Hop like a Kangaroo:
Pivoting to Meet the Needs of all God’s Children
First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown
Hightstown, NJ
by Student Researchers Esther Chiang, Maggie Akinleye, and Allie Senyard
“We hop around like a kangaroo,” says Elder Mearmon, when comparing First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown to a zoo animal. He goes on to explain how the church does a lot and is always ready to “move on to something else [as] things change.” Pastor and head of staff, Rev. Lisa Day, also compares the church to a kangaroo, highlighting its tendency toward “playful experimentation.” While Hightstown resembles a kangaroo in its ability to pivot and do many things, such as hopping to meet the needs of the community, it also cradles its members in a pouch of love and care, like a family.
One way Hightstown wraps its members in love and care is by taking seriously their call to be the body of Christ. In the sermon Pastor Lisa gave on the Sunday we attended Hightstown, Pastor Lisa demonstrated how being the body of Christ is central to how Hightstown understands God’s work in the world:
Many of us have come wondering what we can do to lighten the burden of our church family members going through such dark times. By the mystery and gift of the Holy Spirit, we are the body of Christ. What we do for each other, Jesus is doing through us so that simple, tender, generous reaching out of a hand, a prayer, a card, a casserole, folks might know that they are not alone. They are not forgotten. They do not have to be afraid, for Christ is with them.
Through simple everyday acts, God’s presence and care is expressed through the members of Hightstown to members of the wider community. Dilys, the former clerk of session, shared with us a story of how this idea of Christ working through them has been operative in the life of the congregation recently. When one of the members received a dire health diagnosis, the community of Hightstown rallied around the family, offering meals and prayers for peace. As Dilys told us, God was “working through the whole congregation” to wrap that family in love and to be God’s presence so that they would know that they were not alone. In a tangible way, living out Pastor Lisa’s reminder that what they do for one another, Christ is doing through them.
Because of the care Hightstown strives to express to members of its community, many have found a family in the First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown. This “found family,” as one of its members described the community of Hightstown, is held together by the concerted effort Hightstown makes to be a welcoming and accessible space for “all of God’s children.” We saw this specifically in the worshiping life of the community. During the service we attended, the voices and babbling of the children of the congregation were clearly heard in person and online. There were no “shushing” adults to be seen during the service, as had sometimes happened in the past, staring disapprovingly or urging for quiet. Instead, the noise was welcomed since it is seen as just the people making their presence known, telling the congregation that “God’s children are here.” Also, Hightstown creates space for people of varying neurodiversity to be a part of the worshiping community – from being a part of the choir, helping with the liturgy on Sunday services, or making a confirmation class accessible for autistic children. The unique accessibility that Hightstown embodies lends itself to being a welcoming space for the queer community as well. Many members told us about the impact and importance of the Pride flag that Hightstown decided to hang after the Pulse nightclub shooting. The Pride flag, along with Hightstown having active members and leaders who are queer, has drawn many people into the Hightstown community.
Since we did our participant observation during Black History Month, we saw banners hung – leftover from an outdoor art exhibition – songs sung, and sentences aimed at celebrating Black History. Before our observation, members had described the church as a majority white congregation that had decided to not hang a BLM flag next to the Pride flag after the murder of George Floyd. However, we saw much more racial diversity represented than we were expecting, especially among the children as many children come from mixed-race families. With that being said, we observed a few black people in attendance during worship. With the vibrant celebration of Black History during worship, we were curious why the church would have voted against the BLM flag or why there were so few black members in the congregation. Is the congregation unified in its desire for increased racial diversity or is this a push of leadership?
Since its founding in 1857, the First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown burned down twice, and these events have served as a catalyst for change for the Hightstown community. After the church burned down a second time, the church was rebuilt to better reflect Hightstown’s heart to serve the community. Instead of the congregation worshiping with their backs toward Main Street, the remodeled building positions the congregation towards the community during Sunday worship, facing a stained-glass window of Jesus with open arms stretched toward the neighborhood. Pastor Lisa articulated this community-mindedness to us when she described an exercise she did with the church elders where they imagined the church had burned down for a third time and the staff had all perished. With this exercise, she wanted them to think about “the essentials of who we are” and it turned out those essentials were “caring for the siblings and the faith community that God had given us and caring for the neighbors.”
