A local boy returned to the neighborhood last August when Dr. Robert W. Gordon came to Grace Methodist Church as its pastor. Dr. Gordon grew up on McPherson and attended Grace Church as a young man. He obtained his B.S. in Business Administration from Washington University and worked for a number of local firms before a tour of Navy duty during World War II.
He graduated from Garrett Theological Seminary with distinction and had served at United Methodist churches in East St. Louis, Naperville, Illinois; and Joliet, Illinois. In 1969 he joined the faculty at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Naperville, where he served as associate director of the Center for Parish Development.
“The astonishing thing to me has been not the changes in the neighborhood since I moved away in the ’40’s, but the lack of change. It all looks very much the same,” Dr. Gordon smiled. “When any friends talk about the recent crimes, I tell them that I still vividly remember someone breaking into our old house on McPherson and that was around 1940.”
As pastor of such a large and established church, he is of course professionally concerned with keeping up with changes in the urban neighborhood. Some eight Boy and Girl Scout Troops are sponsored by Grace Church, most of the members being neighborhood young people. Grace Church also sponsors a Saturday Club program which recruits fourth through eighth graders from Hamilton School for an activity, centered enrichment program. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Renner, of Grace Church, give every Saturday morning to this project, assisted by members of the congregation and people from the Skinker-DeBaliviere area.
Dr. Gordon spoke of Grace Church as primarily a metropolitan church, drawing its congregation from the entire area. “When we discussed Wednesday night Lenten services, we decided not to cancel them with ‘fear of crime in the streets’ as our reason. We had six weekly supper and religious service programs and everyone concerned was delighted with attendance.”
In his monthly newsletter Dr. Rev. Gordon saw Grace Church in this light, “The very best description of us is that we are a metropolitan church, located uniquely in the center of the metropolitan area where city meets county, campus meets town, black meets white, and (we hope) people meet God.”
With this in mind, he and his associate look forward to providing not only the customary worship services, but continuing the bustle effort and involved in programs like the scout troops and the Saturday morning club.
Dr. Gordon and his wife have four children, one son and three daughters. They live on the 6300 block of Waterman.
Original photograph caption
Rev. Robert Gordon
Originally published in The Paper, May 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_05.pdf, printed page 5.
