Bishop Paul Lambert is a "People Person"
When people speak of Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert they talk about his gregarious laugh, bear hugs, and winning preaching style. He’s a popular pastor who is known as approachable, adored by the masses and a skilled consensus builder.
After nearly 40 years in the diocese, Lambert is exchanging his crozier and mitre for a garden hoe and glass of wine as he heads to retirement and a new home in Tennessee, with his wife, Sally, in May.
“I’m going to miss the people of this diocese, they have been my friends for the last four decades,” he said. “I love them. It’s going to be hard. However, I am looking forward to spending more time with my grandchildren.”
It was during seminary that Lambert met Sally, his wife of 40 years, when she visited her father, a retired Air Force Colonel, who was studying alongside the young Paul Lambert at Nashotah House, in Wisconsin. A year later, the day after graduation, the couple married in the seminary’s Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin. They then moved to the Diocese of San Joaquin where they served St. Paul's in Visalia and St. Andrew's in Taft before moving to Dallas in 1978. They later raised their children, three girls – Rebecca, Claire and Megan, in Dallas and East Texas.
Lambert began in the diocese at Church of the Transfiguration where he worked as curate. “We worked very well together,” recalled the Rev. Terry Roper. “We needed a lot of help with the youth program, and he was very gifted working with young people and their families. They had a natural bent toward him. There was an easiness between them.”
Lambert eventually became rector at St. James in Texarkana where he served for 15 years. While at St. James, He tirelessly served the diocese, making the 350-mile round-trip on countless occasions, said Tom Graves, who attends Incarnation and serves on numerous diocesan boards and committees. “Bishop Paul was President of the Standing Committee when a search committee was appointed that led to the election of Bishop Stanton, and Lambert served as chairman of that electing convention. Prior to Texarkana, he and Sally served together in eight different parishes from California to Kansas to Texas.
Eventually his leadership skills led him to a nod from Bishop James Stanton to serve as his Canon to the Ordinary. “When Stanton called me, I felt too that God had called me,” Lambert said. “It’s the spirit pushing you to step on the edge and into the unknown. The fact that Bishop Stanton had confidence in me affirmed that call.”
In this role Lambert joked that he thought the new job would mean he would no longer attend late-night vestry meetings. “I ended up going to two or three a month,” he recalled. “It was rewarding. I developed good relationships with the clergy and parishes, and made some successful placements. It was great to see priests grow into what I thought they could.”
Bishop Stanton, who has known Lambert since they were priests in the same diocese in California, said Lambert was an effective leader in the diocese because of his skills as an administrator and his deep dedication. “His commitment to Christ, his pastoral sensibility was always very important,” Stanton said. “He also knew a lot of people across the diocese, which served him well as Canon to the Ordinary. He gets along well with people, they really like him.”
In 2008 Lambert was elected as Bishop Suffragan to the Dallas diocese. He was surprised by his election and said that serving in the apostolic succession was a huge responsibility and a somewhat overwhelming prospect. In his Spiritual Autobiography, prepared at the time of his nomination for Bishop Suffragan, he wrote, “Jesus, the only Son of God, has made me the person I am today.” He quoted the Psalmist: “The Lord is my strength and my song; and he has become my salvation.”
The biography held true throughout his episcopate, Graves said. “Bishop Paul is always, first, a pastor to his flock. He is keenly aware of his holy duty to kindle and rekindle their enthusiasm for the Gospel that transforms lives.”
Lambert had the right skills to serve as a bishop, said Bill McGannon who served on the Standing Committee and attends Saint Michael and All Angels in Dallas. “ He’s one of the most energetic and easy-to-get-along-with leaders that we have had in our diocese. He had a unique way of gathering information without ruffling feathers. He could build a crescendo and get a consensus.”
McGannon recalled working with Lambert in a variety of ministries including Cursillo, Camp All Saints, the Executive Council and Standing Committee. “As a pastoral leader he had a huge heart. He had the ability to say the right things at the right time,” McGannon said. “I have the upmost respect for him. He’s just a good guy and he will be missed.”
William Murchison, who attends Incarnation in Dallas and has served as a delegate to the General Convention, said that Lambert is sometimes underestimated because of his outgoing, joyous nature. “I sense that his friendliness may disguise, to some, the quality of his mind. He is smart! He knows his theology. And he knows how to apply it.”
Despite Lambert’s committed conservative theological beliefs, he still managed to build relationships with people in the Church from all corners, particularly during General Convention. It’s important to represent the whole Church not just a part of it, Lambert said. You have to show up and participate. “How do you work on a relationship without talking to each other? When you remove yourself from a situation then you lose the opportunity to be an instrument of God’s grace,” he said.
Lambert’s gift is his ability to engage with others, even during times of doctrinal discord, Murchison said. “His personality helps him work with people who disagree with aspect of the traditional faith. He couldn’t ever come across as some dried-up, old prune just repeating formulas.”
At 6-foot-3, and wearing an eight-inch mitre, Lambert makes a large presence in the procession that commands attention. He matches that presence with a larger-than-life, fun-loving, caring personality that resonates with congregations. “When Bishop Lambert celebrated at Our Merciful Saviour, sometimes the candles would shake and flicker on that fragile antique altar. The top step is very narrow, and more than half of his brogans would hang off the edge of the step,” the Rev. Dr. David Petrash said.
Lambert loves meeting people and works hard to shake hands with everyone after service, and he moves around the room at gatherings to meet as many people as possible. He talks to folks wherever he goes with the idea of introducing them to Christ along the way.
“I always enjoyed his episcopal presence, manifested by his amazing voice, physical demeanor, and warm love and affection for all,” Petrash said. “Bishop Lambert also taught me how to talk about Jesus to strangers in a restaurant.”
The diocese is a better place for having known him, Murchison said. “Paul is a “people person” – large, welcoming, highly popular on account of it; very good at outreach – literal outreach; he loves to hug.”
Bishop Stanton, a number of years ago, confirmed the sum and substance of Paul Lambert almost inadvertently, Graves said. “Late one afternoon, there was a group standing around the back of Paul’s well-worn black Chevy Tahoe with the tailgate open and a standard issue license plate that read: JH1PL. Bishop Stanton, observed ‘it is remarkable: even the bureaucrats at TxDOT know that Jesus Has 1 Paul Lambert’ – only one.”