By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
West End Presbyterian Church has welcomed a familiar and friendly face to serve as its next minister.
The Rev. Chip Pope, who served WEPC as an associate pastor from 2008 to 2014, took on the mantle of head of staff as a stated supply pastor in September.
Pope, a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary, spent the intervening decade as an associate pastor at White Memorial Presbyterian in Raleigh, with a focus on family ministry and working primarily with youth and children’s ministry teams. When Pope recently discerned he was ready for a change, the opportunity to return to WEPC presented itself.
“I’m excited to be here. Obviously the role is different, and I’m excited about that,” said Pope. “I’m excited about preaching here and very excited about visiting and pastoral care. I’ll be spending some time getting to know the community.”
Much has changed in 10 years, including Pope. “Everyone, including myself, is 10 years older,” he said. “Even the high school seniors were finishing up the first grade when I was here. So especially the children and youth have changed, but even the adults. You know, 10 years is a good amount of time.”
Many members entered a second retirement during those years, moving from greater Seven Lakes to retirement communities or to be closer to children. But an energetic core remains.
Pope said there has been a lot of good energy among church members in their first few weeks together.
“It’s been good to reunite with a lot of folks I haven’t seen in 10 years,” he said. “And then 10 years worth of new members have come in that are really active as well. It’s been really cool to get to meet those who have joined.”
Those 10 years apart were also profoundly shaped by a pandemic.
“I don’t know that anyone came out of COVID in the same way they went in,” said Pope. “Everyone’s had that experience since I was here, and churches are in a world that looks very different.”
One of the big changes the Pope sees in the church writ large is a change in ritual. “Rituals are important. They guide us,” he said. When church went virtual, families began to enjoy staying home for worship while wearing pajamas and eating breakfast. It was an opportunity to experience family time, an important value.
At the same time, the church has a message that needs to be heard now as much as ever. “There’s a message of hope and peace that needs to be proclaimed in the world,” he said. Those values complement each other, and the church has a role in helping people find a balance among them.
WEPC is uniquely equipped to do ministry in a post-pandemic world and after a period of ministerial transition.
“God equips them,” said Pope. “The church here is resilient. Whether it’s communal challenges or just the challenges folks have faced in their individual lives, there is a sense of resilience here that’s noticeable pretty quickly.”
It’s not a resilience that comes from inner fortitude, Pope observed, but is embedded in the message of God and can be found through hope and faith. It also has the potential to impact the larger community.
WEPC is a place, Pope said, where folks can disagree and yet work through life together. The resilience he sees is the ability to say “even if this gets hard at times, or even if there’s challenges at times, we keep trusting in that hope and that faith and that perseverance that God gives us.” In that way the community keeps moving forward as a model of what it looks like to disagree and still be able to serve others in the community.
Pope’s gentleness and gifts for pastoral ministry can be felt in his calm, non-anxious presence. “I’m not a pied piper pastor,” he said. “I build relationships over time that I think have a lot of depth to them. I really love and consider it an honor when people invite me into their lives.”
While he doesn’t always love the situations people find themselves in or the situations that brought about pastoral needs, getting invited to journey alongside people generates many of the holy moments Pope experiences.
He enjoys preaching and with an undergraduate degree in elementary education from Auburn University, loves teaching. “At the core of me I’m a teacher, and I like equipping folks in their ministry areas, in which they really feel called and passionate.”
In Pope’s first month at WEPC he centered worship on the stories of the Israelites found in Genesis and Exodus. Through the stories of Abraham and Sarah and the generations after them, the congregation heard how God’s love and faithfulness pursued people through many challenges. Pope encouraged WEPC members to bear witness to the ways God’s faithfulness has been expressed in their own lives.
As for Pope, he is guided in his personal life and his calling to pastoral ministry by God’s promises in Romans 8:38-39. “It is the notion that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love,” he said.
Pope, who has been involved with childrens’ and youth ministry for 23 years, said this is one message he wanted to impart upon those he served.
“It was always my hope that if they could leave with one thing, that they would leave with the understanding that as they face challenges, there is nothing they can do that can separate them from God’s love. God’s love is not bound up in human frailty.”
Pope will continue to proclaim this message at WEPC along with the solid staff members and church leaders. “I really do love the staff here,” said Pope. “They see this not just as a job but as living out their calling in the world. We have members here who really have a passion beyond just serving where their own needs are being met but serving a broader group of people.”
Moore County is a special place for Pope. His daughter Lily was born at FirstHealth and eventually attended West End Elementary with her older sister Celia. Pope also shares children Connor and Chase Kinnas in a blended family with his wife, Heather. Their full house keeps them busy.
When Pope is not cheering on his Auburn Tigers, he enjoys playing tennis with Heather or diving into a John Grisham or James Patterson novel.
And he loves coming to work at WEPC. “I’m eager to meet people in the community and would love the opportunity to meet folks and certainly welcome people to join us for worship.”
WEPC, located at 275 Knox Lane, worships at 11 a.m. with Sunday school offered at 10 a.m. Midweek programming includes a longstanding Tuesday Tutoring program and a Wednesday after-school program for elementary aged children called WOW. For more information about these and other opportunities visit westpendpres.church.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
