THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608010184
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 51 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DEMPSEY, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: 155 lines
IF EVER A MATCH were made in heaven between a minister and a congregation, it's between Spotts and his congregation at the Outer Banks Presbyterian Church.
The Rev. L. Spottswood Graves, 53, is known simply as Spotts by seemingly everyone. He has toiled enthusiastically with the congregation he serves for 17 continuous years. No other minister on the beach has served longer in this area.
``When I came here,'' Spotts said, ``I had no intention of using this experience to climb to a `better' position elsewhere. As long as I'm wanted here, I'll stay.''
Members of his congregation, fellow clergy and representatives of the health, welfare and business communities describe him as a devoted Christian, a family man and a regular guy.
They speak with particular praise of his outreach record in community service and interfaith (ecumenical) cooperation.
The past several months are typical of Spotts' outreach ministry.
Throughout Lent - from late February through early April - he invited many Catholic and Protestant clergy of other denominations to lead midweek services at his church on the bypass.
He participated in the annual Easter sunrise service at the Kitty Hawk Pier with four ministers from other denominations.
He sponsored the Red Cross' Bloodmobile at his church.
On three occasions, he shared Sunday worship services with ministers from other faiths.
He lead services at Britthaven Nursing Home.
He worshipped at two African-American churches in Manteo.
He continued working with the Dare County Social Services department on various projects benefitting foster children.
He continued his active Rotarian membership.
He was recognized by Hotline as one of the Outer Banks' Top 10 Real Men, a contest and campaign designed to discourage domestic violence.
He regularly announced events at other churches to his congregation.
During the same time, church facilities that Spotts supervises were used by the community.
Boy and Girl Scout troops met there. Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous groups gathered there. And Social Services workers conducted foster parent training in the wide, one-story buildings.
Spotts' current commitment to ecumenism and community service may be in his genes. His ancestors merged Baptist and Presbyterian traditions. His great-grandfather, also a minister, founded the Florence Crittendon Home for unwed mothers in Charlotte, N.C.
Spotts' ride through the religious circuit, however, hasn't been easy.
A hearing aid only partially compensates for an impairment the silver-haired preacher was born with. His parents separated when he was 10. He and his mother went to live with her father on a Virginia farm.
There, he learned the carpentry and mechanical skills of a do-it-all-yourself enterprise.
At Virginia Tech University, Spotts spent his time in self-supporting jobs - leaving his grades far below what his abilities would have allowed.
After graduating from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, he assumed his first ministerial duties in Gastonia, N.C. He said his agricultural tradition and personal priorities mixed poorly with the small mill-town's culture. He resigned after five years.
The next three years proved pivotal for Spotts. He supported his wife and himself as a carpenter, using the skills he had learned from his grandfather. In spite of financial hardship, he said the period was simple, uncomplicated and healing. There was time for thinking things through. And his wife, Roberta, completed her graduate studies.
Spotts resumed preaching on weekends at a small church in Asheboro.
Finally, at a recruiting fair, he met Ritchie Buckingham from a newly formed Presbyterian group from the Outer Banks. The men liked each other. Spotts interviewed on the barrier islands.
He and Roberta soon made the seaside community their home.
It wasn't the Ritz. The church was a small cottage. The congregation consisted of about a dozen families.
Seventeen years later, in 1996, the Outer Banks Presbyterian Church is one of the largest, best-equipped churches on the beach. Well over half of the mortgage has been paid off. The ever-growing number of member families approaches 200. The number of elected elders now equals the number of original founding fathers.
The pastor during this period is seen as a regular and outgoing guy. He views a church as more than a place to go to. It is also a place to reach out from.
Twice, Spotts has served as the Dare County at-large board member for the Albemarle Mental Health Center. In that capacity, he successfully supported the creation of an activity center for disabled adults and a group home in Manteo.
He revived the North Dare County Ministerial Association in 1978 and has alternately led and supported it. One of its most visible activities is the annual Easter sunrise service.
``I had no choice,'' Spotts said of the association. ``When I got here, the closest Presbyterian church was an hour and a half away in Elizabeth City. I had to do something to relate to clergy like me.''
Additionally, four retired ministers from other denominations with no Outer Banks congregations have joined the Presbyterian congregation.
Spotts draws his support for ecumenical activities from scripture. In John 17:11, he said, Christ clearly called for Christian unity - not denominational rivalry. That includes, in his opinion, Catholics and Protestants whose centuries-old, distant relationship has only recently begun to thaw.
Four times, Spotts has taken his annual meditative retreat at the Catholic Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Ga. He and Father Terrence Collins, pastor of the Catholic Holy Redeemer Church in Kill Devil Hills, also have participated in ceremonies at each others' churches.
``Ohhh, Spotts. What a wonderful man of God,'' Collins said of his friend. ``He takes his religion with him wherever he goes.''
A half-dozen other local Protestant ministers all commented on Spotts' extraordinary commitment to ecumenism and community service.
The Rev. John DeCarmo of Rock Church of the Outer Banks added that Spotts never seeks the spotlight - even in the events he sponsors.
All the ministers referred specifically to the Bloodmobile, Spotts' most visible activity for years. Edward Kline, Chairman of the Dare County Chapter of the Red Cross, added, ``I shudder to think what would happen to our drives without Spotts' leadership.''
Spotts said community service is not considered a ministerial frill in Presbyterianism. Founding father John Calvin, he said, spent considerable time trying to improve the sewers in Geneva. In the seminary, Spotts said, students were taught that it's one world - and ministers' responsibilities include trying to improve everyone's lot in it.
Mal Smith, the highest-ranking member of the Outer Banks Presbyterian Church's governance, and Al Schalk, an elder, say their minister's commitment to outreach activities has not shortchanged his more traditional duties.
``I've never heard anyone say Spotts has neglected his duties inside the congregation,'' Smith said. ``We think his outside commitments are fine.''
Founding father Jim Perry added that there has never been a serious division between the congregation and Spotts.
The Rev. Brad Bradshaw of Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church thinks he knows why. ``From what I've seen, the members of the congregation there are just like Spotts. They seem to be active in just about everything going on in the community. It's a natural match,'' Bradshaw said.
``I can't imagine what they'd find to disagree about.''
Members of the congregation, however, see someone other than a public figure when they peer at the pulpit. They see a cheerful man whose bewhiskered face seems most natural in a smile. They consistently describe a tolerant, flexible man who speaks his piece - but accepts differences of opinion gracefully.
Most of all, they describe a man who exudes enjoyment of his ministerial duties and contentment with his role in life.
Few see the private side of Spotts - except Roberta and their two children, 12-year-old John and Meredith, 16. The extroverted minister relishes family time, reading the Psalms, analyzing Civil War issues, studying massive engineering feats such as the Panama Canal, and tinkering with old tractors.
``Spotts has so much energy he usually has little difficulty balancing his family and ministerial obligations,'' Roberta Graves said.
The past 17 years have been busy - and beneficial - for this minister whose interests and commitments parallel those of his congregation so well, and for the community Spotts has served. MEMO: ABOUT THE CHURCH
The Outer Banks Presbyterian Church is located at 907 S. Croatan
Highway - milepost 8 1/2 on the bypass - in Kill Devil Hills. Summer
Sunday services are at 8 and 10 a.m. For information, call 441-5897. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JACK DEMPSEY
Rev. L. Spottswood Graves, 53, has toiled enthusiastically for 17
years as minister at the Outer Banks Presbyterian Church. by CNB