Members

At Salem Presbyterian, if you were to ask a member why they attend and why they stay, they will answer that it is the people. Although members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including diverse faith traditions, they feel a strong sense of belonging and support in this community of faith.

Find out more about some of our members by reading their stories below.

Kerry was outside in his yard one early December day in 2004 when Rev. Sara Shields stopped by and invited him to attend Salem Presbyterian Church. He attended the worship service the very next Sunday. Kerry told me he knew Sara and he was ready to start going to church. Kerry had visited Salem Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve with his close friends Jerry and Jo Barnett but had not been regularly attending any church for a number of years. He told me Jerry and Jo never pressured him to join and he really appreciated that.

Kerry described himself as a “long-time unchurched” person, partly due to the negative experiences both his parents had going to church when they were young. His mother had grown up a Catholic and attended Catholic school. The leadership at her school told the youth that they needed to convert everyone they knew because non-Catholics would go to Hell. Her grandmother was a Protestant who went to First Christian Church in Salem and so Kerry’s mother rejected what she’d been told at the Catholic school and as soon as she was able to get out on her own she wasn’t Catholic anymore. She attended occasional services with her grandmother at First Christian Church but did not become a member. Kerry’s father grew up in Pekin and went to the Church of Christ in Salem. His father was an elder at the church and insisted that he attend church 3 times a week. Kerry’s father did not want to do so and when he became old enough to make his own decision he no longer attended church.

Kerry’s parents exposed and introduced him and his younger brother to church though. Kerry and his brother were not required to go but Kerry went to Vacation Bible School when young and attended Sunday School at First Christian Church through the 4^th grade. After that he lost interest and no longer went. Later Kerry chose not to go to church regularly because of politics. He did not care for churches that urged support for certain political candidates. He believes in the separation of church and state and so did not feel political campaigning belonged in the church.

Kerry graduated from IU Southeast in 1977 with a degree in Accounting. He worked for a time in general accounting at what is now GKN and then worked for about 9 years as a purchasing agent at Kimball, both in Borden and Salem. The Salem plant was built and completed in 1986, a year after Kerry had started work at the Borden plant. After that Kerry worked at Tecumseh Products for about 11 years as a purchasing agent. Currently, Kerry is an instructional assistant at Salem Middle School. He began this tutoring position in August 2012. He assists students that need a little extra instruction to boost their grades. He finds the position challenging but enjoyable.

He became interested in taking the position because he had volunteered for the SOAR adult education program and enjoyed helping others learn. He enjoys developing a good rapport with students and pushing them to learn but not too hard. He said if you push too hard a student will actively resist learning. He had applied for a similar position working with 3^rd graders at the elementary school but was interviewed for and accepted the position at the middle school. He initially favored the elementary school position because he wasn’t sure he could work as effectively with middle schoolers and the middle school curriculum was a little outside his comfort zone. He was pleased to find that his reservations were unfounded. Also nice about working at Salem Middle School is the interaction with high quality administrators, teachers, and other staff. He especially enjoys working with Lana Humphrey regarding students in common to both of them.

Kerry joined Salem Presbyterian Church at the end of 2005 or the beginning of 2006 when he had become really comfortable attending. He had made quick friendships with Norm Webster and Bill LaFollette. They shared an interest in sports, especially baseball. He told me he didn’t realize how you went about joining. He said he’d have joined much sooner if he’d realized sooner that it was up to him to ask about joining. He was asked to serve on the Session in 2007 and his 2 consecutive 3-year terms ended in 2012. He hadn’t thought about serving before being asked by Jennifer Humphrey and Paul Scifres.  

The time Kerry served on the Session was enjoyable partly because he served with so many great people, including Cathy Huey, Leslie Gilstrap, Tom Fihe, Bud Huey, Rosemary Webster, Richard Clark, Dee Davis, Donna LaFollette, Nancy Godfrey, John Morris, Jo Barnett, Wendell Brown, John Stanley, Bruce Grosvenor, Max Bedwell, Vickie Saewert, David Beck, and Stephanie Scifres. He thought all of them were very effective in serving the church but he singled out Jo for all the work she does for the church and Vickie for her fresh ideas like the Blessing of the Animals and ideas for church growth.

The most memorable time for Kerry since joining Salem Presbyterian was the transition time between Rev. Sara Shields and Rev. Beth Walden-Fisher. Kerry told me that some of the Session meetings toward the end of Sara’s time serving as pastor were stormy. He felt the best role he could serve at that time was as a peacemaker. He told me holds no animosity for Sara that she felt it necessary to leave. He was just so sorry to see his good pastor and friend so unhappy. By the time Sara announced her resignation to the Session the tone in the meetings was more peaceful. Kerry said she’d given plenty of notice and the Session accepted her decision.

Shortly thereafter Joe Kimmel became the Session moderator. Kerry commended Joe for being such a good, considerate Session Moderator during our period without a pastor. He mentioned that Joe had said early on that it could take some time to find a new pastor but that he knew of someone who might be a good fit. He did not mention Beth’s name until a number of meetings later. At the time Beth was still an interim pastor at Hanover Presbyterian and April 2011 was the end of her term there, after which she would become available.

Kerry volunteered to lead the pastor search committee and commends his fellow committee members John Stanley, Vickie Saewert, Maurice Godfrey, Carolyn Haag, and Debbie Catlin for the good work they did. He told me that while the time near Sara’s leaving was stressful, the time spent on the pastor search committee and getting to know and nominating Beth to be our new pastor was nothing but enjoyable. He told me that at the interview the nominating committee conducted with Beth, Vickie had commented that it was not like an interview but rather like time spent with an old friend. The connection with Beth was instant; she wanted to come to Salem Presbyterian and the nominating committee was very excited to nominate her.