From Pastor Lisa, who spoke effusively about her passion for working with the Spanish- speaking neighbors in the Hightstown community, to Dilys, who emphasized global missions and included all members of the congregation in worship, we can see that Hightstown seeks to be a welcoming space for all members of its community and desires to expand the definition of what it means to be a part of the church community. Even a family who mostly participates in Kids Club commented that they appreciated Messy Church, a family-friendly service hosted one Sunday evening a month that combines interactive activities (art, science, service, etc.), sharing a meal, and worship, because they spent their time packing food and giving back to the community. One of the longtime members and ministry leaders, Tom, says it best,
We’re very mission oriented…It’s not just about the people that show up in church on Sunday. I mean, there’s so much more going on. And I feel like even the people who aren’t part of our church who come for AA meetings there, and other things that go on in the church. They’re part of our church. And we’re more than just what happens on
Sunday. That’s what I want you to know about us. We’re more than what just happens, you know, from 10:30 to 11:30 on Sunday mornings.
For Hightstown, caring for their neighbors means opening their hearts and the doors of the church to be available for ministry throughout the week. While language is a barrier between the congregation and the Spanish-speaking members of the local community, the building speaks for the church and is a conduit for ministry in Hightstown. The building houses Better Beginnings, a daycare center for the local community, and Pastor Lisa has been a frequent volunteer doing story time with the children every week. Community Dinner acts as a meal distribution center for members of the community. The Kids Club offers a space for all the children of Hightstown, both those who attend the congregation and those who are from the surrounding community with no connection to the church. And 12-Step meetings are regularly held at the church. When other churches closed their doors during the pandemic, Hightstown kept its doors open to these meetings. The Art Ministry has received local and international attention for its outdoor displays for Pentecost and Pride. Throughout the pandemic, the Art Ministry was able to create installations that the community could interact with safely, including a meditative Black History Month Exhibit. So even though there are barriers to their desire to serve the community, their heart is expressed in a member’s reflection on the church, “We’re not perfect, but we try.”
Like a kangaroo that is hopping from one place to the next—from the Kids Club, Community Dinner, the Art Ministry, Sacred Photography, Messy Church, Youth Group, and more—all interview participants agree that First Presbyterian Church of Hightstown does so much. This is a body that strives to creatively meet the needs of its community. However, we wonder if the constant hopping from thing to thing is sustainable. With so many spinning plates, is the church able to work toward a common goal?
Overall, Hightstown is an active congregation that has a mission of outreach to the community; however, each ministry and committee has a unique method for carrying out this mission. Perhaps it feels like the church embodies multiple kangaroos, or as one congregant put it, a “school of fish,” where “we move as one for things and when danger comes around, we all know how to maneuver it, … separate for a bit, but then we come back together, and we move along.” This separation to find a way forward was demonstrated in the spectrum of opinions regarding the COVID pandemic and when to resume in-person worship. With some congregants being eager to resume in-person worship, Pastor Lisa delegated some worship leadership so that an in-person monthly Sunday evening service could occur early in 2021 as she and her family
member’s health status did not make it possible for her to lead in-person, indoor services. Pastor Lisa continued to lead the regular Sunday morning services on Zoom (until the Session resumed in-person worship in August 2021).
It is this separation to find a way forward that is intriguing as it shows a willingness to adapt but it can also pose its own challenges. One challenge is that it could be difficult for members in the church’s various ministries to be connected and know what is going on in other areas of the church; making it more difficult to hold everyone together with a specific goal though there is a clear common mission. Regardless, the beating heart of this church is strong because everyone cares deeply for Hightstown.
