Blog Post by
Donna Cook, Ruling Elder
Oak Hill Presbyterian Church
Presbytery Hunger Action Enabler
Thanksgiving in 2021 is a time of abundance, scarcity, pandemic, inflation, fear, and/or faith. How we live into it is our choice. If we have an abundance mentality, we believe there is enough for everyone, and we’ll have what we need. If we have a scarcity mentality, we believe that there is only a fixed amount, and someone else’s gain is our loss, and we won’t have enough. Like all of us, being fully human, I go through all those feelings and fears and try to live into my faith every day and try not to drive around with my iron in the back seat of my car because I’m afraid I’ll leave it plugged in and my house will burn to the ground while I’m gone. (Thanks, Dad) I see and feel the conflict and division in our world and pray daily for justice, love, community, understanding, and compromise.
I forgot to mention in the list above, change! Yikes! November 14, 2021, we celebrated the 7-year mission and ministry of the Rev. Erin Counihan at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church. Pastor Erin is heading off to what I call an “exciting gig” in Washington, DC. We know she wants to be closer to family, but still, we love her so much and we want to keep her forever. Fear, at first, can strike at the heart of a small congregation with a solo pastor. Our only other paid staff member is our Minister of Music. Everything. Else. Faithful. Volunteers.
Resist the fear.
Oak Hill, like every other church, loses its pastor through the years to new calls, retirement, and sadly, conflict. Happily, that’s not the case here. Someone asked on a Facebook post if the congregation knew how lucky we were to have had Erin as our pastor? They obviously weren’t in attendance that Sunday and didn’t see and hear the tributes and tears. We know! We know Erin was called by God to our congregation to guide us through the racial tensions that erupted in August 2014, shortly after her arrival, and to guide us to strengthen our community within and outside of the walls of our church.
Faith will free us.
We had a mighty fine pastor back in the 1990s. Pastor George Wilcox’s sermons and leadership style inspired me to come back to church after being away for a time. 
Through George, I came to a ‘grown up’ understanding of “give us this day our daily bread”. I believe firmly, God will give us what we need for today, right here, right now. When George announced his new call there were some naysayers who said we’d be closed in 18 months. Yet here we are. I had faith the right person would come at the right time to help us. Prior to George’s departure, we had a series of Music Directors, each one more fabulous than the one before. Then Ms. Susan Brown joined our music/church family and still directs us today. George also suggested (more than once) that one should try to not offend the same group every Sunday. Very wise.
We will live into abundance.
Oak Hill didn’t close in 18 months, we called Pastor Chris Davis. Pastor Chris took our youth on a mission trip (a first for us) to Door Ministry in Colorado. In later years when we didn’t have enough “youth”, the adults went instead. They required more supervision, especially in New Orleans. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance trips to the Gulf Coast filled a number of years as well as trips to West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. Our congregation came to know each other and enjoyed working together for a common cause. Eventually, we would all be at Busch Stadium selling brats and beers. Our intention was to raise funds to renovate the 
house attached to the church in the 1950s to accommodate Baby Boomer Sunday School. We dreamed of turning it into a Mission House that would become known as AMEN St. Louis. AMEN House opened in 2012. All of the renovations and expenses were covered by our toils at the stadium, generous donations, grants, and fees from participants, and were self-supporting with a surplus when we suspended operations during the pandemic in 2020. Chris liked to say “God loves you. Period.” (No exclusions or exceptions, is my addition.) And there was the occasional “Being a ‘good enough’ Christian is ok.” It’s all a blur, but I think Chris took a new call in 2012. (We didn’t want Chris or George to leave either.)
We will live into abundance.
I know, down the road, maybe in 10 or so years, when our next pastor takes a new call, I’ll have an elevator speech that describes our time with Erin. Right now, I’m way over my word limit for this blog post. At Oak Hill we have a hard-core group of folks (mostly under 60) leading our session, serving as volunteers, putting in their share of sweat equity, monetary contributions, prayers, and leadership. We know there is passion in the congregation to love and serve Christ and we’re in a good financial position to do it.
In my list above I forgot to mention ‘waiting’. Advent is just days away. I know we’ll find inspiration. There is still pulpit supply to be had, an interim to call, Amen House to reopen with a new director to hire (6 mission teams already booked), mission studies to ponder, Church Mission and Ministry forms to develop, and hash out and then a pastor search. I have faith we will do it.
Oak Hill’s mission statement reads “With Jesus as our guide and community as our goal, we will (continue to) worship, love, serve and grow.”
And all God’s people say, “AMEN”!
Donna Cook, Ruling Elder
Oak Hill Presbyterian Church
Presbytery Hunger Action Enabler
3 Comments
Karen Wilson
Amen Donna. Well said. I know Oak Hill will continue to thrive.
Alan Meyers
Thanks, Donna. Very well said indeed.
Jim Cook
Oak Hill has had an amazing history. And a bright future, with the folks that are there and working – not just to keep a church alive, but to show Christ’s love in that community and beyond. They are probably as active now as when there were 1000 members in the 1950’s. (I’m old enough to remember Oak Hill in the ‘50s !). Thanks for the update, and thanks to Oak Hill for being Oak Hill.