Published: November 06, 2009 01:46 pm      

You can go home again

Thursday, November 5, 2009 — Homecoming at Pfeiffer University was different this year.

First, it was really wet; this is the second year in a row we experienced a soggy Homecoming. Despite the weather there was a great turnout of alumni and a great showing by all of our student-athletes. Men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse as well as our women’s volleyball team all won their respective matches. The other major difference, at least for me, was celebrating Homecoming as a full-time University staff member for the very first time.

In 1978 I left the comforts of home in Miami, Fla., to enter Pfeiffer College majoring in Christian education. My senior class at South Miami Senior High was larger than the entire residential student body at Pfeiffer. I had never seen a cow, picked vegetables from a garden and no clue what it meant to “pull first prime tobacco.” But I fell in love with this corner of the world. My first trip to Harward’s Fish Camp was a foretaste of banquet in heaven.

Over the years, Pfeiffer, Misenheimer and Stanly County have come to be home for me more than any other place. I stand amazed that I have made it to multiple points on the globe and lived in multiple places across our state, only to end up right back where I started. Perhaps when you have to work that hard to learn how to properly spell the names of the place you reside, it creates a greater sense of attachment.

My experience at Pfeiffer led me to discover that my call to ministry was not to Christian education alone, but that God had actually called me to ordained ministry in the local church.

After completing seminary at Duke University I was sent back to Misenheimer. My second stop here on my life’s journey was as pastor at Matton’s Grove and Zion United Methodist churches and adjunct professor at Pfeiffer.

I thought I was coming to impart and inflict my wealth of collected wisdom onto the people of those congregations. It has taken me 25 years to learn that I was not sent to teach, but to be taught. I learned quite a bit from people like Opel Sells who tried to keep me straight on the Bible, Bradford Barringer who kept me straight on people and prayer and Joan Sells and Gail Misenheimer who tried to keep me straight period. Both congregations taught me much about being patient with a “greenhorn” preacher.

That time was also my first introduction to The Stanly News and Press. It was my privilege to serve as pastor to the once famous “Ye Scribe,” Mr. Archie Bolton, who wrote “all the news that was fit to print and then some” for the Richfield-Misenheimer community. I hope to live up to at least some of the tradition of his ramblings and writings and honor his memory by claiming the title “Ye Village Parson” for this column.

Last spring an unexpected phone call and invitation from Pfeiffer President, Dr. Chuck Ambrose brought me home again. Since July 1 I have served as Minister to the University and Pastor of the Village Church of Pfeiffer.

I am amazed at how much remains exactly the since 1978. The Pfeiffer Library smells just the same. I am equally amazed at the changing challenges and opportunities that the University and community continue to face.

I invite you to reminisce with me as this column unfolds and for us to continue the conversation on addressing those changes, challenges and opportunities. It is good to be home again.



The Rev. Dana McKim is minister to the university and pastor of the Village Church at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer.