St. Andrew Presbyterian Church Can Help You Keep God In Your Life

By Kathleen Schiop

We have many responsibilities in our everyday lives, including work, paying our bills, raising our children, maintaining our physical health, and so many more, that it can become easy to ignore our spiritual well-being in lieu of the more “earthly” concerns in our lives. Many of us are just concentrating on getting by without realizing that we need to nourish our souls as well. Faith in God can give us solace, courage and hope in times of sorrow, desperation and help us better deal with our daily challenges.

If you are struggling to renew your faith, if you are new to the New Tampa area, or just wish to have some spiritual questions answered, you may wish to visit St. Andrew Presbyterian Church (located in the Tampa Palms Professional Park off Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms), where you will be warmly welcomed by Pastor Dr. David Shelor and his welcoming church family.

Dr. Shelor, or “Pastor Dave,” as he is affectionately known by his parishioners, doesn’t fit the image of the stereotypical minister. Although he was born and raised in Black Mountain, NC, as the son of a Presbyterian minister from a family of ministers, he says he came to his calling, “kicking and screaming.” He laughs, “I was very much a math and science person. And my Bachelor’s degree is actually in Physics, so I guess you could say I was a nerd.”

While attending Davidson College, a small liberal arts college in Charlotte, NC, Rev. Shelor took the opportunity to explore other areas of study, including religion, philosophy, psychology and sociology. He initially decided against graduate school and worked for four years as an engineer in Atlanta designing and selling control systems for power plants.

“After I had worked for a while, I didn’t find the job fulfilling,” he says. “I recall remembering a quote from (American author, poet and philosopher Henry David) Thoreau while sitting in traffic in Atlanta, who said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, and live with the song still in them,” and I realized I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Shelor later met with a vocational counselor, who reminded him of Raymond Burr from the old TV series “Ironside.” “(The counselor) was a polio victim in a wheelchair who had this rough voice, and instead of saying the usual stuff like, ‘The answers are within you,’ and such, he looked at me and said, ‘David, I’ve looked at your stuff and you can either go into the seminary, or you can be miserable for the rest of your life. You choose!’”

Dr. Shelor attended Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, the same school his father had graduated from, and then went on to obtain his Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He took a sabbatical from school for a year (between his second and third year of theology school) to serve in Ghana, West Africa, which he described as, “a life-changing experience.”

He recalls, “I remember coming back to the U.S. and, in the first few hours, the thing which really shocked me was the availability of food. You can get food everywhere here, from gas stations to restaurants. But, that’s not so true there in Ghana, so the experience was quite an eye opener.”

 Building A Church Family

After finishing his D.Min. degree, Shelor says he served churches in Stone Mountain, GA, and spent seven years as the pastor of Carrollton Presbyterian Church in Carrollton, GA, before coming to Tampa to start St. Andrew in the summer of 2002. The congregation began worshipping in the fall of 2002 in the cafeteria of Liberty Middle School, which is located very close to the St. Andrew building in Tampa Palms.

“We were a nomad church for about six years,” he laughs, “setting it up, tearing it down, and then setting it up again the following Sunday.” On October 1, 2006, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church was chartered as a new congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the USA denomination, the original and largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S.

In 2007, the ground was broken on the new church building and on Easter Sunday, 2008, the congregation moved into the 9,000-sq.-ft. facility.

Dr. Shelor says that St. Andrew has remained stable, despite the fact that Tampa has among the lowest religious participation among the top metropolitan areas in the U.S. He admits, however, that if the church’s population grows much larger, “We will probably have to look somewhere else. Right now we have about 220 to 230 parishioners, but we would like to continue to grow,. The need is here in the community, so we would certainly welcome expansion.”

Pastor Dave is ably assisted at St. Andrew by a group of spiritually dedicated and committed staff members, consisting of his Associate Pastor Dr. Heather Hartsell, who oversees the church’s Youth Program, director of Christian education Paula Salter, church administrator April Simons and music director Todd LeBlanc.

 So, What Does ‘Presbyterian’ Mean?

For those who are not familiar with the Presbyterian Church, it literally means “ruled by elders.”

