning and Dixieland all afternoon.

	In the third stage, they launched a building fund and a new emphasis on
mission.  "Find ways to use who you've got to do what the community needs,"
Morgan said.  They linked with other churches, served dinners at a homeless
shelter, collected food for the food bank which they hauled up the aisle in
a wheelbarrow at the offering, helped with self-help housing, sent mission
groups to Mexico, and put petitions on the church patio for visitors to sign
on opposing land mines and other issues.

	St. Andrews is a thriving church.

	Morgan is also a member of the Board of Trustees of San Francisco
Theological Seminary and has been a Bible study and keynote speaker at
national Presbyterian gatherings.

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