Anyone reading the church's annual reports during the decade of the 1970's has to be struck by three major themes - organization (goals), education, and mission projects. The facilities were built and the staff was in place, although always about one pastor short because of the continuing growth. It was time to get on with the work of being the Church - doing mission work inside and outside the walls, while constantly striving to teach its members the Bible and what a Christian life ought to be. The next fifteen to eighteen years may very well have been the most productive in the first fifty years of the church's life when measured by those standards.
It was a period that saw the arrival of Dr. Andrew and Cecile Kurth. Although Andy had just retired from years of ministry and an executive position at the New York headquarters of the Presbyterian Church, he answered the call from his friend Jim Little in the fall of 1971. With his spirit, energy and enthusiasm he brought new ideas to outreach, stewardship, Deacons and Voyagers. He continued as a powerful influence for another twenty-two years, retiring for the second time in 1993.
The first major move came in 1971 with the establishment of the concept of a Five Year Plan Committee. The basic idea came from Jim Little, which was to bring together ten to twelve key lay members for the purpose of study and discussion about the direction of the church for the next five years. Two key ideas came from that committee which was chaired by Jim Schultz. The first was that continuous planning and goal setting were imperative, but the second was the real blockbuster. It was the Academy for Continuous Learning, under the direction of Dr. J. Paul Leonard, former president of the American University of Beirut and San Francisco State. The Academy began operation in 1973 with 400 students (members and friends). It was established with two semesters each year encompassing church history, bible study, and support group study. By 1978, the year's total enrollment was 800 students. The education theme was in full force.
This was the time when Jim Little's organizational ability was recognized by the national Presbyterian Church. He was selected to a committee of eleven members to study and recommend changes to the national structure. His work was so well regarded that he was chosen to preside over the follow-up committee that acted on those recommendations and personnel changes. A healthy by-product of all of this was that LOPC became well known nationally, resulting in many key leaders coming here to preach.
The mid 70's saw the most prolific expansion of mission projects in the church's history, causing Jim Little to keep raising the question, "What can we prune away?" There was Marriage Enrichment Training, Contact Care Center, Youth Homes, Juvenile Hall, New Directions Counseling, and a mobile health fair for the Hoopa Indians of Northern California.
Little surprise that some of this work was driven by the creative thinking of the Rev. Janice Willette, the first woman on our staff. She came in 1975 from a staff position with the Synod of the Pacific, but had previously served in the pastoral ministry.
The list goes on with HELO Parish, a combination of our church with Hillside and Elmhurst Churches of East Oakland, the Committee on Aging, the Friendly Callers, Widowed Person Ministry, the Hospice Program, Committee on Problem Drinking, and the Convalescent Home and Shutin Ministry. Dr. Marshall Kremers, a physician who chaired the Deacons during this time, was a prime mover for many of these programs.
Sam Groff became famous as "Mr. Hilltopper" when he provided the spark for a monthly Sunday luncheon program for members over sixty. Jean Coop was his strong right hand for an event that soon had 200 active seniors participating.
The late 1970s saw another group of projects formed and actively operating. There was a committee to help refugee families find housing and jobs, Family Clusters (another idea from that fertile mind of Jeanne Christie), the Senior Center, and Blended Families.
What we now know as the Senior Center was actually started in 1979 under the title of Senior Drop-In Center. Barbara Subke and Peggy Jonas were the creative minds behind this program to provide lunch, crafts, music and balance exercises for our more frail seniors. Sharon McElroy,
Francis Leibold, Ginny Murphy and countless others have helped to carry on this program, which is now ably led by Harry Jayasingha.
Everyone has a story about how the Singles Ministry actually was started. The first recorded mention of this program is in the 1972 Annual Report. The most credence seems to surround the story that it began in Becky and Don Jenkins' house where Chuck Shields was a frequent dinner guest. Having been divorced in 1970, he was very receptive to comments he often heard in his office about singles needing a place to meet to discuss mutual problems. The dinners provided an informal setting to explore ideas with others. Salih Saba, Sally Bailey, Ted Frey, Darlene and Dick James were some of the early motivators. In early 1979, the Presbyterian magazine A.D. carried a very complimentary article about the program in effect at LOPC. The concept of "inclusiveness," preached often from the pulpit, made this outreach arm one that the whole church could accept. The whole campus was taken over on Sunday nights with 600-700 people, all arriving one to a car. It put a major strain on staff time, church budget, and church facilities, but it was recognized quickly as such an important service to the community that it just had to be supported strongly. Since then, other churches have followed the model, and although it is still an active, useful outreach ministry program at LOPC, it is not as large as it was twenty years ago.
Changes to the physical plant were coming quickly in this decade. In 1971, the kitchen was converted to an all stainless steel gem through the hard work of June Van Gorp. The year 1976 saw the dedication of the beautiful multi-purpose Davies Room, in honor of former members Amy and Fred Davies. The project was directed by June Van Gorp and architect Robert Dewell. It has continued as the most popular meeting room on the campus.
The need became clear for a second Five Year Plan and this was again chaired by Jim Schultz. The major points from this were the needs to continue to expand the professional staff and to select a Long Range Architectural Plan Committee so that there would be an overarching plan to our expansion. This committee was led by Bud Lake and Jerry Kent.
