HE WAS ONLY THERE!

It seemed a serendipity that the announcements in the last Tidings regarding the Diversity effort at the Grove and the announcement of the death of Dan Newhall would coincide.

At one time the Presbytery of Los Angeles and later the Synod of Southern California were investing thousands upon thousands of dollars in attempts to integrate the disappearing white inner city congregations. At the same time huge investments were also being spent to turn the large West Adams church with an integrated staff into a model of a Black and white middle class church. The West Adams Church had been an affluent congregation with several thousand members. Both efforts proved largely unsuccessful. Black congregations simply replaced white congregations. And the beautiful West Adams church building is now owned by a Black Baptist congregation.

It was during that same time that Dan was Pastor of the influential, white, affluent congregation at First Presbyterian Church of Inglewood. He was a beloved Pastor and as Inglewood itself was rapidly becoming a Black community, the Inglewood Church was gradually becoming an integrated congregation. Slowly the congregation, the elders and deacons and lay leaders, worked together to reflect the make up of the community as they became fully integrated. And under Dan’s leadership the church continued strong and effective. Through it all Dan ministered in an unobtrusive way to accomplish what the combined efforts of the Synod and the Presbytery could not.

When I would ask Dan how he did it, He replied in his usual self effacing manner. “ How would I know? I was only there”! It was the same answer he gave when I asked him how he managed more recently to help lift the Knox church from near death into being a young, vital congregation. His answer was the same, “How would I know? I was only there”!

In his mind Dan was a prophet, but in his heart Dan was an evangelist. He loved the Scriptures with a passion. He memorized volumes of it. And he loved the Savior with an unabashed fervor. When his engineering professors at Berkeley asked him why he was throwing his scientific education away to become a pastor-He simply answered “I Love Jesus !” He delighted in telling that story.

Dan was very unassuming in all that he accomplished in his life. His love of Dodie and his family. His scholarly relationship with the Latin language. His love of woodworking and his love for his congregation of 25 years. If you asked him how he accomplished all of that ? I believe that his life’s answer would be:

“HOW WOULD I KNOW ? I WAS ONLY THERE” !

— With great respect, Bill Hansen

To make a gift in memory of Dan or another loved one, please visit the memorial giving page