Can you feel Oxford growing?

 

All you have to do is drive down West Jackson Avenue on any given day to feel the street itself almost straining to handle an oppressive volume of traffic. New apartments and homes seem to be sprouting everywhere like weeds. Our secondary schools are at or near capacity. Today, a new 600,000 square-foot, $300 million general hospital rises out of the clay soil off South Lamar that will handle an ever-growing patient base in our region. Big box national retailers continue to saturate the retail market scene here. The Square has a new verve brought about by more and more people walking its sidewalks. Both tourists and visitors to athletic events are en route to Oxford 24/7/365, and they're staying in several new hotels that have opened to handle the demand...with more on the way. At Ole Miss, the frenzy of new construction is evident all over campus as the state's flagship university tries to keep pace with record enrollment. Indeed, these are exciting times to be living in one of America's most vaunted small town communities.

But with rapid growth come rapid challenges. Our infrastructure is woefully inadequate thanks to poor planning and unbridled construction projects. Affordable housing is a dwindling commodity inside the city's limits and real estate values are at head-shaking levels. New bond issues are being proposed to fund the construction of more schools for our children. Many would argue we've lost the innocence and uniqueness that once was so characteristic of Oxford.

 

Such is the story of First Presbyterian Church, too. Our church rolls have expanded ever quickly, but that growth has been difficult to manage. Our sanctuary is too small now for a church of more than 800 members; it was never built with so big a congregation in mind. Parking is woefully inadequate. Our youngest Presbyterians need more room to learn and grow beyond the antiquated, 60 year-old building that presently houses them. Our choir suite capacity is strained to its limits thanks to Joe Garrison's renewal of the music program here. Our youth director's office is an old closet that has been refashioned for his use in managing a burgeoning number of teens in our midst. And most importantly, we don't know each other as well as we used to; it's just not easy to recognize every name anymore, every story, every face.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining! Most other small southern towns and churches in our denomination would give anything to have the issues with which we are now dealing. But the reality of exponential growth, in particular at FPC, causes me to arrive at two conclusions. The first is that, like our city leaders, we are working as a church to solve our problems at hand. Building renovations and expansions have helped, and so too will another pastor to join Ann and me (and UKirk pastor Allison Wehrung as well). But it is shepherding groups and the hard work of our deacons, along with the many other educational, missional and fellowship opportunities established to help us get to know one another better, that have yielded the finest fruit and will continue to do so moving forward. With each link of the chain of faith strengthened, we become a church all the better equipped to build up the kingdom of God on earth - a worthy goal by all standards.

 

The other, and more critical, conclusion is this: in the midst of unencumbered growth and change around it, First Presbyterian Church remains as a beacon of light in the city, just as it has for nearly 180 years, summoning all who will come her way to experience a fuller and deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and with one another. Like other faith communities around it, FPC is the glue that holds the soul of Oxford together and that reminds us of the firm foundation of faith God has given us all, solid as a rock even when it seems the world may overwhelm that faith.

 

For those reasons, I'm bullish on Oxford. And I'm really bullish on First Presbyterian Church.

 

For all of you who are the church - this church - I give thanks to God.