Kerry feels that Beth’s joining us has allowed us to do more as a church community. He mentioned that he enjoys the passing of the peace during the worship service that Beth introduced, and is pleased by the increase in youth attending services, children’s Sunday School, the children’s sermon in the service, and that we’re such a child-friendly church. If a child cries during the service we welcome that. Kerry especially commends Vickie and Betty Stanley for teaching Sunday School.

Kerry told me about his faith journey so far in life. He said that when he was young, like most children he believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy. When he ceased to believe in them he began to wonder if there really was a God or if God was just the adult equivalent of Santa. He also worried about what happens when one dies, if there would be an afterlife. He came to believe that the existence of God can be proven by the order in the universe. Kerry said, “Things like the rotation of the Earth on its axis, the revolution around the Sun, the inner workings of the human body, the tides going in and out, all of that to me screams out order and order comes from creation.” These things could not have come about by chance. He went on to say “there wouldn’t be life on Earth if we weren’t the right distance from the sun or didn’t have the right chemical composition, the nitrogen, the oxygen and all of that. So that has made me comfortable that there is a God.”

He wrestled for a time with the Christian doctrine that some people will go to Heaven when they die and others will go to Hell, and that those who will go to Hell will be there eternally. He rejects the practices in some Christian churches where the pastors scream this from the pulpit, that if you don’t believe Jesus Christ is your lord and savior or if you’re not a member of a particular denomination you will go to eternal Hell. Kerry strongly believes there is no eternal Hell and sees this doctrine as contradicting passages in the Bible such as the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18, that God never stops looking for his lost sheep. He wishes the Presbyterian Church at the national level would openly reject and make a Biblical case against the doctrine that Hell is eternal. This doctrine was a major factor in his distancing himself from the church in earlier years and he believes it still keeps others away today.

Kerry believes that if the Presbyterian Church were to reject this doctrine, it would attract more members, especially the younger generations in which there are increasingly more “hard core unchurched” people. He said the unchurched turn away from the church because of this doctrine as well as church politics and the example set by those people they know who are only practicing Christians on Sundays.

If a way is not found to reach out and connect with the unchurched, Kerry fears that all but the most fundamental denominations will die out because the younger generations no longer find them relevant. Kerry believes that God wants us to get the Bible’s teachings right and to do right. If the church proclaims there is no everlasting Hell Kerry wonders if perhaps God would inspire human ingenuity to find a way to solve global warming and other issues facing people across the globe. He believes that if the Presbyterian Church were to actively support a doctrine that it’s never too late to be saved, not only would the church reach out and connect with more people but it would also foster hope for the future on a broader level with all the challenges humanity faces.  

At the close of our conversation Kerry made a point to tell me that he agrees with our church's initiative of exploring technological enhancement. He said, “I understand the concerns of those who favor a more traditional approach, but I believe that the caring project leadership of Pastor Beth, you, and the Session will ensure compatibility of the past and the present.”

• From an interview by Trina Brown for the July 2013 church newsletter.

I sat down with De Davis in the church library one afternoon to interview her. Our conversation got off to a light-hearted start when De said to me in mock-offense, “The first thing I want to say to you, Trina, is really? I have to follow David Beck? That is so not fair!” I had interviewed David Beck for the January/February issue of the newsletter.

De has lived in Salem most of her life. Her parents lived in Salem and De was born in Norton’s hospital in Louisville. Growing up, one of De’s favorite things to do was to go to her grandparents’ farm. The property she lives on now had been a part of that farm. Since she grew up in town, going out to the country was a treat. Her grandfather had a small dairy operation and when De was 8 or 10 years old, her grandfather showed her how to milk a cow by hand. She said, “the first time I gave a squeeze and the milk came out that was like a little miracle.” She told me there were always wonderful things to do such as finding kittens hidden in the hay loft, walking through the woods, building campfires, and taking rubber rafts out on Blue River. There were aunts and uncles and cousins living in the area so De grew up with a lot of family support.

When De was in the 8^th grade in the early 1970s, a girl’s track team was formed at her school and she became a member. Mary Hunt was the first track coach and at first the team didn’t have uniforms due to a lack of funding. She said, “I was really shy as a kid, self-conscious, but once I was able to get on the track team and feel successful at something, I enjoyed school more and got more confidence.” De finds it very important to keep a diversity of programs in schools for children including the arts, music and vocational training, so that more children have a chance to be successful. When they find something they enjoy and “feel passionate about, that helps them feel confident and stay in school.”

De said she can remember being on the track that first year and the boys laughing and making fun of them. But she loved those times with her track teammates. She told me that in high school, when she and Lana Humphrey were on the Lady Lions’ very successful relay team, they got to go to the state track meet. She recalls that Lana handed off the baton to her and that over three years of hand-offs, neither of them ever dropped it.

In the mid-1970s, De left Salem to go to college at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. One of her high school teachers had gone there and had recommended it. De liked that it was a small campus, that some of her friends were going there, and that you could walk everywhere you wanted to go. She told me that Salem at that time was pretty conservative and exclusively white, so when she went to college and got to meet people from many races and nationalities, it was a “big eye-opener.” She hadn’t traveled much or been very many places. 

She graduated from Indiana State in 1978 with a degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation, otherwise known as HPER (pronounced ‘hyper’). After graduation she stayed in Terre Haute for a while and then moved to Evansville. She changed jobs, doing all kinds of things, wanting to learn different skills. One of the positions she held was in customer service for a large retail furniture store in Evansville. She said, “It might sound like a stretch from what I studied in college, but I’d done a lot of woodworking as a hobby and I had a job working in a big woodworking shop for a while, so I’d learned how to do a lot with wood.”

De was a troubleshooter. When people would have trouble with furniture they’d purchased, she would go to their home and assess the situation and determine how to resolve the issue. She said she learned a lot about people at that job and enhanced her listening skills, learning how to listen for what they weren’t telling her.

While living in Evansville, De met Amy McCord. They both played softball and both loved bike riding, especially racing mountain bikes. De said it’s fun but is extremely hard and that she was in the best shape of her life back then. She told me if I were to ask Amy about it, she’d say racing mountain bikes is the cause of her arthritis and neck problems, from “sailing over the handle bars too many times.”

De moved back to Salem in 1996, after about 18 years living in Terre Haute and Evansville. Her parents were getting older and her mother became ill and needed De’s help running her businesses, Carriage House Apartments and Holiday Car Wash. De told me that her brother, Brent, majored in Business in college and he’s teaching school now, and that she majored in Education and she’s running the family businesses.

The cozy house De and Amy live in now was built by De and her father and sits on 65 acres, right on Blue River. The land has been in the family since 1819. The first of De’s ancestors to live on the property were Israel and Catherine Brown Hinds, De’s great great great great grandparents. The Hinds were members of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky before they moved to Washington County and were descendants of persecuted Scots-Irish immigrants who had come to America in the 1700s to freely practice their religion.

The house Israel and Catherine Hinds lived on is still standing on the property, back by a cave. Catherine was the daughter of William and Mary Brown, born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1762. She was a “granny doctor,” which De always found intriguing. De explained that before medical doctors were in the area, granny doctors would use herbs to heal illnesses and help deliver babies. De’s ancestors would take their grain to Beck’s Mill to be ground, and De enjoys volunteering at Beck’s Mill now as a kind of connection to those ancestors.

De also volunteers with Relay for Life. She became involved with the organization after her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. De said, “One of the most frustrating things is watching a loved one suffer and feeling like there is nothing you can do. Raising funds for cancer research and prevention is something we can do.” De’s sister-in-law Rachel was also involved with the group before her death from leukemia. De told me that a few weeks after her death, a new treatment was approved for leukemia. It is unknown whether this treatment could have helped Rachel, but it emphasizes the importance of supporting cancer research. There are many in our families and our congregation who have been touched by cancer and De invites everyone who is able to become involved in Relay for Life.

The house De and her father built on the property was completed in 1997 and was the last project De’s father was able to do before he lost his eyesight. She said it was the first house she’d ever built and was a lot of fun, but when I asked her if she ever planned to build another she said she doubted it, and added “maybe a doghouse.”

De and Amy share their home with 3 dogs and 2 cats. The only dog allowed inside is Billy, a part Wire-Haired Terrier and part Rat Terrier. Billy has lived with them for about 3 years, is “king of the castle,” and loves to be on someone’s lap. They adopted him from a friend after their much-larger dog Poco died. De told me it just about killed them when Poco died, that she was De’s buddy.

The first time De visited Salem Presbyterian Church was for her brother’s wedding. Brent and Rachel Davis had married in the church when De was still living in Evansville. Rachel had been a member first and Brent had started attending when they became engaged. The pastor at that time was D. Jo Lowell.

In 1998, a few years after De had moved back to Salem, she was invited by Rachel to attend Salem Presbyterian. Bill Peterson was the church’s pastor but was only at Salem Presbyterian for a year or so after De began regularly attending. De said, “The people are so friendly and accepting and I like the size of the congregation. I like this small, close-knit group that cares so much for each other. People are down to earth. Our minister is so down to earth. It’s just an easy place to be and to feel accepted.” De added that we also have the some of the best cooks in Salem at our church.

She joined the church after attending for 3 to 4 years when she was asked to serve on the Session. Serving on Session was a big learning experience for De. She said, “It’s a lot harder than I imagined running a church and getting a group of people to consensus on the affairs of the church.” She served for two consecutive 3-year terms while Sara Shields was pastor. 

Until De was in high school she had attended First Christian Church. She thought the minister there at the time was “a little bit fire and brimstone” and she didn’t care for that. She said it was the time she was starting to have her own ideas and going to church was not appealing. At that time the people she saw representing the organized church were televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and Anita Bryant, who made De want to distance herself further from the church.

De said, “Those people really do a disservice to the organized church because people see that and they think that’s what it’s all about. They think that’s what all churches are like. That’s where I was for many years.” De was 40-something before she began to realize that “those hateful people don’t own the church and they’re not all like that. And so coming back to Salem Presbyterian in a way was a healing time for me.” 

We have heard members of the Earth Care group from Bloomington speak at our church and De believes they’re doing some really good things. I recalled that when Earth Care representatives visited Salem Presbyterian, De had mentioned she was off the electric utility grid for some time. I asked her about this time and she told me Rachel was responsible for making De aware of environmental issues. Rachel had been an environmental engineer at the University of Louisville and taught De about recycling before it was commonly being done.

De and Amy’s house was off the grid for 8 years along with Brent and Rachel’s house, nearby on the property. De said it did require some lifestyle changes because you have to greatly reduce your electricity consumption. She said anyone can cut their electricity use in half if they really try. The most difficult part of being off the grid was maintaining the batteries. The charge in the batteries must be monitored frequently and not allowed to run dry or the batteries, which are quite expensive, will be ruined. They had a bank of 12 big deep-cycle batteries to store the electricity their solar panels generated. De believes that the success of off-the-grid technology will depend on improvements in battery technology.

They are on a grid tie system now and have a special electric meter called a bi-directional meter. Their solar panels charge electricity back into the grid when the sun is shining. They receive credit for the excess electricity they put back into the grid. At night when the sun has gone down, they draw electricity from the grid.  

