ALBANY — For the die-hard members of Albany’s First Presbyterian Church, those who came faithfully to the historic old downtown structure as their weekly attendance gradually dwindled to a handful, there is solace to be had in the knowledge that they understand a little clearer now one of the most basic tenets of the Christian faith.Resurrection.
First Presbyterian, whose membership once surpassed 400, was down to some “18-to-25 faithful” and in danger of having its doors shut before the church’s pastor nominating committee decided to take a chance on a fiery young believer who was preaching at an African-American church near Oakland, Calif.
Some eight months later, under the leadership of 28-year-old Garrett Andrew, First Presbyterian has increased its membership by 68 percent and those once sparse Sunday crowds have grown to around 100.
Not that the church’s members and their young pastor are ready to declare victory just yet. For the suddenly growing church, there’s still plenty of work to be done before the resurrection of First Presbyterian is complete.
“We’re riding the wave of the Holy Spirit here,” Andrew, born, raised and educated in California, said during a recent conversation. “This church is living proof that God is greater than any one church, any one person, any one planet or any one universe.
“First Presbyterian is a standing miracle. I think even the Presbytery had written this church off. But our members know more now about resurrection than any of them ever did before.”
Many of First Presbyterian’s members are quick to credit Andrew, who studied at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, for the church’s turnaround. But just as quickly the boyish pastor deflects such talk.
“People rightfully look to their pastor as a leader,” he said, “but a lot of people look for the pastor to do everything. That’s not what being a church family is about. A church body must recognize and use the gifts of all its members.”
Betts Smith has been a member of First Presbyterian longer than anyone else on the church rolls. She joined in December of 1949, when membership was above 400. She said that the departure of popular preacher Jack Hand in 1955 led to a rift in the church. About half of its membership left for the newly formed Covenant Presbyterian in Northwest Albany.
“We still had around 200 members, but a lot of the people who left were young people,” said Smith, a native of Wilmington, Del. “Gradually, we started losing members, and then about 10 to 15 years ago things really got bad.
“It got to the point where I just said ‘I’m going to stay here until the doors are closed for good.’ Thank goodness, that didn’t happen.”
But it almost did.
Monty Cox, the 27-year-old chair of the pastor nominating committee who had joined First Presbyterian when he was 9, said the church was on the verge of being unable to pay its utilities bills. He cringes at the thought of how close his church came to closure.
“The people who were still coming here — and some days there were only about 18 — were growing frustrated,” Cox said. “I think we on the nominating committee knew if we brought the wrong individual here, we were done. It was critical we get the right person.
“We had to get the person that God called.”
The long strange trip that brought Andrew to First Presbyterian certainly has the markings of divine intervention. After serving an internship at Sojourner Truth Presbyterian in Oakland and working for a year at nearby Elmhurst Presbyterian, Andrew said he “opened myself up to the entire country.”
His biography, a resume of sorts listed on the Presbyterian Church’s Pastor Information Forum, drew interest from a number of unusual places.
“I was contacted (for interviews) by a Chinese church, a Taiwanese church, a church all the way across the country in Mobile, Ala.,” Andrew said. “I said yes to everyone I heard from except for one church: First Presbyterian of Albany.”
Andrew and his wife, Melinda, did not really want to leave California, but they decided to travel to Mobile for an interview. And, since they were flying all the way across the country, they relented to visiting Albany.
“I sent out eight e-mails to people whose resumes I’d seen on the PIF after looking at 75 to 100,” Cox said. “Garrett was the only one who replied, even though his reply was that he wasn’t interested. Since he had responded, I looked closer at his resume and realized how impressive it was.
“I sent him another e-mail telling him how interested in him we were.”
When Garret and Melinda finished their tour of the newly built — and heavily attended — Presbyterian Church in Mobile, they figured they’d found a new home.
“It was perfect,” Andrew said of the thriving Alabama church. “The interview went great; Melinda and I loved it. I started a couple of times to call the people in Albany and tell them thanks but no thanks, but something made me go ahead with the trip.”
When the Andrews saw the mostly vacant downtown area and the condition of the stately old church at 220 N. Jackson St., they were even more convinced they were headed to Mobile.
“We went to a service, and there were about 18 people there, including us,” Garrett Andrew said. “The kids choir sang a song — there were three of them, and one of them was dressed in full fatigues with a John Deere hat. An older gentleman walked up to me before the night was over and said, ‘You look like a Yankee.’
“I knew this place was wrong. Everything about it said, ‘no’. I knew when we got to the airport, I would never see Albany, Georgia again. Just goes to show you that God has a sense of humor.”
Cox made one final push to convince the Andrews to stay in Albany while the pastor and his wife were waiting at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport for a plane that would no doubt take the couple to Mobile. But a funny thing happened during that wait.
“Here’s what happened: God kicked me in the face,” Andrew said. “I thought back to a sermon my mentor had preached about the apostles’ lack of faith during a storm. Jesus went into the storms unafraid, and I knew it was my calling to go into this storm.”
And that he’s done, overcoming a somewhat awkward introduction period — “When some of the members heard I was coming from San Francisco, they wanted to make sure I was married,” Andrew laughs — during which he’s appealed to members and visitors both old and young, black and white, rich and poor. The response has been nothing short of miraculous.
“There are a lot of people who’ve been around for a while who don’t like changes,” B.F. McKinney, the church’s oldest member at 90, said. “But change is good when God’s in it. We’ve got a good minister now, a man who’s blending the old and the young and getting them to work together.
“This has been a great church to me; my three kids grew up in this church. This is my church home.”
Thirty-three-year-old Jason Hill, in the past an “off-and-on” attendee, says the new spirit at First Presbyterian is good for his young family.
“The church is alive now with growth and spirit,” he said during a recent Bible study session. “It’s like a renaissance here, alive and thriving.”
Andrew is given to writing down quotes he likes. A section of one wall in his office is covered with yellow Post-It notes that contain such words of wisdom as “No man can at one time call attention to himself and glorify God ...” and “A church filled with the Holy Spirit is God’s greatest tool ...” and “Work as though everything depends on you, but pray as though everything depends on God.”
On another section of the same wall is one little Post-It note, sitting by itself.
“I have these sayings that inspire me over here,” the pastor says, pointing to his collection of quotes, “but I also have these three devils here that I look at every day.”
On the tiny slip of paper are three words: “pride, money and sex.”
“Pride’s the worst of them; that’s why I thank God that He and my family bring me down to Earth every chance I get,” Andrew said. “Every time I preach a sermon and think ‘I’m so good,’ invariably the next one will suck.
“I’ve learned to put my trust in the Holy Spirit, and I believe that whatever we have or will accomplish at First Presbyterian Church will be the will of God.”
During a fellowship dinner at the church on a recent Wednesday night, Charlie Mullis came by to talk to a visitor. A member at First Baptist Church of Albany for 48 years, Mullis and his wife, Pat, are the newest members at First Presbyterian.
“I felt that First Baptist started losing its direction several years ago,” Charlie Mullis said. “I have no animosity toward First Baptist, any of their members or their pastor, but when they moved (to Lee County), I stayed put.
“Pat and I started going to different churches, and we had kind of settled on First Methodist and Porterfield as the churches we were supporting. But one day we parked in the parking lot across the street and I turned to Pat and said ‘You want to go in this one?’ We came in and felt right at home. And once we got caught up in the exciting things happening here, the passion and conviction led us to become members here.”
For any who doubt the impact Garrett Andrew has had on the members of First Presbyterian Church, Mullis’ next words offer ironclad proof. This 73-year-old man, who had the same church home for 48 years and now has been a member at his new church for only three weeks, looks a visitor in the eye and gives his account of resurrection.
“This is my church home now, ” he says. “I have some old Baptist minister friends that I’d probably want involved, but if I died tomorrow, Garrett would preach my funeral.”
