Q & A with Don Maddox of San Marino Community Church

Don Maddox grew up in Pasadena and has served as a leader in local churches for more than 40 years. Retired as a member of the Presbyterian clergy in 2006, he serves as parish associate at San Marino Community Church, which has about 1,100 members. Maddox answered questions sent via email from the Pasadena Sun.

Sun: The church is undergoing renovations. What will be the highlights?

Maddox: San Marino Community Church is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The entire facility is being renovated, from the nursery school rooms to the sanctuary and everything in between — including tenting the entire structure for termites. The renovation began in July of this year and will be completed, hopefully, by March of 2012, in time for the Easter celebration. This coming Sunday, Nov. 20, will be our Homecoming Sunday where the San Marino community is being invited to see the progress with an open house and hosted tours of the building.

Sun: How did you come to dedicate your life to the church?

Maddox: After a tour in the Army I came back to Pasadena and enrolled at Cal State Los Angeles with a major in elementary school education … One night I was stood up by my girlfriend, who lived in Hollywood, and on the way home I passed the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, where the Sunday evening service was about to get underway. Depressed, I attended the service. My life changed direction with a commitment to accept Christ as my savior. Changing majors and my orientation, I attended Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena for two years and transferred to Princeton Seminary in New Jersey, where I graduated with a master’s degree. I was ordained at Hollywood Presbyterian Church in 1969.

Sun: Do the spiritual concerns people express change with the times, or do they tend to be age-old questions of family, morality and faith?

Maddox: The spiritual concerns do change with the times, but the underlying concerns about life-and-death issues remain the same. Most of us want our lives to have some meaning, some worth, something more than just passing from one birthday to the next.

Sun: What are the elements of a successful church?

Maddox: They are the same elements as for any other kind of operation, secular or religious: meeting the needs of its constituents and encouraging growth in one’s life. For a church, that would be fulfilling the needs for one’s spiritual, emotional, educational and physical growth. Connecting each person with a living, abiding faith in God. The other side of the equation is to be in service to humanity through caring for the hurts and traumas that surround us globally as well as individually, and doing so in tangible ways.

Sun: What activities do you like to participate in, and which local places do you like to visit?

Maddox: At my age, most of my activities involve going to doctor appointments, or so it seems.

Sun: How has the region changed since you moved in 1947?

Maddox: My family knew almost everyone who lived on our street. Playing kick the can, riding the Red Line trolley into L.A. to have lunch at Clifton’s, hiking behind Devil’s Gate Dam, walking to our neighborhood church, swimming at the pool at John Muir College (now John Muir High School), riding my bike to Sunland’s amusement park, going to the Bob’s Big Boy in Eagle Rock and later driving to the Bob’s Big Boy car hop place in Pasadena. We always seemed to be outside doing something. Today, many of those activities may still be going on in one form or another, but the sense of Pasadena being a small town has disappeared.

Q: How has the area remained the same?

Maddox: The beauty of Pasadena and the surrounding communities seems unchanged. There is still the beauty of the mountains, the parks that dot this area. Every now and again I’ll ride the Gold Line just to relive the trolleys that went down Colorado Boulevard. And of course, the Rose Parade is such an enduring tradition.