The following is the seventh in a series examining the history and role of churches and houses of worship in Duxbury.
For Pastor David Woods, faith has been a journey. So when he needed to find a new home for his church – then called New Covenant Fellowship – after an electrical fire in 2007, Woods decided to rethink the name of the church as well. He decided on Journey Community of Faith.
\'I wanted something more inclusive, because over the years, I have become more and more inclusive in my approach to faith,\' said Woods, sitting in the Tarkiln Community Center, which is where the non-denominational Journey of Faith meets on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
\'Life is a journey, faith is a journey and we are all on that journey together,\' he added. Although Woods grew up in Tulsa, OK and graduated from Phillips University in Enid, OK, he attended seminary Andover-Newton Theological School in Newton, which brought him to the youth pastor job at Duxbury’s Pilgrim Church in 1969.
There, he ran a coffee house for youth at Tarkiln. He became ordained and left the job at Pilgrim to become a pastor in East Douglas, MA and got married. Woods stayed in East Douglas for five years and then came back to Pilgrim as assistant pastor there for a few years before leaving the ministry to enter an insurance business opportunity with a friend of his.
\'After awhile, I realized this wasn\'t for me,\' said Woods. \'I got a recall back to the church.\'
So Woods went back to being a pastor – this time with a new United Church of Christ church just outside of Louisville, KY in a community called Crestwood. He stayed there for three years.
In 1982, Woods and his wife returned to Duxbury. The couple ran a Bible study that met in member\'s homes and then at Town Hall from 1982-1985. The group moved over to Tarkiln as the two adjoining rooms met the church\'s needs of both a nursery/Sunday school space and a place to attend services.
\'We stayed there until the electrical fire kicked us out,\' said Woods, remembering the 2007 fire in a transformer that shuttered the Tarkiln Community Center and let to its restoration. \'In the meantime (before building was rehabilitated and reopened), we met in living rooms and then wound up at Miramar.\'
What are services like for Journey attendees?
They start with music – with Pastor Woods on acoustic guitar and Duxbury native Tim Hovey on piano, \'usually five or six songs – a mix of contemporary and traditional Christian music,\' Woods said.
From there, there are Bible readings, prayers and a sermon, although Woods said the sermon \'is more of a dialogue. I welcome different points of view. I don\'t regard my point of view as the last word. I like being non-denominational because I feel free to think in a way that doesn\'t neccessarily agree with a specific denomination\'s doctrine.\'
Woods said there are usually about six to eight people in attendance at Journey meetings and all are welcome.
\'We try and have a good time every week with good music and an emphasis on love and joy,\' he said.
For more information on the church, visit journeyduxbury.org.