Sarah Reyes
Third career charm: A California congregation and its third-career pastor find new life in a fresh approach
By Toni Montgomery
The Rev. Sarah Reyes finds herself — like so many other women in the Presbyterian Church — leading a small congregation, but her unique path may ideally suit her to the challenges the job presents.
Ministry is actually her third career. Reyes spent 21 years working in the California state legislature, and after that she spent eight years at a Stockton, CA, high school working as a project coordinator for a Drug Free School program started by the state.
"I learned in politics how to say no and have people walking away thinking I said yes, and Ive learned how to check for drugs and weapons and break up fights. Im well prepared for the church, she jokes.
Reyes was raised Presbyterian, as a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Stockton, California. She remembers it as a great church with a family atmosphere and a commitment to social action, but at the age of 15, Reyes thought she knew more than God and Jesus , and because of that attitude, combined with a big division in the congregation, Reyes chose to leave the church.
When Reyes began raising a family, even though she did not feel a need for church in her life, she still ensured that her childrens spiritual needs were met.
“I sent my kids to all kinds of wonderful faith experiences — the Buddhist church, the local Dutch Reformed church, the Methodist church down the street, and Presbyterian churches — but I never went, she says.
At the age of 38, it was her stepmothers funeral that brought her back to Trinity. A member of the church at that time encouraged her to return and to bring her family.
Both she and her husband went on to become elders in the church. Her son, Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly (2008), also became deeply involved with the church at this time. He would become a strong influence on his mother in the years that followed.
“I was working at the high school at the time when Bruce was in seminary, and he was enjoying and loving working in the church, and I was fighting with adults about how we need to care for children, says Reyes. “I said ‘I think I want to be a minister too.
Reyes graduated from seminary in 1996 at the age of 50, and a little over twelve years ago accepted her first call to Bethel Presbyterian Church in San Leandro, California. Bethel was a dying church, a situation she was specifically trained to engage.
“When I was in seminary I was chosen and took special classes in transformational church redevelopment, did all kinds of things that would help me focus and understand how change happens and how change can happen in the local community of the church, she explains. “Initially I wasn't sure how my new congregation would feel about me. It was pretty much a traditional white church and I didnt know if they'd embrace a little brown Filipino woman.
The key thing Reyes learned is that transforming a church involves first understanding that church and its unique situation and needs.
“Every place is different; there are no cookie cutter solutions to church transformation. But I have some good advice from mentors, she says. “One was, ‘Before you make any changes you should pay a years worth of rent.
Thats what Reyes did at Bethel, spending her first year observing and getting to know the congregation. She also used this time to allow the congregation to get to know her and how she does things. After that time she was able to focus in on things that seem small but have everything to do with that important first impression a church makes on visitors.
“I started with two things that are very important: practicing what it looks like to be giving thanks for the many blessings in our lives and how to welcome people into our community without telling them already what we expect of them, Reyes says.
For example, visitors coming to Bethel are simply asked “What brings you to Bethel today? instead of things like “Where do you work? or “Where is your husband today? in the case of unaccompanied mothers with children.
The biggest change Reyes has brought to Bethel is not in programs or governance or worship but rather in attitude and the way members think. Shes helped them out of the rut of doing things the same old way.
“The attitude of this church is that nothing is ever going to stay the same forever, so they are very willing and open as a congregation to be flexible and to be part of the change, she says.
Because of their willingness to embrace new ways of doing things that work best for their needs, this congregation that was dying twelve years ago is, while still small, healthy today.
“I am in a wonderful community of faith that is thriving, not surviving, concludes Reyes.