I asked De what she would like to see for Salem Presbyterian in the future and she told me that she hopes we can reach out a little more into the community and that this effort has already begun with church members’ recent tornado relief efforts in Pekin. De would like to see Salem Presbyterian focused more on social justice. De said, “if we look at the teachings of Jesus it’s pretty obvious that this was what he was all about and that’s what we are supposed to be about.”

• From an interview by Trina Brown for the Spring 2012 church newsletter.

Jo Barnett began attending Salem Presbyterian Church in the fall of 1962 or the spring of 1963. She and her husband Jerry moved to Salem in 1962 when Jo was pregnant with her first child. Before moving to Salem, Jo had never set foot in a Presbyterian church before. Salem Presbyterian Pastor Floyd Shafer visited Jo and Jerry in their home and Jo gave him a tour of their apartment. Jo says, “That’s how I got started, just because of him coming to the house and sitting down and drinking coffee with me.” Jo had gone to church all her life and it was important to her to find a church for her new baby to be baptized in. Jodie was baptized at Salem Presbyterian Church in March 1963, and in January 1967, Jo and Jerry’s other daughter Jill was baptized. At that time the Salem Presbyterian Church had well over 100 members and there was a children’s choir.

Before moving to Salem, Jo had attended Salem Evangelical Reform Church in her hometown of Huntingburg, Indiana. All through high school she sang in the choir of about 30 to 40 people and she and Jerry were married there. Being able to sing in the choir once she joined Salem Presbyterian was then and still is very important to her. Jo feels this is her Christian way of life.

The Salem Presbyterian Church community has nourished Jo through many tough times. Jo said, “I’ve had a lot of prayers from this church, and they work, I’ll tell you! …. That’s what our church is really noted for. We’re really good about helping people when there is a need.”

She started the Caring Group with another church member so members could be informed about people who had died, were in the hospital, or were ill. The Caring Group used to make a lot of phone calls but now that so many people have email, Jo only makes calls to about 6 people who don’t have email.

Jo remembers that before Pastor Sue Looft left Salem Presbyterian Church in May 1983, she made an announcement in church that Jo would be the person everyone should contact in the interim period between pastors and presented Jo with a T-shirt that read, “Clerk of Session.”

Jo took on a lot of responsibility during that year while the church searched for a new pastor. When Pastor D. Jo Lowell arrived in June 1984 and Dr. DeJean thanked Jo for carrying the church during that interim time, Jo just broke down. She was completely exhausted. She said she hadn’t realized how tired she was. But all that effort was worth it. Jo said, “I’ve had some very good times here. I really have.”

Five years from now, Jo would like to see Salem Presbyterian Church have a full-time minister who has a family. She would like to see children come back in to the church. Jo said, “I just hope there’s new and young people to carry on what we started years and years ago. I would just like for the church to be alive again,” a place where members talk about their faith with each other.

Jo has been very active in the church from the time she decided to join Salem Presbyterian Church. She has served on the Session of the church for a total of 15 years so far. She said, “I love challenges and I love church.” I asked Jo how she has so much energy and she said she gets energized when she comes to church. She doesn’t have time to think about her aches and pains and there are so many things that need to be done. As she’s gotten older, she’s learned more about her faith and it gets stronger every day. Jo talks to God every day and feels strongly that “you’ve got to have faith or you don’t make it in this world.”

• From an interview by Trina Brown for the January/February 2011 church newsletter.

The first service Bill LaFollette attended at Salem Presbyterian Church was his wedding to Donna in December 1987 when Reverend D. Jo Lowell was the pastor. Bill had been in the building many times before that for teachers’ association meetings held in Mariner Hall. Donna had been a member of the church since the mid-1970s, having joined when Reverend J. Pat Kennedy was the pastor.

Bill grew up in the west end of Louisville, Kentucky, in the Parkland neighborhood. He told me that back then, there were clearly defined neighborhoods, such as Parkland, Portland, Crescent Hill, the Highlands, and that’s why Louisville has so many small town qualities; it’s changing now because it’s becoming so spread out. He attended Parkland Elementary and Parkland Junior High (now Johnson Middle School) before graduating from duPont Manual High School when he was 17. He then earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Louisville in History and Education Administration, respectively.

Bill married at 19 years old and in 1956 Bill went to work for the L&N Railroad, where he worked until 1966. During that same period he served in the US Army both in active service and in the reserve, from 1957 to 1963. Bill said when he was in the Army was the only time he had been out of Louisville up to that point in his life.

In 1966 Bill became a teacher at the old Valley Elementary School in the Valley Station area of Louisville. He left teaching in 1970 to become a union representative for teachers because he could not support a family of five solely on a teacher’s salary. He was a Kentucky Education Association/Jefferson County Teacher’s Association Field Representative until 1973, when he became an Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) Uniserv Director. He was responsible for all association activities in Floyd, Harrison, Jackson and Washington counties. It was during the time he worked for the ISTA that he first met Donna, in 1976.

When Bill came to Indiana, Donna was teaching at Orleans and was raising her two children as a single mother. In 1976 Donna returned to teaching in Salem and became bargaining spokesperson and president of the local teachers’ association. Bill said he and Donna were in many meetings together over several years. Bill got to meet Donna’s children Mike and Marla during that time. He told me “I always admired Donna for her tenacity, her being a single parent for 12 years, raising two kids on a teacher’s salary.” Bill and Donna celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary in December 2012.

After Bill and Donna married in 1987, Donna continued to attend Salem Presbyterian but Bill did not attend frequently because he was a TV camera person for Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville where he remained a member. He did camera work there for about 12 years in the live television ministry.

