Douglas Key

Douglas Keyphotographer Douglas Key, the pastor of Clover Presbyterian Church, is the hero figure in my life. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Financial Management from Clemson University, a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. He is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church. This means his chief duties involve preaching and teaching in the congregation, leading the people in worship, and caring for them in times of crisis or need. 

As a pastor, Douglas’s official duties are shown more over a larger span of time rather than just a weekly basis. He plans programs, develops publicity materials for church activities, and makes sure the building is maintained, safe and welcoming. He is also responsible for helping the congregation create its vision of its life in the community, creating opportunities for them to engage the world around them in their shared mission to the hungry, forgotten and discarded.

“I think at its best, my work brings a measure of comfort to people when their lives are most disordered,” Key explained. He represents the hope, compassion, and possibility that is central to our faith despite circumstances of chaos, confusion, suffering, and pain. “I also occasionally trouble the comfortable, or those too easily comforted,” he said.

His job is also to place the claim and call of God on their hearts to do something about what is wrong with the world, to be part of the solution to the alienation and brokenness in society.  “I think we also work together to provide from our abundance for those who lack the resources necessary to live a dignified life. That impacts both sides of that equation,” Key said. “I hope that I occasionally help people think about their lives, give them space and permission to live critically, to reflect faithfully on who they are and what they are for and how they want to live.” 

Key said that he believes there are heroic elements in the pastoral life. “The protection that I am called on to provide is mostly protection from self.  Key regularly engages people who have accepted the world’s verdict on them that they are worthless and useless and expendable.  So I am called to be the voice that protects them from self-loathing, reminds them that they are loved and worthwhile.” 

Service is central to the work of the church and its pastors.  “I think most of what I do is service, either to the congregation, to God, or to the community.” Key recently spent a weekend trying to feed the hungry. “I was here making sandwiches for our free lunches last month and spent Saturday afternoon on the sidewalk dressed as a T Rex trying to attract attention and draw people in for the free meal,” he said.  Every year, Key also organizes and promotes the Reverse Advent Calendar program and collects 1,000 lbs. of food for the CAAC food pantry.  “I am a near constant presence in hospital rooms and nursing homes visiting the sick and the rehabbing and the lonely.  The job offers me lots of opportunities to serve.”

“In my first church, years ago, an elderly lady said in a house meeting one time, ‘He’s not high spirited.’  I had never been compared to a horse before, but I think that is still one of those valuable first impressions.  I am even tempered.  I am not given to shock or hysteria or panic (or euphoria, for that matter). I like to tell my family that I am professionally unshockable, so they can tell me anything.  I am not going to condemn them or run out of the room in horror.  I also think it is impossible to do this job (or live any life that meets the terms of this definition of hero) without being authentic.  You might not like me, but you are going to get the real me.  Younger generations can spot phoniness and will not follow it, listen to it, or invest themselves in it.” 

Pastoring also provides Key lots of opportunities to guide people through the various phases of life.  He teaches and leads youth groups, counsels couples preparing to get married, and sits with families grieving the loss of a loved one. Some of his other duties include talking to new parents about the responsibilities of baptism, teaching adult Bible studies, and leading the governing bodies of the congregation and the larger church. 

Mr. Key is my pastor and the person I go to with every problem. He is trustworthy and my hero.