Crawford, who has spent the last 22 years at the church, has seen the congregation grow from less than 100 to more than 550 during the course of his ministry.
Other evidences of the growth of the institution that he warmly compares to “The Church in the Wild Wood,” have been the enlargement of the sanctuary, the building of an addition to house the offices and expand the educational programs, and the construction of an activities center.
When Dudley Crawford was first approached in 1983 to become the pastor of the West End Presbyterian Church, he was director of admissions at St. Andrews College in Laurinburg. He had grown up in Canton, Miss., gone to Millsaps College in Jackson, and on to Union Seminary in Richmond, Va. Then he returned to his home state for several years of ministry.
“Although I had grown up in the deep south, I found I didn’t always agree with the prevalent attitudes at that time — it was during the late 1960s and early ’70s with the turmoil created by the civil rights movement,” he says. “ I felt I had to get out of the ministry and came ‘north’ to take the position in Laurinburg. After eight years there, I was ready to get back into parish ministry.”
The West End Presbyterian Church had just become the highest per capita church in the whole state of North Carolina to give to a campaign for St. Andrews. The president of the college proposed going to a Sunday service at the church to celebrate its gift. They took the choir, the president thanked the parishioners personally and Dudley Crawford preached the sermon.
As it happened, the minister at West End had just retired, and Crawford was chosen as his successor.
Crawford says, “The congregation didn’t want me to live in the manse, because in their wisdom, they foresaw Seven Lakes as a fertile field for developing the church, so they gave me a housing allowance and said ‘you work here in the church, and live in Seven Lakes. That way we can create a church to serve both communities.’”
People began moving to the area from all over the country and melded with the residents who had grown up in West End.
“There was a genuine and gracious southern hospitality with which the newcomers were received — a true contagious welcoming spirit,” he says. Now about 75 percent of the parishioners are from Seven Lakes, with a few from Southern Pines, a few from Pinewild, and the balance from West End.
According to Crawford, the hallmark of the West End Presbyterian Church is its high degree of inclusivity.
“We have a tremendous ecumenical base — less than 30 percent of our members were Presbyterians before joining our church,” he says. “We have significant numbers of Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Unitarians and Episcopalians as well as Muslims and people of the Jewish faith. We accept them for who they are — anyone who wants to come through the doors. We don’t emphasize the standard rituals of joining the church, our members just become a part of the faith community.
“The whole inclusive idea is to draw in people from different geographies, different backgrounds, different ideologies, and even different political persuasions. We fly the Presbyterian flag, but it is always under the Christian flag.”
He says the tone of being open-minded can be traced back to the first full-time pastor who was called in the 1950s — the Rev. Hogan Yancey. The fourth week that Yancey and his wife, Genevieve, were in town, they welcomed a local black minister and his wife to dinner in their newly built manse.
When Dudley Crawford came to West End Presbyterian in 1983, he immediately focused on the mission work that he felt needed to be done. For example, there was no Meals on Wheels program, so one was started and later turned over to the county. Mission work is important, even today, and he cites reaching out to the Hispanic population living in nearby Eagle Springs as a target for a missionary effort. They have begun an after-school program for children whose parents have only a rudimentary grasp of the English language, using members of the congregation to tutor and help the children with their homework.
Complementing that endeavor is a relationship with a sister church in Mexico, and an exchange of pulpits between Crawford and the minister of the Mexican church.
“We can either ignore the Hispanics among us, or we can treat them with the respect that Jesus would want us to do,” he says.
Retired ministers from the congregation serve as parish associates, and the staff has been increased by the addition of a full-time church administrator, a full-time director of music who is the organist and choir director, and a full-time Christian educator. Fifty young people take part in a youth program, with after-school sessions being run for differing age groups.
Crawford says that the ministry has been his life and his passion, and he has always enjoyed preaching. To use a colloquial expression, he believes “Good preaching is where the rubber hits the road in a church.
“I think the power of the spoken word is one of the miracles of the church, and this church has been an eager congregation that expects the best,” he says. “Their expectations have always been my driving force.”
West End Presbyterian Church has been a pastor’s dream church, according to Dudley Crawford.
“This is as good as it gets,” he says.
However, he likens the work of a pastor to a woman’s work — it’s never done, and he is looking forward to his retirement.
“I know that lying low and relaxing is against my nature, and against my Calvinistic upbringing that teaches unless you work, you are worthless,” he says.
Turning his avocation of photography into a small freelance business will fill in some of the hours. Nature photography has always been a specialty of Crawford’s, and he has started a project for organizations and individuals doing computer-generated historical or biographical summaries using old photos set to music, similar to power point presentations.
His plans for retirement also include contributing his time to Habitat for Humanity, as well as working with an old seminary friend, who has retired to his home in Carthage, and is raising goats for Heifer International.
“Before I get to the finish line, while I still have enough energy, there is a lot more I want to accomplish,” says Crawford, who will preach his last sermon at the church on Sunday, May 29.
Mary Elle Hunter is a Pinehurst freelane writer.
