During the month of December, I’m recognizing members of our ministry team who lead behind the scenes and make possible the training, consultation and resources Key Ministry offers to churches.

Today, I’m honoring the contributions of Pastor Hu Auburn, one of our founding Board members and Key Ministry Vice-President for the past eight years.

Shortly after I started my residency at Cleveland Clinic, I met my wife on a blind date, and not too long thereafter we decided to take a drive one night out along the shoreline west of the city. Heading out Lake Road, past the mansions and more modest cottages on the Lake Erie shoreline, my (then) girlfriend commented that she’d heard good things about the church we’d just passed (Bay Presbyterian) on the morning TV show she watched while getting ready for work and suggested I check it out on one of those rare Sundays when I didn’t need to go into work. I took her up on the suggestion and enjoyed the teaching of Hu Auburn, then eleven years into his 33 year tenure as Senior Pastor.

I enjoyed the church services and the people, went through the new member class and was assigned to a small group. My girlfriend became my wife, we became increasingly connected to the church and the small group, and because of the quality of the preaching and teaching, stayed actively involved in the church, despite moving first to an apartment and later a house 35 miles east of Bay Presbyterian. I can’t necessarily say that any one sermon Hu gave stood out more than others, but through attending church every week and participating in weekly Bible studies he led very early in the morning, I developed a solid foundation in understanding Scripture and implementing the teachings of the Bible in everyday life.

Hu’s tenure at Bay Presbyterian was marked by his willingness to share responsibility for ministry with the people of the church instead of reserving ministry for the “professional Christians.” When the church celebrated Hu’s 25th anniversary, in lieu of a significant monetary gift, he asked the people of the church to contribute money to a fund to support the work of “emerging ministries.”

On the back of the church bulletin, under the listing “Ministers” was “All the people of Bay Presbyterian Church.” The opportunity to “do” as opposed to simply watch and listen has been enormously important for my spiritual growth. Our church went with me to my office in Chagrin Falls and came along with me if I was lecturing in Nashville or Chicago or Atlanta.

While my career was taking off, providing opportunities to travel, teach and conduct research, Hu and the church Board (of which I had been a part) supported very innovative ministry initiatives developed by our Children’s Ministry director to serve families connected to the church who were experiencing great challenges after adopting kids from orphanages in countries behind the Iron Curtain with serious mental health or developmental disorders. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I recognized the unmet spiritual needs of kids and families served through my practice that occurred because the vast majority of families in which a child has a serious emotional or behavioral disorder have no ongoing connection with a local church. I had been wrestling with a “call” to start an organization to help churches across the country provide the type of service offered to families at Bay Presbyterian. Our oldest daughter was in first grade by this time and attending the local public school. My wife and I were torn between our desire to not give up the relationships we had at Bay Pres and the need to find a church closer to home so that our girls would have a Christian peer group in public school.

I set up a meeting with Hu to tell him about our church dilemma but also shared the call to do something larger with the ministry that had been birthed at Bay Presbyterian. Not only was he gracious in excusing us to become involved at Fellowship Bible Church, but he offered (as the pastor of what had become a megachurch) to become personally involved in the launch of the new organization by serving on the Board, contributing of his personal resources to help launch the ministry, and volunteering his wife, who had extensive experience in launching parachurch ministries to become our founding Executive Director. He got on the phone and recruited other leaders in the church to serve on our Board and to help us get started. Key Ministry (Hu came up with the name) was officially launched on Christmas Eve, 2002, between the 7:00 and 9:00 PM services when we signed the paperwork in his office.

I appreciate having people on our Board who aren’t afraid to tell me when I’m wrong. Hu has a way of communicating his thoughts when I’m about to make an incorrect decision that doesn’t lead me to become embarrassed or defensive. He’s just wise. He’s able to identify elements of a situation that I hadn’t considered or anticipate problems I didn’t foresee. I can’t overestimate the benefit to our organization of having a leader of his experience on our team from the very beginning.

Thirty-three years of life as a Senior Pastor of a large, dynamic church has taken its’ toll on Hu’s health. He and his wife enjoy traveling, and I hope they’ll get a chance to enjoy his retirement. He left Bay Presbyterian in good hands upon his retirement, positioned to be a leading congregation in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He has no shortage of organizations seeking his time and talent. We’ve been blessed to have him as a part of our team from the very beginning, and we continue to be blessed by his involvement with Key Ministry.

Thanks, Hu. Merry Christmas!

Here’s a link to an article Hu wrote on the theological and Biblical foundation of Key Ministry.