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Church atop gas station pumps people up in more ways than one

 


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Church atop gas station pumps people up in more ways than one

Jan. 28, 2004

The first in a yearlong series of stories about United Methodist congregations in unusual places.

A UMNS Feature By Pat Rogers*

WASHINGTON - When it comes to raising money, churches usually stick to the old standards - bake sales, raffles and Sunday offerings.

But the Arlington (Va.) Temple United Methodist Church is hardly standard issue when it comes to raising money.

The small congregation, just across the Potomac River from Washington, is gas powered: It's built right on top of a Chevron station.

"Most people are surprised. A lot of people, even Rosslyn people, say, 'Gosh, I didn't even know there was a church there,'" says the Rev. Jean McDonald Walker, pastor. The church is in the center of Rosslyn, a largely commercial area in Arlington.

"If you tell someone who doesn't live here … about the gas station, they say, 'That must be a very strange church,'" she says.

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The Rev. Jean McDonald Walter says the church feels it's the "light of the community."

As the landlord for the gas station, the church pumps the rental income into its coffers. The money helps keep the urban congregation of about 250 members going. When a 2002 blizzard destroyed the church roof, the gas money helped pay for a replacement.

The combination gas station-church has been in the center of Rosslyn for 31 years. The Rev. James Robertson established the church on land donated 40 years ago by a lumberyard owner, and the first worship services were held in the carpenter's shop.

"Dr. Robertson had a real passion for urban ministry," McDonald Walker says. "He just had a call to plant a church where there were offices and hotels in commercial areas to be a presence of Christ in such an area."

Robertson also knew that property in commercial areas such as Rosslyn, with its gleaming skyscrapers filled with office workers, was expensive. His solution: build a house of worship on top of a house of commerce.

"He said if we have a gas station underneath the church, the church will never be at a loss for funds. They'll always have some income, even if there aren't many members," McDonald Walker says.

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Eva Robertson, widow of the founder of Arlington Temple United Methodist Church, still attends every Sunday even though there are congregations closer to her home.

Church members can fill up at the pumps and get their spiritual fill at the same place - a handy combination in the hyper-busy suburbs of Washington.

"At first I noticed it was a Methodist church, and I'm Methodist," says 23-year-old Katie Varner as she tops off her tank on a Sunday morning.

"So I thought there's a church nearby if I ever want to go," she says.

The church is surrounded on all sides by businesses, including a Gold's Gym and a Hilton Hotel. The church serves as a ministry in the marketplace, according to McDonald Walker.

"We do feel like an outpost. We feel like we're a light to the community. We pray for the community, and we pray for the offices and all the people who work for them," she says.

Some of the 45,000 office workers who pour into Rosslyn daily have been thankful for the church's presence at times when they needed comfort and counsel that could not be found in the workplace.

"Sometimes a person who has not ever been here for church, or maybe doesn't have a church at all, will come through the front door in a crisis situation," McDonald Walker says. "They've come out of their office and they can't deal with it in their office, so they'll come over to the church to get some counsel."

Despite the odd mix of fuel and faith, Robertson's widow says her husband's focus was always on the church and its parishioners. The gas station was just a way to make his urban ministry possible.

"If you look down, you see a gas station, but if you look up, you see the spire, the cross and the beautiful sky," Eva Robertson says.

Robertson still attends service here every Sunday, even though other United Methodist churches are closer to her Alexandria, Va., home. While the neighborhood has changed over the years, the church's mission has remained the same, she says. "The church is still here, and people will never know the good it's done in this community."

*Rogers is a writer and producer based in Washington.

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