Orlando First Presbyterian: The heart of the city
By Parker T. Williamson, The Presbyterian Layman, January 19, 1999
J. Howard Edington
Senior pastor of Orlando’s First Presbyterian Church ORLANDO – J. Howard Edington arrived in Orlando just in time to see his neighbors move out. “That’s the way it is with Howard,” says an admirer. “He swims upstream.” The Edingtons had hardly unpacked their bags when First Baptist announced its departure, the Lutherans headed for greener pastures, and merchants were boarding up storefronts on Orange Avenue. “This just wasn’t the place to be,” he remembers.
When enticing suburban property came on the market, the congregation of First Presbyterian Church was forced to make a decision. “We put it to our people very clearly,” says Edington. “We said that if we chose to stay downtown, then we would have to establish such an exciting ministry here that people wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” The vote was unanimous. “That’s when we began to call ourselves ‘the heart of the city,’” says Edington.
Buying the block
The church’s first step was to acquire property. They bought a gas station for $375,000, a gravel lot for $1.1 million, and a funeral home for $1.5 million, until soon they controlled an entire city block, the largest singly-owned piece of property in downtown Orlando. “Buying land like this wouldn’t have made any sense apart from the mission of the church,” says Edington, “but once our mission was understood, people didn’t blink. They knew we needed that block.”
Immediately, the Presbyterians started filling their space with ministries. They established Christ School. “We wanted an explicitly Christian school,” says Tom Porter, administrator for the facility that now serves more than 200 students in grades K-6. Porter, with masters degrees in education and business administration, had served as a volunteer member of the planning committee. The more involved he became, the more he sensed that God was calling him to lead it. “My number one priority in being a teacher is to let the love of Jesus Christ flow through me to the students,” he says.
Students at Christ School An explicitly Christian school
Christ School quickly became a hub of First Presbyterian’s downtown ministries. Students are given Bible instruction, chapel worship experiences, and opportunities to integrate their academic work into the Christian world view. They are also taught that to follow Christ is to become a servant. Thus each child is connected with hands-on mission activities in the center of the city. Students work in soup kitchens, clothes closets, the coalition for homeless kids, a senior citizens’ high rise, and other ministries.
In another church building, an infant/child care center serves children from five weeks to five years old. A sliding-scale fee structure enables parents of all income levels to make use of this service. Children who enter this center are guaranteed admission into Christ School through its scholarship program.
Diverting the flow
Located only a block away from an inner-city school, First Church is ideally situated to tap the stream of children who walk by on their way to the other side of Interstate 4. “We thought that if we could divert that after-school flow, we could really do something with these kids,” says Edington. So the church established an after-school ministry (full-day during the summer months) that draws hundreds of otherwise idle children into its facilities. Here, volunteer tutors and mentors develop friendships and enhance the students’ education.
First Church buildings are a buzz of activity throughout the week. Heart of the city concerts, sponsored by the music department, bring in groups like the Canadian Brass, Dave Brubeck, and numerous local artists. More than 2,500 people attend the church’s Christmas concert alone.
The Gathering of Men draws 300-350 business people into the dining room for luncheons throughout the year. Clearly evangelistic, the business lunch offers people in the city a “safe entering point for the gospel.”
A teen coffee house operates on Friday nights. A “warehouse theater” draws young adults to the third floor. Local Christian artists display their work on the walls. Another area of the building houses a television ministry that reaches more than 200,000 people every weekend. Through all of these activities, people who might not initially visit the sanctuary find an entrance through these less-threatening introductions to the Christian life.
Missionary Computer Fellowship technicians Computers for Christ
A Missionary Computer Fellowship has taken over First Church’s basement. From 8 AM to 9 PM more than 25 volunteers, many of them Lockheed Martin Corporation retirees, repair and build computers for missionaries and Christian ministries throughout the world. Corporations donate their used computers to the ministry each time they upgrade their equipment, and the volunteers customize these devices for people engaged in Christian ministry.
More than 1,600 missionaries have come to the fellowship for help. Most of their needs – email, word processing and accounting software – are easily met with rebuilt computers that the fellowship has on hand. Missionaries and Christian groups are charged only for parts that the fellowship has to purchase.
“I’m not the type to go into the jungles, says Larry Devine, a retiree from Lockheed Martin,” but this is something I can do.” Devine says that he was “basically a Christmas and Easter Christian” until he tuned his television to a program featuring Howard Edington. “That led me to the church where I enrolled in a Christian Basics class. And that turned me inside out. I’ve never been the same since.”
Parking with partners
More than a thousand people flow through First Church buildings each week day (there are more than 180 people on the staff alone), and Sunday’s three services attract hundreds of cars into the city. Parking posed a major problem. City and County offices, both of whom are adjacent to the church, were facing similar difficulties. So representatives of the church proposed that the three entities consider building a parking garage together.
The idea raised numerous questions. What about church/state issues? Who will own it? How will it be funded? But when it was suggested that First Church might have to leave the area, participants scurried for a solution. A study by the county revealed that First Presbyterian, a major downtown employer, conducted ministries that saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We’ve got to find a way to make this work. We can’t afford for you to leave,” said a county official.
Three-way negotiations resulted in each entity putting up $2.7 million. “We couldn’t have had a more cooperative arrangement,” says Edington. Thinking of the church’s most vulnerable members, elderly persons who need safe and easy access to the church facilities, planners came up with an innovative double helix design. The facade matches First Church’s red brick construction, making the garage appear almost like an extension of the church. Security is provided by the city. Each partner has two decks during week days. Each night and on the weekend, the church uses the entire 900-space facility. Youth watch drive-in movies and have picnics and dances on the top floor. A big, church-wide picnic is held there on the Fourth of July. “It’s the best spot in town to view the fireworks,” says Edington.
Orlando First Presbyterian campus Today, members and visitors can zip into the heart of the city on Interstate 4 and into a protected parking garage less than two blocks from the off-ramp. “That doesn’t quite make us a neighborhood church,” says Edington, “but it’s close!”
Orlando’s First Presbyterians have proven that with innovative leaders, a clear sense of mission, and a willingness to go against the flow, vital churches can thrive in the center of the city. A contrarian at heart, Howard Edington has enjoyed the challenge. “It’s hard work,” he says, “but where can you find a more exciting ministry?”