“A Year-long Pictorial Journey of Presbyterian Church of the Master”

As a long-time photographer, both professional and hobbyist, I had often considered undertaking some type of project connected to the church, but never had the right idea…or felt I had the time…or, frankly, the motivation. In the fall of 2018, I was sharing with Pastor Bob Keefer my often-considered concept of shooting, “a year in the life of PCM.” He immediately liked the idea and encouraged me to undertake the project. Around the same time, Dr. Chris Krampe, Director of Music at Church of the Master, was sharing how the “arts” had always been part of Christianity throughout history. With these thoughts, I finally felt a calling to tackle this project.

Instead of the calendar year, I believed a “year in the life” should follow the Liturgical Year. As a result, I began my photo journey the first Sunday of Advent in December 2018 and concluded at the end of November 2019. For twelve months I attempted to capture images of most events and activities associated with Church of the Master. While I could not get everything, I feel I got a good representation.

However, I occasionally wondered and worried that this project was about my ego as a photographer and some self-indulgent desire to have my photos on the wall. Both Pastor Bob and my wife Brenda steered me away from those thoughts and my temptation to scrap the whole project. I am grateful. I am also thankful to Reverend J. Keith Cook and Jean Koerten for their willingness to sort through more than 7,500 images and help me identify the keepers. Jean also helped proofread all the captions. Finally, I’m eternally thankful for my wife Brenda who has encouraged and assisted me along every step. With countless hours of work on the project, I never could have completed it without her love and support.

I frequently told myself, and others, my quest was to show the events and activities of the church…that my photos were more about showing off the church to the public as an Outreach tool. Nope, I was wrong. As the year wound down, I finally admitted to myself that I had created a family photo album. I literally shot thousands of images of all the wonderful, amazing people whom I love so dearly and make up our church family at Church of the Master. So, it’s to the PCM family that I dedicate this presentation. I hope and pray that others will see this beautiful community of faith in the images I captured.

Bill Norton
February 19, 2020

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