Battle for the Buildings
Eighty churchmen attended Gordon’s `Summer School for Successful Ministry’ his first major engagement in 1976. They chose from a variety of subjects taught simultaneously during the day. Evening lectures covered subjects of universal concern. Widely advertised in church papers around Australia, the week-long school included meals and accommodation and cost $45.
Noted speakers such as “Gordon Moyes, Allan Avery, Jay Bacik, Dirk Bakker, Geoffrey Benson, Owen Clark, Roland Croucher, Jack Fawcett, Kevin Harvey, Keith Horne, Ted Keating, Bob Payne and Gordon Stirling, each a specialist in his own field,” claimed the advertising—then added, “plus guest speakers.” One of these guest speakers was the most famous Methodist minister in Australia, Rev. Alan Walker of Sydney.This first Summer School for Ministers was such an outstanding success that within a few years the attendance numbered hundreds.
Most of Gordon’s ideas proved similarly successful but even the new, younger breed of Cheltenham Church administrators thought their pastor was too ambitious when he suggested alleviating the plight of the low and middle-income elderly.
“Some of them live alone in large family homes that are decaying for lack of repairs that they are too old to do and too poor to pay to have done,” he said dramatically. “Others live crowded and unhappily with sons or daughters and their offspring, and still others exist in tiny `room and use of conveniences’ rentals.”
Affirmative nods greeted his description but no suggestions.
“If only the church could erect Retirement Villages where old people could live with dignity in small independent units, and where someone else took the responsibility for upkeep of buildings and gardens.”
“Yes, and where they could get care when needed,” a board member added.
More nods, but no one had any concrete suggestions to offer.
At the next meeting Gordon again brought up the matter and all his listeners agreed that Retirement Villages were the perfect answer to this widespread social problem, but what could Cheltenham Church of Christ do?
The answer to that question became the most important as well as the most time-consuming activity of the year. Gordon wanted to build a 23 unit Retirement Village on land at the corner of Chesterville Road and Jellicoe Street. The church would have to buy the land, demolish the existing houses and erect the buildings.
“What do you think all that will cost?” demanded a committee spokesman.
“Probably about eight hundred thousand dollars.”
As one man the entire committee gasped. $800,000:00 was a huge sum for those days and it taxed Gordon’s ingenuity to the limit as he and his committees discussed bank loans, legal agreements, and a variety of fund-raising schemes.
“The church is on a sound financial footing now, but there’s nothing over for extras, particularly not for extras that will run into astronomical sums of money,” a committee member observed.
“But we don’t have to come up with the money ourselves.” Again and again Gordon explained his proposition. “It’s a simple business venture with a controlled risk to the church. We take out a bank loan and then lease the units to pay it off.
“The church will own the development, never to be sold, and the people can lease the units. When a lessee leaves or dies the family would get the amount back, less 10% for depreciation, and we would sell the lease to the next occupant. We could probably raise enough money to have one or two extra units available for those who couldn’t afford a lease.”
The discussion carried on for months. Occasionally the tide flowed in favour of the idea, usually it ebbed against it. These committee members were not a lot of uninformed lay-people with no commercial acumen. Among them were builders and financiers and men who ran successful enterprises of their own. They posed questions and foresaw problems that were beyond young Reverend Moyes’ scant business experience.
For awhile the plans reached a stalemate. Then Gordon had another idea. He presented it next time the matter came up.
“You are absolutely correct,” he said. “I don’t have the answers to some of your questions and objections. I propose that we obtain the information from a reliable source.”
A wary silence descended. It was broken only when one of the members asked, “What do you have in mind?”
“Let’s hire a Queen’s Counsel to go into all the legal aspects of our proposal. Let him find out about retirement villages—how much are people expected to pay to lease a unit, what is the average life-span of people who live in them—and all the other things we need to know.”
There was another long silence and then the chairman of the committee said, “That’s a good idea, but legal advice doesn’t come cheaply.”
“It will cost about five thousand dollars,” Gordon agreed cheerfully. “I’ve already made enquiries.”
If their minister had said “Five hundred thousand dollars” the result would have been no different. Sighs greeted his announcement.
Eventually Gordon’s arguments won and in due course the Q C’s report on actuarial matters swayed the church’s decision in his desired direction. However, for many years afterward Gordon considered that the battle for the Cheltenham Church Retirement Village, was the most difficult he had ever waged—to date.
The foundations for the units had scarcely been laid when the committee was inundated with requests for accommodation. So much so that when the church heard of a similar Retirement Village being commenced at nearby Seaford, they took it over and it was officially opened on 10th October, 1976.
More than one thousand people attended the opening. Many were so impressed that applications poured in and within a year the church had procured more land and built on it three large extensions, at a total cost of $3,000,000. It was a huge dream that came to reality because of Gordon’s persistence and, as he had promised, it was opened debt-free.
For a short time peace reigned at the manse, then one morning Gordon announced, “I’ve had a brainwave.”
“What now?” Beverley pretended to groan.
“Well, you know I’m scheduled to hold a series of meetings in Tasmania in October. Why don’t we organize a sight-seeing tour of Tassie for our parishioners and any others who care to come?”
“Great idea.” Beverley nodded.
It was also a rather cunning way of ensuing that at least the night meetings of Gordon’s Apple Isle mission series would be well attended.
A tour company made most of the arrangements. During daylight hours competent guides took the visitors to see the sights, while their leader lectured in Rotary and Lions’ Clubs and other community organizations, spoke on radio, and made television appearances. At night he preached to the public and the tourists helped swell the congregation. All in all it proved to be a most satisfactory arrangement and everyone was happy.
Later that year Gordon felt honoured when the CTA, Christian Television Association of NSW, produced a series of half hour programmes featuring distinguished young men within the Australian Community. One was titled, “Gordon Moyes, Church Leader,” and focussed on his present life, with flashbacks of his past, plus dreams for the future. These films were shown all around Australia. His nightly “Epilogues” were still being featured on GTV9 and by now he was well known among the night-owls of television.However, as a result of the burgeoning church membership the work load had increased to such an extent that Gordon, plus his assistants and laymen, regardless of how willing they were, could no longer cope. Jeff Benson, the student minister, would be returning to America soon.
The Church Board met and after a lengthy discussion they decided to call another assistant minister. Stanton Wilson would take major responsibility for the pastoral care of the church, leaving Gordon and Jeff to handle the public work and aggressive soul-winning.
Eventually two other ministers, Rev Maurice Conry and Rev Malcolm Humphreys and Joy Rainey, a social worker, joined the group. These, plus a full-time administrator and a secretary, made up the always busy Cheltenham team.