In 1990, Bill retired from ISTA and, in 1992 returned to work for Jefferson County Schools. He and Donna moved down to New Albany to be closer to his job and other activities. After Bill and Donna moved to New Albany, Donna did not attend Salem Presbyterian Church because it was such a drive, and she was driving to Salem during the week every day to teach at Salem Middle School.

In 1992, Bill became an adult education teacher for Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, and then in 1993 he took a job as the Coordinator of the newly established Family Resource Center at Portland Elementary School. He continued to work there until his retirement in 2004.

At the family resource center, Bill created a support network for some 250 families. Almost 90% of the children at Portland were on free or reduced lunch . When school families got a cutoff notice from LG&E or other utilities due to lack of payment, he would get them help to keep service on. He also assisted families with clothes, food, medical transportation and mental health counseling. In 1994 he invited seven Portland area ministers to a meeting at school that resulted in the formation of the Portland Area Ministries.

Bill said he has had so many different jobs and worked in so many different fields, that he has gotten to know a lot about organizations through the connections that he made. He cannot begin to count the number of people he has met and worked with but guesses it is in the thousands. He said, “The way my life has evolved I have been privileged to know a lot of people and a lot of support organizations.”

Bill grew up in a Southern Baptist church and told me that there was a period when the baptist church went through an evolution. He said, “To people on the outside, the impression was created that the baptist church, the Southern Baptist Convention in particular, was anti-woman. Many wouldn’t ordain women ministers. Very few of them had women deacons. The Southern Baptist Seminary went through a really painful process for 10-12 years.”

Bill explained that at one time, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was one of the foremost theological institutions in the country, that there were highly revered, well-respected theologians on the faculty. He said, “Then the board of trustees changed and they brought in a president who was more conservative, Dr. Mohler.” Bill told me that it was painful for him because he knew a lot of faculty members there and a lot of the students, and he loved the place, and it was being changed drastically. The local churches still had autonomy and could call a woman minister, ordain women ministers and deacons, and reach out to the gay community if they wished. But these issues divided congregations.

Bill said conflicts like these hurt the witness of the church. He explained, “It says to the outside world or to people looking for a church home that all that church does is bicker. We don’t want to be a part of that. It’s not spiritual. It’s not Christ-like. It’s all the things you don’t want to be a part of.” Bill believes this is one of the reasons that so many non-denominational churches have sprung up and grown, such as Southeast Christian, Northside Christian, and Southern Hills. They are growing because the turmoil in the mainline churches turns people away and mainline churches are not reaching out to young people, people with children, or non-attenders.

Bill explained that his faith has always been so important to him. He said, “It’s a bedrock. Because anytime whether it’s job-related or personal or family issues or whatever it is, I try to think, sometimes not too successfully, what’s the Christian thing to do? And then I’m comfortable with that. I think we all have to have roots, and faith can be a big part of that. I like to think of a tree. There’s a tap root. The taproot in your life is faith; it’s an analogy that makes sense to me. Christ’s example and teachings and life I think are important.”

Bill’s middle name is Otis, after his father Otis LaFollette. Bill did not have any brothers or sisters and Otis had a big influence on Bill. He taught school in a one room schoolhouse in Larue County, Kentucky, in his early 20s. He was a man Bill respected and admired and he passed away in 1967. Bill said, “He’s the reason I am who I am. He would reach out and help people he didn’t know and in ways even my mother and I didn’t know. And so I always admired him. The two strongest influences on who I am are my Christian faith and my father’s example.”

Family is the most important thing to Bill and Donna. They do not have any children together but have 6 children combined from previous marriages. Bill feels good that in all the years he and Donna have been married, they’ve always been able to be there for their children whenever they needed them, whether financially or emotionally. Donna’s daughter Marla lives in Columbus, Ohio, now. Bill’s oldest daughter Sharon lives in Louisville and is 53. One of Bill’s sons, Scott, lives in Richmond, Kentucky, and another, Todd, lives near LaGrange. Bill’s youngest daughter, Jennifer, the one who recently had a baby, lives in New Albany. Donna’s son Mike, who lives in Oregon, is the only one not in easy driving distance.

Both Bill and Donna retired in 2004, so Donna didn’t have to make the drive to Salem every weekday any longer. They both do lots of volunteer work and love to travel. They have been to all 50 states and quite a few foreign countries. But Bill still believes this is the best place in the country to live “from a standpoint of the cost of living, friendliness of people, the ability to interact when you need to, and a pretty strong church community with the two seminaries” nearby in Louisville.

After Bill and Donna moved to New Albany, they visited churches near their home but they did not find them appealing. They visited the Presbyterian church out on Mt. Tabor road, “walked in and sat down and had the service and not a person said we’re glad you’re here or anything.” They went to a Methodist church on Charlestown Road, in which people were more welcoming, and they liked St. Marks which was a United Church of Christ.

More than any other churches they visited though, they found that Salem Presbyterian met their needs and still does. They both have a really strong faith and needed a church home so started attending Salem Presbyterian Church again during the time Reverend Sara Shields was the pastor. Donna had known Sara for a long time and Bill views the people at Salem Presbyterian as some of the most caring, compassionate people he’s ever known in any church. They’d known so many people at Salem Presbyterian for years, including Carolyn Haag, Barb Helsel, Paul Scifres, Anne and Butch Terrell, Ginger and John Morris, and Max and Jeanne Bedwell. Bill said, “That meant even more because these were people I’d known in a different context and now here we were worshipping together.”

Bill became an associate member of Salem Presbyterian three or four years ago. Bill said he joined because of Donna’s affinity for Salem Presbyterian and because Sara had found a way he could join Salem Presbyterian without giving up his membership, which he still retains, at Walnut Street Baptist Church.

Bill shared with me that he finds it quite special how overwhelmingly supportive the people at Salem Presbyterian Church are when he or family members have health issues or are dealing with traumas. Rev. Beth Walden-Fisher and members ask almost every Sunday how a family member is doing and are so caring and sensitive when support is needed. It’s touching for Bill when someone who has more health problems than he does comes up to him and asks him how he’s doing. Bill told me that one of the strengths of our congregation is that we draw on so many different experiences and traditions. And he loves the choir, the music, and likes Doug and Connie very much. Bill noted that Doug has to come a long way to be with us on Sundays.

Bill feels that at Salem Presbyterian, we try to demonstrate a community awareness. He noted that so many of our members are involved in other organizations in our community. He would love to see our congregation have ecumenical services once or twice a year where all the different churches come together. He would also like to see pulpit sharing, where pastors would go to another church for a Sunday, and he would love for the church to expand its youth program. In the future Bill would like to see the spirit of fellowship and compassion remain at Salem Presbyterian.

Bill told me that he loves singing hymns and that he wants to have “How Great Thou Art,” “In the Garden,” “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” and “The Holy City” sung at his funeral. Bill first heard “How Great Thou Art” at a Billy Graham crusade in 1956, sung by George Beverly Shea, and found it such a moving song. And “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” Bill enjoyed singing every day at a noon time brief service at the Baptist Student Union when he was a student at the University of Kentucky. Bill quoted the lyrics to me: “Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will ….” Those are definitely words to live by.

• From an interview by Trina Brown for the January 2013 church newsletter.

“Ask Norma.” For years, whether it’s how to adjust the heat or what is the process for transferring church memberships, Salem Presbyterians have become accustomed to finding Norma Eisert to answer questions about the church. After 16 years as church secretary through three ministers, Norma learned about church history, met and communicated with Presbytery officials, set up meeting times, filed important papers, took messages and even picked up how the repairmen did their work.

A true Hoosier, Norma was born in Harrison County where her mother Sylvia Evans Bailey raised Norma and her brother as Presbyterians. Growing up, Norma lived with her mother and brother at her grandparents’ home and attended Riverside Presbyterian Church near Elizabeth, Indiana. Norma has a great memory of her grandfather. Although he didn’t attend church regularly, every Sunday morning after chores, he would change out of his work boots and clothes into clean overalls and shirt and sit to read his Bible.

In the seventh grade, Norma met Erwin Eisert and years later, after they graduated from high school and married, journeyed with him to Purdue. Eventually the couple came to Salem in 1951, where Erwin became part of the Salem Community Schools system and where they raised their two children, Bruce and Sandra.

Norma and Erwin attended the Salem Presbyterian Church sporadically through their early years in Salem, but eventually, in the 1980’s, Norma became a faithful and regular member of the church. 

Norma remembers many memorable times at Salem Presbyterian Church, but two are especially significant to her. One Sunday morning, after Bill Peterson called Steve Hunt to give the Minute for Mission, Steve asked Norma to come forward because “she knew all about what was going on,” but as she came forward, she thought to herself, “Oh, dear, I have no idea what he means.” Steve began talking about someone being an orphan and needing a home, leaving Norma completely confused. Then, as the church doors opened and in walked Bill Spencer-Pierce, Norma heard a loud “meow” and realized Bill was holding a Siamese kitten. The kitten was her precious Ellie, who has been with Norma for eighteen years. Members of the congregation gave her to Norma, and she has become what Norma calls her church kitty, gentle, loving, sweet--a special companion for Norma.

Another exceptional Sunday was one when the Civil War reenactment group came to service. She had talked to the group leaders and helped plan their visit, but as they came marching down the street, men, women, children, with the rat-a-tat of their drums, she started to feel the real significance of the event. They left their guns at the door and sat in the pews, men in front, women behind. As the major with the group rose to speak to the congregation, Norma thought of how those visitors represented real people who would have sat in the very same pews in Salem Presbyterian, many years before. The sense of history of her church with those people was an emotional memory for Norma—voices from history speaking to her and to our congregation.

Norma’s vision for the church is to have the pews so full that two or even three services are needed. She truly wants people to come from the “east and west and north and south.” Last year, Norma helped implement a once a month prayer vigil at the Church. One of the prayers she prays on those days is that Salem Presbyterian Church will be filled. Prayer Vigil day is an important day for Norma, who feels it is a real need for the church, this facility and the people in it. In some ways, Norma is living a legacy from her great-grandmother, who, according to her family lore, was known for her prayers of healing. Norma believes that all the different people who have been on our list for prayer need somebody to pray for them, whether they are members or not. Norma sees the hand of God moving through prayer. Praying for the nation, the children, for wisdom for our public officials is vital. To her, one person can make the difference because with God the person praying becomes the majority. Norma believes, “Prayer moves the hand of God in ways we don’t even know."

Norma has been active in the community as well as the church. She doesn’t like to slow down even in the face of illness. She serves on Salem boards, being especially interested in the tree board. Although she doesn’t drive for John Jones right now, she has enjoyed driving all the cars, new and old, and smiles at the fact that she knows more about driving a stick shift than some younger drivers. Norma can always be counted as ready to offer her friends a ride to church or any activity. Norma provides her own “special recipes” for church meals. Who doesn’t love Norma’s crock-pot mashed potatoes?

Norma is especially proud of her work with the Girl Scouts in Salem. Norma remembers fondly her time as a Girl Scout leader for Washington County’s Troop Eleven. She provided leadership from their 4th grade through high school, planning many activities like retreats to McCormick’s Creek. She laughed to recall the jokes and wagers her family had about how many Girl Scout cookies could fit into their house. Ensuring that the girls knew how to swim was one of Norma’s main goals. For two years, Norma took her troop to the Colonial Club in New Albany for swimming lessons. Then, the swimming pool in town opened. All the girls learned to swim, with some of the girls earning life guard and instructor certifications, junior life saving and senior life saving badges. One summer they swam 30 days. Norma was determined that her scouts would be able to swim, noting that after such efforts on behalf of the scouts she also finally felt she could swim enough to survive. In a recent Facebook post about the girl scouts in Salem, Ramona Collins recalled, “Those are the best times of my youth. Praise be to Norma, my 2nd Mom.” It was a wonderful time of growth, not only for the girls of Troop Eleven, but for Norma, too.

Norma’s love for Salem Presbyterian Church shows through her commitment and enthusiasm for the church’s activities and for its people. “Ask Norma” is a tribute to her dedication, her spirit and her wonderful presence as part of our church. Our church family takes comfort and pleasure in knowing that Norma has the answers about the history, life, operations, and spirit of the church and that Norma provides such special and gentle guidance to our faith and our congregation.

• Norma was interviewed by church member Carolyn Beck - January 2014

David Beck grew up “in the suburbs” of Otisco, a little town in Clark County, Indiana. His family attended the small, community Otisco Presbyterian Church, which he told me was very similar in worship service structure and in number of attendees to Salem Presbyterian today. The part-time pastors who served at Otisco were students from the Louisville Presbyterian seminary. David said, “it was a fascinating way in which to grow up and attend church because every two or three years we would change pastors and a new one would come along.” David developed friendships with several pastors while growing up, and said the student pastors probably had the opportunity to experience just about everything to being a pastor in that little rural church.

At Otisco Presbyterian, David participated in a youth group of about 6 to 8 young people. At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, everyone met just before Sunday School and had a little service, followed by Sunday School class at 9:40 a.m. and then the worship service at 10:30 a.m. One of the young people would lead the short service before Sunday School each Sunday, choosing Bible passages to be read and a topic to briefly talk about. David led these youth services often and found them fun and interesting. 

David met his future wife Carolyn at Charlestown High School, where they both attended. At the end of David’s junior year they met at a friend’s party and started dating. After high school, they attended Indiana University in Bloomington and married just before their last semester there. David graduated in 1969 and Carolyn graduated in 1970. 

By the time they were planning their wedding, it was becoming harder for the rural churches to get part-time student pastors. Membership was declining and the churches in the Charlestown area had combined. Otisco Presbyterian had become part of Miller’s Chapel, and then Miller’s Chapel combined with First Presbyterian Church of Charlestown, where David and Carolyn’s wedding was held. Charlestown Presbyterian Church is no longer in that building, having since sold it to another denomination and built a new church. David remembers Charlestown Presbyterian’s big sanctuary with beautiful windows, very similar to Salem Presbyterian Church’s building.

After graduating from college David and Carolyn landed jobs as teachers in the Salem school system. David told me “that was really something for the two of them to be able to teach in the same school district, right out of college.” They attended Salem Presbyterian Church for the first time in August 1970 at the invitation of Joe Gilli, Salem High School’s principal and Joanna Gilli’s husband. Salem Presbyterian felt very familiar to David. It was a small community church, and the worship service and even the sanctuary were very similar to the churches he had attended in the past.

At Indiana University David had studied radio and television, and Joe Gilli hired him as a part-time audio-visual director and part-time history teacher at the high school. Mr. Gilli had seen the educational television station that had begun in New Albany and wanted David to start one in Salem. David was really excited about the opportunity to start a high school television station and to work with Mr. Gilli. He was a very good educator and David and Carolyn were both impressed with him. 

Sadly, just days before David was to start work, Mr. Gilli had a heart attack and died, sending the school system into a turmoil. Max Bedwell stepped in and assumed the interim role of principal, assistant principal and athletic director for the year, and the next year became principal. In this difficult transition time, starting an educational television station was, of course, not a top priority, and then a short time later, there were no longer education grants available to fund such an undertaking. 

While disappointed he did not have the opportunity to start an educational television station, David quickly found that he really enjoyed teaching history and overseeing audio/visual, which he described as being anything that “plugged into the wall.” Teachers used a great deal of audio/visual resources in their classrooms at that time, including films that had to be threaded through a film projector, filmstrips, and other equipment. As part of his job, David filmed most of the school’s sporting events, including all basketball and football games, home and away and some baseball games and track meets. 

The first few years David and Carolyn spent as teachers and as members of Salem Presbyterian Church, they were focusing on just finding their way as teachers. They were not very active in the church at first, being so busy preparing for school and with David traveling to film sports events, and with an unexpected move only two months after their arrival in Salem.

In October 1970 they were forced to move out of the home they had rented in August because of a rule that FHA homes could not be rented. They were not aware of this rule and neither was their landlord, but when he became aware he had to ask them to move out. They moved to a little place on Florence Street. They both preferred to live in a more rural area so after a few years they moved out to Beck’s Mill and lived in that area for about 10 years.

David remembers coming out of college thinking he was going to change the world and that with students he would have a captive audience who would be enthralled with learning history. He discovered that it took considerable effort to be prepared to teach each day, that not all students wanted to learn or were as motivated as he thought they’d be, and that the first place to start in changing the world was changing himself. He said, “It didn’t take me too long to understand that my students didn’t see me as a stand-up comedian. My humor was not going to get me a gig. I did hopefully do a few things that helped them learn something about history.”

When David and Carolyn first moved to Salem, their plan was to stay for just a couple of years and then move on to another community. They liked Salem but were interesting in seeing other places. At first, it was the fluctuating job market for teachers that kept them in Salem. Then, they became increasingly involved in the community and at Salem Presbyterian Church, and Salem became for them a great place to be and to have a family. It became their home and they were in Salem to stay. 

David was the youth director for a time for the combined youth group at the Salem Presbyterian and Methodist churches. That was a special time. David said, “You could just feel that you were so much a part of the life of the church and the life of the kids growing up in the church. For me it was a special opportunity to work with young people.” Then David and Carolyn’s son Christopher was born. Christopher’s baptism at the church was also a meaningful highlight for David. He loved seeing Christopher grow up in the church and join the church. He told me, “it just made me feel a stronger connection – thinking this is the way you ought to experience faith, you ought to experience in your life and as a Christian.” In 2002, Carolyn was diagnosed with cancer and though it was a terrible ordeal “the people of the church were just wonderful.” He said that the support of the church helped them keep their strength through those difficult times.

The next year David took early retirement from Salem High School, or rather “got retreaded” by choosing to start his own business as a consultant. He was interested in helping other schools go through a similar systemic reform process as the Salem school system had done. There were a lot of changes in the Salem school system at that time so David thought it was a good time for a transition in his career. He has traveled across the country in his work and over time has moved away from working with schools to working with community foundations. While he found short-term workshop trips to be interesting, he prefers working with organizations over an extended period and getting to know them in the process.

I asked David what drew him to the Presbyterian Church. He said he feels most comfortable within the Presbyterian Church as a denomination because there is autonomy in what individual members believe, that it is “not so indoctrinated – that ‘this is the only way’ type of thinking.” Also, David believes Presbyterian churches are made up of people who are actively involved in their church and in their community. Growing up, by being a member of a Presbyterian church he felt that sense of belonging to something greater and bigger than he is. 

What drew David and Carolyn to Salem Presbyterian Church was initially the invitation from Mr. Gilli to attend. That invitation made them feel that someone was interested in them and wanting them to become a part of the church. David thinks the warm feeling of welcome is still there today in our church and is part of what has kept him here. He said what has kept him at Salem Presbyterian is “the people who are there and how special they are and how much they mean to me and our family. People in our church care about one another. It’s a genuine caring. I feel like I have a lot of people I’m close to and friends with as well as share church with.” He said this has been the case for the entire 40 some years he and Carolyn have been members at Salem Presbyterian.

David’s faith journey has been one not of “peaks and valleys but as a constant stream of positive feeling about experiences that I’ve had. It’s helped smooth out the peaks and valleys of my life.” He made a commitment early in life and his faith has been a steadying force, keeping him mindful that he is one of God’s children and that his faith always supports him and enriches his life. 

David’s parents had a very strong faith and one of the things they taught David was to pay attention, in church and in everyday life. He feels he has learned something from every pastor who has served at Salem Presbyterian, and that they each have “brought the good news” in different ways. He finds that with our current pastor Beth Walden-Fisher “we have someone who emphasizes a more direct Biblical connection, discussing the Bible from a more historical perspective and connecting that perspective to what it means to be a Presbyterian.” He thinks very highly of the music ministry at Salem Presbyterian, saying it is so meaningful to the worship experience, and that when combined with the rest of worship on Sunday mornings, “there are really good reasons to go to church and be renewed.”

The frenetic pace of life gets in the way of practicing our faith, David told me, and Salem Presbyterian fulfills a need to become close to others, which is part of our journey together as a church congregation. We talked about how the Salem Presbyterian Church faith community is so much like a family for its members. We see each other more often than we see our own family members in many cases. There are many opportunities to get together and get to know one another better outside the worship service, such as singing in the choir and the Brown Bag Supper discussion group. David would like our church to celebrate these opportunities and reach out to the community to let people know they can also be a part of the life of our church. 

David pointed out that Presbyterians do a lot in and for our community but just don’t do it in the name of Salem Presbyterian Church, not that they should. When the church’s mission statement was written a few years ago, David said there was a lot of discussion within the Salem Presbyterian faith community about how one’s religious beliefs and one’s faith journey are unique to that person and private. While he believes that to an extent this is true and probably important to preserve, he feels that “some of our emphasis on the privacy of our faith journey may stand in the way of our witnessing in the way we should to our community.” 

One of the reasons that the church’s mission statement project was begun, David explained, was to express and help people understand what our church family cares about. In this age when it seems everyone is concerned about small issues and seem to miss the biggest issue of “what it means to be a Christian,” members of our church family wanted to talk about and focus on what unites us as Presbyterians and Christians. David believes we need to be talking about those things that unite us because they are critical to our individual and collective faith journeys. 

Although he believes he is one of the “most forgettable people you will ever meet,” David has, recently come to realize that if more of us don’t step forward and become involved, we may be at risk of losing our church. "If we believe in our church’s mission, we should do our best to move that mission forward, to build positive energy in our programs and act upon our faith.” David feels that part of who he is, and part of who we all are who attend Salem Presbyterian, is formed from our attending there. 

David will be serving on the Salem Presbyterian Church Session this year, and for the fourth time since he became a church member. He served for the first time after living in Salem for 3 or 4 years. He also continues to serve as Clerk of Session but, because he is not a “detail person,” would have been glad to turn this position over to another person this year, had someone been interested in becoming Clerk. He had been Clerk in the past so when Cathy Huey chose to step down as Clerk at the end of 2010 he felt called to help out.  

This is a time of transition for Salem Presbyterian Church, and David is looking forward to serving on the Session and helping to guide the church as it moves forward. He said, “If our church is one of the best-kept secrets in Washington County, what does that say? That says that we have some room to grow.” Looking forward he wonders how the church can best “focus on getting a little better all the time in what we do, in the experiences we have, so that people come away more involved with the things that they want to be involved with and getting more out of their own faith experience.”

• From an interview by Trina Brown for the January/February 2012 church newsletter.