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February 28, 2009

PEOPLE PROFILE: W. James Hardy: Teacher, lawyer, musician, minister

By Joyce Miles<br><a href="mailto:joyce.miles@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Joyce</a>

Teacher, lawyer, bluegrass musician, minister.

W. James Hardy has a fairly eclectic-sounding resume. In reality, the new pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Lockport isn’t as undecided about life as a casual reader might guess.

Hardy, 42, says several career changes simply reflect his pursuit of a lifelong goal: “To be a light for something.”

One month into his tenure at First Presbyterian, Hardy senses his fellow church members feel the same.

In this church and the others he’s led, he said, he sees a “great big, untapped pool of talent” capable of making positive differences for the community, the nation, the world.

The Ithaca native points to nation-changing differences rooted in faith and Western New York — think Underground Railroad and the Niagara Movement, for instance — and believes the region leans naturally toward the greater good. However the desire manifests itself — be it in the running of a local soup kitchen or fundraising to combat AIDS in Africa — he’s game to both lead and serve the effort.

“I think it would be great to be a light for something,” Hardy said. “I’d like to help this community tap into something great.”

Hardy’s first Sunday at First Presbyterian was Feb. 1. He came to Lockport from South Park United Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, where he was the part-time pastor — and also a full-time attorney with the Williamsville firm William C. Moran & Associates. Hardy specializes in not-for-profit/tax law; his clients typically have been charities, from historical societies to human services groups.

Before he became a lawyer, Hardy was an ordained minister who spent several years working for the Christian Church in China. He taught English, preached and met his wife, Lu, there.

Lawyering was an extension of Hardy’s missionary zeal — his casework always was about helping people — but after about a decade of practice, he realized it wasn’t getting him close enough to his goal.

“As a lawyer, I helped people and organizations. And after a while, I got jealous of my clients. I said I don’t want to just fill out the paperwork, I want to do those things,” Hardy said. “I’m an active person. I enjoyed the law but I’m not able to sit still. The type of work I did, you need to sit at a desk, and I couldn’t do it.”

When he’s not on church duty, Hardy said his life tends to revolve around his family. He and Lu, an auditor for the New York State Comptroller’s office, have two children: a daughter, 14, and a son, 9, who keep them busy with school and after-school activities, including weekly Chinese lessons. Home base remains in Buffalo, at least through the end of this school year, since the Hardys’ daughter is enrolled at City Honors magnet school.

As his family duties have grown, Hardy had to give up an avocation — playing the bass in a bluegrass band — but still ekes out time to play acoustic guitar at home. He has a keen interest in how the kids are doing, not just at home but at First Presbyterian and its neighborhood, as well. It’s still too early in his tenure to say what new outreach he’d like to foster from the church, he said, but in conversation earlier this week, he mentioned an after-school program several times.

Connecting young people with faith seems important to Hardy. First Presbyterian appears to have unusually high youth membership numbers for a mainline church, he said, but it can always do better. He’s willing to look to the so-called mega churches for some cues.

“Ask any 17-year-old what he doesn’t like about church and he’ll tell you, ‘It’s boring,’” Hardy said. “Mega churches are less boring, more welcoming, more relevant to people’s lives. ... We don’t aspire to be a mega church, but to grow would be nice.”

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