Chapter Nine
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While Holy Cross had struggled financially off and on over the years, by the mid-Nineties, the economy, fueled by the dot-com boom, was so strong that Holy Cross took a major step and decided to hire a coordinator of ministry development. The step wasn’t just one of personnel, since it allowed the congregation to move from a pastoral to a program church. Two signs of the latter were the addition of new programs and the need for more staff.
In September 1995, Holy Cross hired its first ministry coordinator in Jill Schneider, who also served as organist. Her presence was valuable, and that position has remained a decade later, important in coordinating the church’s programs and in supplying ongoing leadership for youth programs.
While Holy Cross had for some time been using the hymns in the Lutheran Book of Worship, the Council felt a need for a more casual service at the early hour, and the perfect hymnal for that was With One Voice, which combined old favorites, newer standards, and music from other cultures. Since much of this music sounds better with piano than organ, a chancel piano was donated in 1995 to complement the new hymnals, giving Holy Cross worship services appealing both to those who enjoy casual, relaxed services and those who find the need for more formal, “high-church” worship.
The idea for a church archivist was still bouncing around in the mid-Nineties, but church records don’t show that anyone took the job, and records continued to be warehoused in whatever space was available.
Children, youth, and adult choirs were busy, and a man named Fred Binkholder served, but only for a brief time, as music director. By August 1996, with financial problems fading as an issue, Gwen McGraw was named new music director.
In 1997, the church appropriated its first Long Range Planning Committee. Would the current site work for years to come? Should new land be purchased and a larger church built? It was worth discussing, anyway. In April of that year, Jill Schneider moved with her husband David and their family to Michigan, where David went to serve as a resident pastor at Michigan State University. She was partially succeeded by Lois Sivert as organist and coordinator of music ministries, but a new coordinator of ministries was hired in late 1997 who would have a lasting influence at Holy Cross.
Becky Kerr was a bright, cheerful lifelong Lutheran whose husband, Bill, was a faculty member of the College of Food Science at the University of Georgia. She came to employment at Holy Cross with great enthusiasm—a joy that was still much in evidence to all parishioners more than six years later. Becky began work on January 7, 1998.
She immediately began looking at how the youth were organized and decided to divide them into junior and senior sections, a successful move.
During 1998, Binkholder resigned as choir director, and Lois Sivert added that to her duties while remaining organist. Handbells were also purchased that year, and a fine handbell choir was organized and performs frequently to this day.
The ongoing repair of the physical structure led the church to form a Building Committee in 1998, and Holy Cross hired an architect to modify the front of the sanctuary and increase parking space.
Work on the sanctuary was completed in 1999, and the church finally stopped using its aging septic tank and hooked up to the City of Athens sewerage system. Lois Sivert resigned as music director early that year to take a similar position in Gainesville, and not until September did Holy Cross obtain the services of Dr. Dell Hitchcock as organist and choir director.
In February of 1999, Holy Cross celebrated at important anniversary: its 40th anniversary as a full church. It was a happy time, with a dinner held on Saturday, Feb. 20 and special services the next day. On March 13, the church planted a magnolia next to the playground in honor of the milestone.
Becky Kerr also started a regular (and popular) Wednesday night LOGOS program.
That year was not without its controversies, however. While the new designs on the church drew little comment, some citizens were unhappy with the church’s plans to expand its parking lot, and the issue, sometimes contentious, wound up before the local Planning Commission before a resolution was found that suited everyone. Still, by the time the Y2K celebrations rolled around on January 1, 2000, the new parking area was still being discussed.
The church had since 1982 had a deep and wonderful relationship with Pastor David Hart, and in 2000 granted him a twelve-week sabbatical from May through August, during which he visited sites in Europe associated with Martin Luther and the Lutheran church. He returned charged with a new energy and desire to lead Holy Cross forward. Pastor Deryck Dustan served as supply pastor while Rev. Hart was on sabbatical.
As the century turned, Holy Cross was more deeply involved than ever in work for, and far beyond, the congregation. Among its missions were Volunteer Athens, World Hunger Appeal, The Ark, Athens Food Bank, the Samaritan Counseling Center, Lutheran Disaster Ministry, and Lutheran World Relief. It later became part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Athens.
More and more programs flourished at Holy Cross, including the Ruth Circle, the 50-Plus club, and adult Sunday school classes. Becky Kerr caught the temper of the times with her well-attended class “Bad Girls of the Bible.” The church started an informational website that, if not updated much, at least put the basics of Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church online. It was much improved during 2005.
Discussions continued about the fact that the church had no room to expand, but no decision had been made before the dot-com bubble burst, and America’s economy went sour. (Holy Cross sits on 1.66 acres, and no more adjacent land is available.)
The ELCA’s ideas of inclusiveness were well-served by outreach programs to the area Latino and African-American communities as well as occasional interdenominational services and combined work with the Athens Deaf Church. Members also delivered meals to AIDS patients.
The church added a nametag cabinet in the Narthex, bought new white choir robes, and gave generously to support church programs of all kinds.
Mostly, however, Holy Cross Lutheran Church lived not on the facts or histories of its own past or of the Lutheran Church. It offered and still offers a place to be witness to the living God and his son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Chapter 10