The first step was to reconfigure the church school wing to allow space for the building of the Oak Room. Bob Hopper and Jeff Kreis were the people guiding this project.
There were some important steps before the next construction project. The first came in 1978 with the addition of the Rev. Clayton Cobb. Fresh from Fuller Seminary, along with his wife, Deidre, he made an impact that is hard to appreciate for those who were not here. He picked up and brought new life to the Youth Program immediately. After Chuck Shields left, a great share of Clayton's creative energy went to the Singles Program. LOPC is a more caring and inclusive place because of the ministry of this talented Christian. By any measure, the year 1979 has to be seen as one of the church's most successful twelve-month periods. The church honored its twenty-fifth anniversary with a gala celebration, headed by committee chair, Bobbie Dodson. This culminated with a spectacular musical extravaganza, written and produced by Gretchen Kreis, that expanded on the theme "Keeping Faith with the Vision". Carl Ferguson's role as Master of Ceremonies was the crowning touch. Many old friends and former pastors came to bask in memories shared.
That was also the year of an incredibly successful capital campaign. With a goal of $650,000, the unbelievable amount of $900,000 was raised to fund building needs and our commitment to the Major Mission Fund of the national church. Coupled with our other giving, we were able as a church to give almost $250,000 to world mission. Gene Fife was the inspirational lay leader for this program.
Those campaign dollars funded the Chapel of Hope (abetted by some anonymous gifts), remodeling of the church schoolrooms, the building of the Oak Room as we now know it, and some smaller projects around the facility. Hal Dornsife, Bud Lake, and Jerry Kent were
leaders of the Master Architectural Plan, while Bob Hopper headed the Phase I work. Supervision of the Chapel project was guided by Jeff Kreis. Dedication of this building took place on September 12, 1982.
The Tumultuous1980s
The early 1980s brought some unneeded trauma into the life of LOPC. Jim Little suffered a life threatening auto accident, Irv Seely (then the church Business Manager) was recovering from heart surgery, and Jan Willette was undergoing cancer treatment. To add to the difficulties, Helen Thornton, Jim's Executive Secretary and right hand for fifteen years, retired. In 1981, both Jan Willette and Chuck Shields found that the time had come to move on - Chuck to be Head of Staff at Brentwood Presbyterian Church and Jan to a staff position in Los Angeles.
And then came the rain - and more rain - which culminated in the landslides. As a result of the heavy rains in the winter of 1982-83, a slide of approximately 120 by 180 feet occurred on the northeast side of Fellowship Hall. It did not damage the building but came within five feet of it, so that further slides posed a real threat. In addition, huge amounts of water, draining from surrounding hi11s, pooled under and threatened the parking lot.
A geotechnical consulting firm recommended the solutions to both problems. These were put into effect, and although they were partially paid for with insurance, the church incurred expenses of approximately $200,000. This was paid for within the budget in two years without need for additional capital campaigns. Even now, hydraugers are constantly draining water from under the parking lot. These need to be continually monitored for plugging. Roger Fry was and continues to be our consultant for this issue.
In spite of those difficulties, many useful new projects were being born. The Parish Program came to life under the guidance of the Deacons. The nearly 2,000 member congregation was divided into geographical neighborhoods with a parish leader for each. That parish leader's role was to keep track of needs or problems within the parish and either find ways to solve the problems or report them to the staff.
Kerygma, a systemized program of Bible study, was successfully inaugurated under the leadership of Mac Mi1ler, with seven teachers and l00 students. It was to grow to become even more important through the 1980s.
Two important leaders appeared on the scene in the persons of the Rev. Wi11iam Hopper and the Rev. Steve Wirth. Who can forget Bill with his strong mission commitment and Steve with his wonderful gift for teaching and his gentle touch with children? Still another who joined us in 1981 and is even now breathing life and humor and good-works among us is Dwayne Wilkes, our head custodian.
It was also time for another Five Year Plan, this time chaired by Dick Kurtz. The plan was notable for pointing us to the idea of the Chair of Contemporary Theology, which is now fully endowed by a gift from the estate of Gertrude and Sam Groff and renamed the Groff Visiting Scholar Program. It also identified a need for a new local mission project which subsequently took the form of Jubilee West. This was a non-profit housing project near Cypress Street in Oakland, founded by two Catholic nuns, and involved low income housing, job placement, youth services, and education. The project was in need of helping hands and money while LOPC needed a place to be involved. It was a wonderful marriage which went on for many years, during which friendships were formed and bonds strengthened with our brothers and sisters on the other side of the hills.
A snapshot of the church in the early 1980s showed there were now 2300 members, the Voyager fleet had grown to fifteen ships, singles now had a mailing list of 2,000, but Sunday school registration was dropping as the number of gray heads was increasing in the congregation. Kathy Nesper appeared on the scene as Business Manager and Mac Miller earned undying fame as the "Voice of God" in his stunning Stewardship audio-visual presentations. The Rev. Paul Nazarian brought a different energy into the Youth Program with his concept of "The Abundant Life." Bob Pearson resigned after leading the choir for fifteen years. Members from that era still tingle in the recollection of his leading of the singing of "The Lord's Prayer." Dennis Keller came to take his place. The computer age came to LOPC in 1984. LOPC reached the milestone of more than 1,000 financial pledges in 1985. The Rev. Penny Newall joined the staff in early 1986.