“We believe that the best way we have of connecting to God is with other people, to be connected to a community,” he says. “Because of this, every decision in a Presbyterian church is made either by the whole congregation, or by representatives (“elders”) whom the congregation has elected, rather than by any single individual. And, we also believe in ordaining women,” which the other major Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., the Presbyterian Church in America, does not allow.

Shelor says that “elder” is an ordained position, and that the ordination is equal to the pastor of the church. Elders are looked upon with respect, and called upon for assistance in much the same way as the pastor. So, when the church has to make decisions, it is led by people who have been chosen by the congregation. These leaders, as well as the pastors, can be adult men or women of any age. Elders at St. Andrew are elected democratically, and they each serve two-year terms.

How Can I Participate?

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church has many options for both spiritual and secular participation. The church offers various social and study groups to members and the community. From golf outings to bridge games, from pottery classes to ballroom dancing, from opportunities to help others less fortunate to classes on Bible study — there is a group for everyone!  Some of the events have a small fee for materials or special instruction.  (Note-Email penny@saint andy.com for more information.)

St. Andrew offers Sunday School for ages 3 years to fifth grade, and the children are always invited to remain for the first half of worship, so they can begin to learn what worship is all about, and then follow their teachers out to special activities just for them that relate to that day’s theme in ways they understand.

During worship, children under 3 years of age are welcome in the church’s professionally staffed nursery or in worship with their family. Babysitting services are often offered for many of the adult group functions and special meetings.

Adults have a number of groups to choose from at St. Andrew:

•WIMODA (short for Wives, Mothers and Daughters) is an active group which meets for study, fellowship, and food one Monday of the month at a church member’s home. Each year, a course of study is selected and a lesson from the study is discussed each month that relates to the Bible and women’s issues. This year, the group is studying the Book of Ruth and the Book of Jonah.

• Boomers & Beyond — Are you a ‘baby boomer?’ Are your kids grown or nearly so? Do you like to eat and enjoy the company of others? Boomers & Beyond is just what you’ve been looking for!  This group of “over 45s” meets approximately once a month for a variety of activities, but they always enjoy good food, good fellowship and the love of God.

• Study Groups — Various groups meet throughout the month for study, fellowship, and support.

• Hands On St. Andrew — This group plans one-day work projects and drives for various outreach programs throughout the Tampa Bay area.

• Men’s Group — Meets monthly on Thursdays at 6:45 p.m., offering study and fellowship with a male viewpoint.

• Choir — If you like to sing or play a musical instrument, join the St. Andrew choir for music and fellowship, or just come to worship and listen to beautiful music. The church leadership believes that every kind of music belongs to God, so on any given Sunday at St. Andrew, you might hear traditional hymns of the church, contemporary praise choruses, gospel tunes, jazz and music from around the world. Whatever type of music it may be, music director Todd LeBlanc strives for it to be excellent and inspirational.

 What If I’m Not Presbyterian?

“Come anyway.  People are people and it’s the church that is Presbyterian,” says the charismatic Pastor Dave, who has been the church’s face in the New Tampa community. The father of two young daughters, he was the president of the now-defunct New Tampa Kiwanis Club, currently serves a leadership role in the local chapter of Business Networking International (BNI) and he was a member of the Board of the New Tampa Community Council before it became the New Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Pastor Dave and other St. Andrew members volunteered as the cleanup crew at this year’s Taste of New Tampa, which was held at Primrose Park, a 1/4-mile from the church.

He says St. Andrew welcomes all people, regardless of their background. “The Christian faith is diverse,” he says, “it is made up of many different traditions and histories.” As a Presbyterian church, Shelor says St. Andrew is only part of that diversity and doesn’t claim to be “the only game in town.” The church works to connect and cooperate with other Christians and even other faiths. “We all have a spiritual component to us, a life that needs to be nurtured,” says Pastor Dave, “so come and see what we can offer.”

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church (5340 Primrose Lake Cir.) meets Sunday mornings, 10 a.m., for worship services. For more info, call the church at 907-3057 or visit SaintAndy.com.