IN THE BEGINNING...

Rev. Henry McKay in 1968

Pastor McKay at his son's wedding a few years ago

In the beginning was the Word.  And in 1968, the Word was delivered by Henry McKay.  He was a lone Lutheran pastor in College Downs who soon found other Lutherans and convinced them and a few Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, and Presbyterians to join him in creating a Lutheran church in the university area. 



Henry knocked on 596 doors that year, and made 2273 calls and follow up calls!  When I visited Pastor McKay a few days ago, he told me he learned to do "cold calls" in Luther League during a work or mission camp one summer.  This experience served him well when establishing Advent.

Brochure that Pastor McKay handed out in the neighborhood

Soon Henry had four groups meeting in homes for Bible Study and fellowship.  To get them all together he arranged for a joint dinner at Back Creek Presbyterian.  In April of that year they held a Sunrise Service on land purchased through the Board of Missions on Mallard Creek Church Rd.  Sixty souls sang the Easter Alleluias at the empty lot accompanied by Kelly Bowman's trombone!  Two weeks later they were able to meet in our first "permanent" space at the Wilmith Hospital.  The next time you drive by the park-and-ride lot for the Blue line near Panera's, think of Advent.  The old Wilmith Women's Alcoholic Detention Home was located there.  The church rented it from UNCC for $50 per month.  

A year and a half later, an article in the Charlotte Observer described Henry as looking "like a young Abraham Lincoln" and having 95 members worshiping and serving the university area.  Not wanting to be "building bound", outreach and service in the community was emphasized from the first.  The women of the congregation, led by Judy McKay began tutoring at Derita and Newell Elementary schools before the church officially organized and soon had over 40 tutors  volunteering in the schools. Henry became the "minister on campus" to the students at UNCC.  Advent's first VBS was held at Killians Trailer Park.

Since many of his new flock did not have a Lutheran background, Henry told me that he decided to emphasize Sunday School over worship.  During Sunday School he taught the adults the meaning of the Lutheran Liturgy, church history, and theology.  

Many stories of meeting in Wilmith during the first two years included the trials of fixing up the building that had been abandoned for several years.  Willie Gillon said, "You practically had to wear a hard hat to worship, because the plaster ceiling would perpetually be falling down!"  Tom Miller recalled working on the plumbing up under the building one day when some UNCC students came by.  There was a rumor the building was haunted, and Tom only fueled the rumor by banging on the pipes and inadvertently scaring off the students.  Noel Petrea remembers using the padded cells in the basement to set up a haunted house at Halloween.  She also says that members were encouraged to use the bathroom before coming to church in the winter, because you never knew when the pipes would be frozen!

But all of the hard work bound the congregation together and gave them the feeling that God's work was truly being done here.  Henry recalls after a day spent on scaffolds painting and repairing the building he asked the group how they felt about worshiping in such a building.  He says he'll never forget one of the responses:  "I think if Christ were here, He would say that this is the most beautiful church he had ever seen. He didn't intend for us to be one-day-a-week Christians, but to meet human needs all week long.  This kind of building more or less demands we use it to meet all kinds of human needs." Ann Gillon recalls those days as being "life changing".  A former Baptist, she said that meeting Henry and working together to build a new congregation out of nothing, enriched her faith beyond measure.  Henry never called it a church, but tagged it a Development Center.  He also offered marriage and family counseling.

"Old" members meet at Panera's to reminiscence about Advent's early days
Tom Miller, Kathy Miller, Willie Gillon, Ann Gillon, Leo Peeler, Deb Park, David Park 

I asked Henry how the congregation came to be named Advent. He confirmed a tale I had heard, but contributed to "lore".  He said he favored a name with college in the mix to align the congregation with College Downs and UNCC.  But folks didn't like that.  Then he pointed out that if Advent was used, it would come first in the phone book. Everyone agreed, and Advent it was!! 

At some point during those first few years, Henry developed a pulpit exchange with Mayfield Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, an African American congregation on Sugar Creek Rd.  When Henry began preaching, he got a few "Amens" and his preaching became more fervent.  Soon he heard "Tell it like it is, brother!" and he became even more animated.  When asked why he didn't preach like that at Advent, he replied,"You never listen that intently and shout Amen!"  Judy remembers the pastor at Mayfield asking her to play the organ quietly and build to a crescendo under and over his prayers.  She was never sure exactly how to accompany a spoken prayer!  Twenty years later, I remember Rev. Dick Little reviving the pulpit exchange with Mayfield on Fifth Sundays for several years.  We also teased him about becoming more animated with the feedback and "Amens" in the congregation!

The Rev. Kyuzo Miyaishi
Frankie-San

Another story Henry told me was about Frankie-San.  He was a Japanese exchange student at the Lutheran Seminary in Columbia.  He found his calling working in the prison in Columbia.  Once the prisoners rioted, and the staff was scared to confront them, but Frankie walked into the battling prison yard alone and calmed the prisoners down.  Advent held a dinner for Frankie-San and donated to his ministry.  Once several prisoners escaped and were caught near Charlotte.  When folks entered the church at Wilmith the next day, they noticed that the church had been broken into, the kitchen used, and it looked as if folks had slept there.  Henry called Frankie-San and asked if he knew anything about it.  Frankie said, "Well, I always told the guys if they were near Charlotte to look up Pastor McKay at Advent!"

Judy related a scary story of going from Ruth Blackwelder's house on Mallard Creek Church Road to Wilmith one day.  Back then it was the "country" and a man got into her car at a stop sign and immediately showed her a switch blade.  She reached over reflexively to shut it and cut her finger.  She decided her best defense was to talk to him and get him to talk.  She told him her husband was "just over there" working on the church and that he was a pastor.  She said, "you seem troubled, would you like to go talk with him?  He talks to troubled folks all the time."  While he didn't take her up on it, her being a pastor's wife seemed to make a difference to him, and he got out of the car and walked away.  She slowly drove away and then went over to the church where Henry was up on a scaffold painting.  Then the gravity of the experience hit her and she told him to "Come down, come down now!"  And then she shakily related what had happened to those around her.

Tracy Barns in "Old Lumpy" 1961
His balloon looks like it needs 
some safety features!

Several folks mentioned stories of Tracy Barnes, the balloon man who subleased a few rooms in Wilmith.  They remember him sewing balloons on site and launching a tethered balloon at one or more  church

Receiving a medal in 1985

dinners and giving folks rides.  Mr. Barnes is now the founder of Blimp Works in Statesville.  I called and talked to him and he remembers assembling balloons there and developing the "Barnes Firefly" there, a design for a balloon which won many awards for its safety design.  He did not patent it but left the designs as open source so that all balloonists could benefit from them.  For this he was presented the First Wirth Medal by the Queen of England for contributing to the safety of ballooning.

I know I am leaving out many "first stories" and I invite you to add your own in the comments section below, or call and relate them to me for future blogs (704 three three five 0984). You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email in the upper right of the blog page. I hope to write one per month during our Jubilee Year.

I think Advent's first years can best be summed up in the closing paragraph of the First Annual Report to the Synod.  In it Pastor McKay wrote:  "As we move out into this new decade (the 70's), let us not look at our limitations; let us look at our potential.  Let us not look for excuses, let us look for even better ways to meet our challenges - in our neighborhood groups, in our classes, in our worship, in all that we do.  Let us not look for strength to meet our challenges; let us pray for challenges to make us reach even greater capacities of service and love."  What a wonderful benediction!  One that would serve us well today!

Judy and Henry McKay at their home in Asheville, August, 2018