Members Consider Starting Own Church If Theirs Stays Shut

The 50 or so faithful at the Pasadena Wesleyan Church will not be in their house of worship today because the church’s area district board has closed it.

But the small congregation is determined to stick together in the hope the decision will be repealed. Or they may break away to start their own, independent church.

“The people were hurt . . . the children came to me and said, ‘Miss Janette, Miss Janette, what are they going to do? Why are they going to close?’ These are the children (that) I went door to door to invite to come to our church. Now I have to turn them away,” said Janette Miller, 23, children’s director at the 76-year-old church on North Hill Avenue.

The Rev. Virgel Law gave his final sermon last Sunday after being told by the San Diego-based Wesleyan Pacific Southwest District board in March that, despite the congregation’s efforts to save the Pasadena church, it was not financially able to sustain itself.

But the church, which had steadily declined in membership since 1968--from 194 members to 30 in 1992--was beginning to make a turnaround this year, said Law, 60, who returned to the parish last year for the third time as pastor. A self-described trouble-shooter, Law said he has revived five ailing churches and started another five during his 44-year career as a minister.

The preacher said he feels betrayed by the district’s decision which, he said, was unexpected.

“In my opinion, this decision is premature . . . ,” he said. “A congregation that has a full-time minister and members who are paying their own way--we received no funds from the denomination--should never be closed, unless the people want to.”

Law said the district board was encouraging and supportive of the church’s progress until his last contact in March with District Supt. Stephen Babby in San Diego. Law said that the district closed the church because the property and assets, including the sanctuary, adjacent buildings and the pastor’s home, are worth about $2.5 million.

Babby, while saying the Pasadena church was closed because it “was going to be needing financial supplements” declined to comment further. But the Rev. Floyd F. McCallum Jr., a board member in Escondido, said the Pasadena church has been struggling financially for a long time and the district believed it had not shown enough signs of recovery to suggest a stable future.

“I feel for these people. . . . But it’s not a decision we made overnight,” he said. “We’ve had to look at the local demographics and it has been against the church for a long time. We could use the money to meet the needs of other churches which are in neighborhoods where they can make a difference.”

While maintaining that closing the church was not an easy decision, McCallum said that the church over the years has asked to use its trust-fund money. The fund was set up from the sale of another church-owned property in Pasadena, but it technically belongs to the district, he said.

“When the trust fund dwindles, the church won’t be moving ahead. . . . It hasn’t moved ahead enough to sustain itself,’ McCallum said.

The district will go through the formality of voting on the closure May 20.

Law, a third-generation Wesleyan who was paid a salary of $10,000 a year, could attain another pastorship within the church system. But the minister said he doesn’t want to leave Pasadena, because “God hasn’t lifted the burden of Pasadena off my shoulders” and because he wants to be near his disabled 27-year-old daughter, who has a 6-year-old son.

Congregation members, who refuse to believe the end is at hand, sent the pastor, his wife and grandson to Disneyland on Friday. They vow they will do all they can to keep the church open or break away to form their own.

“We almost feel lost, in a way. . . . It does feel funny when you don’t know where you’re going (this) weekend,” said Miller, who joined the church last year. “But we’ll stay together and we’d like the pastor to lead us. He’s really got a heart for God. He really loves us and really cares for our congregation.”

“It’s really sad. We don’t think it’s fair what’s happened. . . . We’re still hopeful that they are going to appeal,” added Dawn Stout, 33, who also joined the congregation last year. “Most of us would like to continue to follow the Wesleyan Church, but we are more willing to follow God. We haven’t given up.”