A Lifetime of Faith, Questions, and Grace at Myers Park Covenant
My relationship with this church goes back to 1959, when I was two years old.
When my family moved to Charlotte that year, my dad assumed we would go to Myers Park Methodist Church, where several generations of his Lucas cousins had been members.
But my mother, raised in a very Southern Baptist church in Alabama, was determined that we would be Baptist. Daddy was unconvinced after visiting several Baptist churches-until they attended the service here. The deal was sealed when he said, "I'm not sure I can be a Baptist, but I can be a Myers Park Baptist." And his view would not have changed when we became Myers Park Covenant.
This church has bother nurtured and challenged me at every stage of my life, and it continues to do so. I didn't know Dr. Heaton, our first senior minister, but I'm lucky to have been around for the second one, Carlyle Marney. I remember being out on the brick patio with my elementary-age Sunday School class when Dr. Marney walked by and playfully blocked me as we were starting a race down the hill. When I complained, he squatted down in front of me and said in that deep voice that someone once called the voice of God, "You are right. Don't ever let anyone hold you back."
Gene Owens was our minister when I started college. Feeling overwhelmed by the competing versions of Christianity that I found myself exposed to, I wrote Gene—Dr. Owens to me—a long letter full of doubts and questions. He wrote me back, and the essence of his message was that faith isn't static but is a journey, with new insights that will continue to broaden your belief and your life if you let them.
My daughter was baptized when Steve Shoemaker was our minister. When he dunked her into the lake, her long curly hair floated on the surface rather than going underwater. Her friends back onshore said she wasn't really baptized since she hadn't gotten completely wet. She was so upset by this that I called Steve on our way home and put her on the phone with him. He assured her that she was indeed baptized, but that either way, she was the child of a loving God. Lesson learned and crisis averted!
Ben Boswell was our minister when my mother died—a death that brough more relief than sadness. When I went to the church to plan her funeral, I confessed to Ben that I'd never been 100% positive about heaven, what with the big gates and the angels floating around and so on. But I told him that somehow, I found myself choosing to believe that Mama was indeed up there, happy and whole again. Ben said, "Cam, that's what faith is—it's choosing to believe." Somehow that felt like a revelation, just when I needed one.
As we await a new senior minister in this era of Myers Park Covenant Church, let us continue its message of faith and justice.
My sixty-seven years here have shown me that this church is a shining light, for our own congregation and for the Charlotte and for Charlotte and the wider world. And its light is needed now more than ever.
Please join me with your generous support of a church that is truly open to all and closed to none.