Look in the Mirror

Ever see someone you think you know but because the circumstances are different, you don’t quite remember where you know the person from?  That is how it was for me with today’s person.  I think I first saw him at Hayes Barton Baptist Church when he was performing in the Men’s Quartet.  Of course, I hadn’t ever seen him sing before, but I was pretty sure I knew him. As time passed, I figured out that our paths must have crossed in the work world. So when we sat down to talk for the Heritage Hope Home celebration, I listened as he described his career progression and, together, we think we determined when we may have at least heard of each other if not actually met.  Today’s story is about Vann Langston.

Vann Langston sings bass in the Men’s Quartet at Hayes Barton Baptist Church and has done so for a number of years.  “I like singing four-part harmony,” shares Vann as we move through our conversation about his story.

Vann and his wife Jody joined Hayes Barton Baptist Church in 1984 when they moved to Raleigh.  Yet Vann knew about the church as early as high school back in Henderson, North Carolina.  “My first recollection of Hayes Barton Baptist Church was television programming being interrupted because of a big church fire in Raleigh.  I can see it as good as if it happened yesterday,” says Vann.

The memory registered with him and moving close to the church made it natural for he and Jody to become members.  “Right off the bat, we got hooked up with the Danielson Class,” recalls Vann.  “We liked the class, the people in it and the style of teaching with lots of class discussion. There is a sense of belonging and belonging to each other in the class.”

Unlike many of the people in our stories thus far, Vann is not a lifelong Baptist.  “I grew up in the First Congregational Christian Church which, it turns out, is very similar to being Baptist,” says Vann.  “My mother was the choir director.”  I asked if that is why he sings in the Quartet now.  “We showed up for church and learned how to sing,” answered Vann.

Graduating from high school in Henderson in 1963 led to attending Duke University and earning a degree in history with a major in education.  The Duke years were Vann’s first exposure to people from outside of North Carolina.  “It was eye opening.  In Henderson, like a lot of wonderful small North Carolina towns, everyone was from Henderson,” explains Vann.  ‘At Duke, fifteen percent of the people were from North Carolina and the rest were from everywhere else.  It was eye opening.”  One particular day in November, 1963, at Duke stands out in Vann’s college memories.  “News spread quickly across campus that day that JFK was dead,” says Vann.  “We didn’t have social media but word spread anyway.”

Vann began teaching middle school in Raleigh and quickly was promoted to assistant principal.  Being interested in history, his conversation very much keys off of the historical significance of the time with Raleigh schools being integrated in the early 1970s and his being right in the thick of it. “They were interesting and exciting times,” says Vann. 

From assistant principal, Vann moved into a principal position at Millbrook High School and oversaw its growth from 1300 to 2400 students when Raleigh boomed in the 1980s.  “I really enjoyed high school kids,” says Vann.  “They are fun to watch develop.” 

Vann’s career continued with positions in the Wake County Public School System, the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction, Johnston County Schools, the North Carolina School Boards Association, and the High Five Regional Partnership.  There were at least two retirements in this mix of positions, and we figure that our paths likely did cross somewhere along the time he was with the School Boards Association and I was with the Center for the Prevention of School Violence.

When we turned our attention to Hayes Barton Baptist Church, Vann’s tone changed to a more serious  and challenging one.  “We think Hayes Barton comes as close to any church we know as practicing the intent of the Baptist faith,” explains Vann.  “Hayes Barton has been true to that faith even when there have been challenges.  Its heritage is one of staying true.”

“Hayes Barton has been through a lot of cycles with some plateaus,” he continues thoughtfully with perhaps a bit of his inner historian showing through.  “It is interesting to watch how we’ve worked through those.  People have had to make some difficult decisions.  We’ve reinvented ourselves and remained true to being Baptists.  This isn’t unlike the Christian Church in its 2000 years as it has had to reinvent itself and remain true to original intent during distinctly different times.” 

As one might expect from someone who had a long successful career in education, Vann turns our conversation to critical thinking and questions.  “I wonder what the Lord will say when He returns.  The thought makes me look at myself in the mirror and ask the questions “what would Jesus do?” and “what would Jesus have me do?  Our job in the church is to figure out the answers to these questions in church life and in our own lives.”

Vann talks of the “lenses” we use to see the world and events around us and that we use to look in the mirror to see ourselves.   “We have to use the lenses of what Jesus would do and have us do,” says Vann.  “We have to blend those lenses and figure out the answers as we look in the mirror at ourselves.  And,” says Vann, “we may find we have to reinvent ourselves again.” 

I said he was challenging, didn’t I?