The church’s recent receipt of a $50,000 Walton Award grant is only the latest chapter
in a story that includes the death of the organizing pastor, the founding of a free health
clinic and the formation of the first Presbyterian church in the county.
The Walton Award — endowed for $3 million in 1991 by the late Sam and Helen
Walton and given to five congregations this year — is an annual award for new
church developments that further Presbyterian mission in their communities.
As the first Presbyterian church in Dawson County, Ga., Grace fits the bill, said Elder
Carol Watkins, clerk of session.
“We’re thrilled,” she said. “Everyone was just like, ‘Hallelujah, praise the Lord!’”
When Grace was first organizing in 2005, several community members were
unfamiliar with the Presbyterian Church, even wondering if it was a Christian
denomination, Watkins said. But since then, Grace’s membership has grown to 126
people, including those from other or no church backgrounds and those who have
been hurt by past church experiences.
The absence of a Presbyterian church in the area provided Grace with the challenge
and opportunity to educate residents about the faith, said the Rev. Sara Hayden,
director of the Tri-Presbytery New Church Development Commission, which has
helped develop more than 30 new churches in Georgia. In Dawson County, Grace
was able to show residents the interaction between faith and how a church lives into
community.
“It’s a faith in response to the needs of the world,” Hayden said.
Watkins credited much of Grace’s presence in the community to its late organizing
pastor, the Rev. Mark P. Weaver. Weaver died of a stroke in May 2010, just six
months before Grace was chartered.
Now led by a transitional pastor, the Rev. Dana Hughes, Grace is looking for a full-
time pastor while operating two large ministries: a soup kitchen and a free health
clinic that serve the unemployed and working poor in Dawson County.
The health clinic — the first of its kind in the county — was recently incorporated
as a 501 (c) (3) organization called the Good Shepherd Clinic of Dawson County.
Staffed by one doctor and several nurses, the clinic has served about 200 uninsured
patients. A gynecologist comes once a month, and the clinic hopes to add a dentist
soon.
“(The community) loves us,” Watkins said. “We started some things they had never
even thought of.”
Grace was also the first church in the county to serve a free Thanksgiving dinner
for the poor. Other churches joined in, and the meal was eventually taken over by a
charity that now serves 300 people at the annual dinner.
That kind of partnership with other local churches is also credited to Weaver, who
got out the word about Grace all over the community, Watkins said. He formed an
alliance of Dawson County churches, many of whom had never worked together
before. The alliance now partners with job programs and local charities.
In addition to a presence in the community, Weaver helped Grace build its own
identity as a church family. He asked the congregation for feedback at every step of
the way, even asking whether members would prefer to say “trespasses” or “debts”
during the Lord’s Prayer.
“He was all about training us to become a real Presbyterian church when we
constituted,” Watkins said.
Grace formed a steering team, which operated on the same ground rules as a session.
People became excited about buying in and offering opinions about what they wanted
Grace to be, developing a vision statement and a list of core values:
- Participate in Kingdom service
- Build on a heritage
- Embrace Christian growth
- Express faith creatively
- Foster open communication
- Welcome all people as they are
The congregation ends every service by singing the refrain of “Bind Us Together”:
Bind us together, Lord, Bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken.
Bind us together, Lord,
Bind us together,
Bind us together with love.
Grace was organized by the Tri-Presbytery New Church Development Commission,
made up of Cherokee, Greater Atlanta and Northeast Georgia presbyteries. It bought
and moved into an old church building in 2005. After hosting Bible studies with
other Presbyterians and cleaning up the building , the commission hired Weaver as
organizing pastor in September 2005.
Part of the money from the Walton Award will go to pay down the mortgage, Watkins
said. The church is also getting estimates for other capital improvements, including
energy-saving projects.
“(The Walton Award) feels like a confirmation of the collaboration we’ve been a part
of,” Hayden said. “I feel like God has blessed the energy we’ve put behind working
together and I think that’s a testimony to our connectional church.”
Weaver’s death caused much trauma for the congregation, but Watkins said there
was never a question that Grace would forge on. In 2009, Weaver had applied for a
Walton Award, but Grace was turned down. He had intended to apply again, and so
after his death, Grace did so.
“We were committed to seeing it through and we have — and we’re continuing to do
so,” Watkins said.
