Weekly Community Dinners Awaken Homewood Church to New Beginnings
09-13-2016 by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service
Congregation discerns new, hands-on ways to put their faith in action.
When the Rev. Dr. Nancy Jo Dederer earned her Doctor of Ministry degree in parish revitalization, she had no idea that church transformation would become her calling.
And not only her calling, but also a blessing to the people of Homewood, Illinois.
“I had anticipated doing my degree at McCormick [Theological Seminary] in preaching, but choosing parish revitalization was an act of the Spirit,” said Dederer, who became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Homewood in 2001.
Homewood, Dederer quickly discovered—a Chicago suburb with a population of roughly 18,000—reflects many of the same trends that are changing the demographic makeup of the United States.
“When I started, we were averaging 150 in worship,” Dederer said. “Since then, we have lost 100 members either to death, moving away to be with their children, or people who just weren’t ready for change. The primary change that’s happening in Homewood is that as the older, white people are dying, retiring, or moving, African-American residents primarily from the Southside of Chicago are coming and buying houses. In addition to that, the church, which was primarily associated with the former pastor who had served it for 33 years, had an identity problem. And we were still stuck.”
Stuck, that is, until the congregation discovered a way forward through the New Beginnings program, an assessment and prayer discernment process that helps churches make meaningful decisions about their future. Formerly offered through the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s office of Vital Congregations, the program continues to be available to PC(USA) congregations through the Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation.