Asher Pandit sits on the lap of his grandfather, David Doup, during the service at the Fairlawn Presbyterian Church in Columbus on Oct. 1.
Carla Clark | For The Republic
In a world where houses of worship sometimes tout a bursting-at-the-seams attendance, rocking praise tunes or a flashy youth outreach, the Rev. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick prefers that her congregation be known, all things considered, for its heart of compassion.
She saw it recently again for the umpteenth time — except that on this occasion, it was directed right toward her instead of a struggling member.
“This church tries to live its faith, to do what we can to show it, to care for our neighbor, to care for others,” Kirkpatrick said.
A couple weeks ago, the pastor suffered through both COVID and kidney stones.
“I was wiped out,” she said, adding that she ended up in the local emergency room.
The congregational care team brought her flowers and a card — and did the same for three other congregational members who were hurting.
So it is at Columbus’ Fairlawn Presbyterian Church at 2611 Fairlawn Drive, with its members already mapping its 60th anniversary celebration in April with a mix of activities currently underway. The church, designed to meet the community growth more than half a century ago, was a spinoff of the downtown First Presbyterian Church, from which its initial colonizing 34 members came among 135 charter members, according to its history.
Its mission statement: Serving Christ with open hearts, open minds, and open arms.
Its first anniversary-related activity among an entire calendar full of them is a canned corn drive for the Love Chapel food pantry, one of its ministry partners. They want to collect 300 cans for the nonprofit’s Christmas pantry.
Also, this month comes the planting of 60 symbolic bulbs on the property, an effort overseen by landscape architect Art Hopkins. One key concept with that is the hope that the flowers will bloom just in time for the big, springtime celebration.
The pastor is the first to acknowledge that its activities such as its three-times-per-year outreach called Go And Serve Sunday, involving community service, is significant for an assembly with a post-COVID weekly attendance of 50 to 60 people.
“As a small church, we do have some of our challenges,” Kirkpatrick said. “But we don’t focus on what we don’t have. We focus on what we do have and the strength we have through God to be who God placed us here to be. God put this church here at Fairlawn for a purpose and our purpose is to serve and lead and be in mission.”
And when it comes to serving, Fairlawn looks markedly different from a lot of Christian congregations, especially in the width and breadth of its lay leaders. They range from pint-sized grade-schoolers as Scripture readers to the pastor’s own father, the Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick, serving even as a guest preacher when he can despite dementia, particularly because Fairlawn is known as a dementia-friendly assembly.
The pastor’s mother, Diane Kirkpatrick, has been a key member helping plan the anniversary activities. She also is the one who regularly sends every regular member a birthday card in a church aiming to continue a small-town, personal touch.
And Fairlawn’s personal touch is so significant that one college student now outside Columbus but one who grew up at Fairlawn still catches Sunday services online and midweek online chats.
Longtime member Pat Keller, part of the anniversary committee, has been at Fairlawn since she and her husband arrived in town 47 years ago.
“We decided to try this church because it was small, and everyone greeted us like we had belonged forever,” Keller said. “So that’s basically it. Our three girls have grown up in this church.”
She has stayed for a simple reason.
“Friends,” Keller said. “Friends. I love to sing in the choir. I love to help out in the office. I just love the people here.
“They’re family.”
When the pastor looks to the future, she yearns for a few things especially.
“I’d like us to continue our mission emphasis,” she said. “I’d like us to keep our focus on being community with each other and caring for each other.
“And obviously, we’d love to welcome more families to come and see what is the wonder of Fairlawn. But what I’d wish even more is that we would be known at the end as a faithful, hospitable church that lived out its God-given mission.”
Fairlawn’s impact in brief
- A dementia friendly church
- A multicultural church with people from India, Africa, Haiti and Romania.
- A mission-minded church partnering with: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; Love Chapel; Smith Elementary School; Turning Point Domestic Violence Services; the Souper Bowl of Caring; Four Seasons Retirement Center; and One Great Hour of Sharing.
A Matthew 25 church
Fairlawn Presbyterian calls itself a Matthew 25 church, focused on three specific elements mentioned in that Scripture:|
- Building congregational vitality by challenging people and congregations to deepen their faith and get actively and joyfully engaged with their community and the world.
- Dismantling structural racism by advocating and acting to break down the systems, practices and thinking that underlie discrimination, bias, prejudice and oppression of people of color.
- Eradicating systemic poverty by working to change laws, policies, plans and structures in our society that perpetuate economic exploitation of people who are poor.
