I returned from a one week trip to Pasadena to lead a interim start up retreat, meet with as many members of the Throop Memorial Congregation as I could, and lead the worship service on Sunday. It was a good trip.
1. The congregation is a middle sized church with a small membership. The congregation has a very large building, in addition to its sanctuary and large parish hall, it has class room space for 100 young people and adequate office space for minister, administrator and religious educator, and one office being used for storage. The congregation has a number of programs, and the space is rented out to many community groups, including a Montessori school. The building was built for a much larger congregation, so with two Sunday worship services the building could easily house a 500 member congregation. The congregation is multi generational, with the common pattern of lacking a critical mass of young adults. (It goes have a critical mass of school aged youth.) There are nine people on staff, including the quarter time youth advisor, child care worker, custodian, handy man, administrator, religious educator, two quarter time musicians, and soon there will be an Interim Minister. This is a congregation with a lot of potential.
2. Pasadena reminds me of Cambridge(the one in Massachusetts.) Both have about the same population, and just a scattering of high rise buildings. Most of the "downtown" is two or three story buildings, and the many church buildings are not diminished by high rise commercial structures. Pasadena is an art and theatre center for the Los Angeles area. The cost of housing also reminds me of Cambridge, I found an apartment nearby in Los Angeles for a little less than I was finding in Pasadena. Pasadena like Cambridge is part of huge Metropolitan area, so it operates like a small city inside a big urban sprawl. Pasadena is about the same distance to the beach as Cambridge, but much closer to the Mountains.
3. The weather while I was there was much dryer than Florida.
A mountain picnic table not far from Pasadena.
Leave a comment