Printer Friendly Version - Living the Dream in Stony Creek

Since he arrived in September 2014 and was officially installed in October 2014, Rev. James Hill, Jr., has been working to help his flock "capture a vision" by "dreaming" of what Church of Christ Congregational can be for its members and the community.

In Reverend James Hill, Jr.'s, line of service, being selected as spiritual leader for Stony Creek's iconic Church of Christ Congregational could well be considered living the dream. But for James, it's all about "dreaming" together.

"I have a certain amount responsibility for leading the church, but a leader who is out on his own isn't much of a leader," says James. "I think it falls on me to help the church capture a vision for what we can be in this community. The word I like to use is 'dreaming'-being able to find God's dream for our church, and to really get on board with that. Because, by polity, churches that are congregational are congregation-driven and are supposed to be that way. So it's my job to help empower our people to do that very thing."

James came to serve the church last September and was officially installed in October. Before arriving here, his 15 years of service since ordination have included leading two Baptist churches (one rural, one urban) in Missouri. His most recent leadership was as senior pastor during nine years with Southwest Baptist Church in St. Louis.

"I think I've developed something of a reputation for helping churches do strategic long-range planning, which is part of that dreaming process I was talking about," says James. "That's always been part of my leadership style. In the past two churches I've served, they'd not done anything like that in over a generation. I'm pleased to see-at least from a distance, because you sever ties when you leave a church-from the glimpses I've had, those churches are not just maintaining, but have run with it."

The son of a Baptist church planter, this is James's introduction to leading a Congregational Church.

"The Baptist church functions almost the same way, polity-wise, which is why this transition was fairly smooth," says James. "The bigger change has been the small-town nature of Branford compared to big-city St. Louis. That's been an adjustment, in a good way."

As for getting to know Branford, as well as Stony Creek and his congregation, James says, "I'm still in the learning stage. Any time you move into a community, there's a lot to learn about people and history and just getting to know all of our people and establishing a certain level of trust. It would be unrealistic for me to expect just because I'm the new called pastor for everybody to just trust me. That's something I've got to earn."

James says he does feels he's already connecting with many congregants, especially based on feedback following his weekly sermons (which he reads from his iPad).

Regarding what he's learned so far about the character of Stony Creek, James says, "It's clear that the Creek has a very defined sense of who they are and who they're not. It's been amazing to me to talk to people who've lived here for 50 years who still feel like they're outsiders because they weren't born here. That is an interesting phenomenon."

James first expressed his interest in serving the church in September 2013, and the Pulpit Committee called a vote to settle on James as the new pastor in August 2014. He replaces long-time pastor Wayne Jacobson, who retired in March 2013, and follows interim pastor Robin J. Blundon, who led the church during the 14-month search for a new called pastor.

James and his wife, Tara (a Wallingford middle school Spanish teacher), and their son, Isaiah (who turned four in December), had their first view of Stony Creek as guests of the church in June. It was an undeniably wonderful time to visit this shoreline enclave and the church's 1903 brownstone sanctuary overlooking the water in the heart of the village. The church was gathered here in 1877.

One of the aspects of the present-day congregation that James found very attractive during his decision-making process was "they know who they are," he says. "They know they are a diverse congregation, theologically, socially, politically, and they're okay with that. That's very attractive to me. I'm not the least bit interested in being the pastor of a homogenous congregation because that's not what our communities are. And for a church to really be their community's church, they've got to be able to welcome a diversity of perspectives. Our church does do that, and that was very attractive to me."

In fact, James is hoping that welcome will extend to include even more members of the community, such as the Creek's many vacation-time visitors.

"We want people to feel about this church that, whether they're an every-Sunday attender or not, that this is their church-this is the community's church," says James, adding, "The seasons affect the life of our church maybe more than most. In the summer, the vacation nature of our community affects our attendance more dramatically than I think it does some other churches. But that's one of the things that I'm hopeful will change in the future; that we're able to not only have a little bit more consistency in that regard, but also to connect with some of the people who come into our community for only seasonal periods of time. I think that, historically, it seems there's been a little bit of an adversarial attitude between the people who come in as vacationers and the local people."

Call it part of the dream, but James says, "I'd like for our church to be something of a peacemaker and recognize we can also be a church that reaches out to people that are only here seasonally," James says. "They may have their own home church, but we can at least be their church home while they're here-at least if they'd like us to be, I think we can. I don't think there's been a lot of effort in that regard. It will definitely be a challenge, I know that."