Community Involvement

Yesterday, I received an email from a "friend of a friend." He is a pastor in rural Oregon, and he asked some interesting questions about a pastor being involved in their community. He is being asked to become more engaged in the leadership in his community. My friend mentioned to him that I have a history of community involvement, so he wrote me asking for any ideas or suggestions that might be helpful. Here, in part, is my response to him.

Terry: I appreciate you writing and asking. Let's see if we can pass along some of the things we have learned here. Our church is Valley Christian Center. We started this church 22 years ago, and it has been more fun than anything I've ever done. It has definitely been a walk of faith. Perhaps that is part of the fun, to see how God leads and provides. We have never been a large church, but we have an impact in our community.

I have always been "community" oriented. While pastoring in a small town in Eastern Washington, I was an EMT, on the fire department, and very involved. We became known as a "community" church (much to the dismay of some of my denominational brethren!!). I was there to minister to the community and that's how I've always felt. So I get involved. I am a business man, out of necessity, but also as a way to be involved. I sold insurance for almost 20 years, was a Police Chaplain for 15 of those years, and have been a member of our local Rotary Club for 25 years, and I will be their president this coming year. (See my Blog "profile" for more.)

I applaud you for getting out of the church and into your community. That's what Jesus did; He even went to parties and had a good time with people! My community involvement is not to gain members for my church, but to be a positive influence. It gives me opportunities to meet people and help them when needed. I have had some of them come to our church, but that is not my goal. My goal is to be an authentic person in a community making a positive difference.

I became involved in politics by attending City Council meetings and watching the governance process at work (I was inspired to do that through our "God and Country" cirriculum for our children. I used that cirriculum to teach our church about the foundations of our country and our religious heritage. It was an eye-opener for our people). It was not long until I was appointed to the Planning Commission. I became chair of that committee, and was then asked to run for Mayor! This was not one of those things I had planned to do, it was just one of those "doors" that opened for me and I went through it. I spent 8 years as the elected Mayor of the community where we live. What a ride…

This allowed me to be more involved in my community, not as a "pastor" but as a "Mayor." I was able to give leadership to our community. I did not "use" my position as a pastor, but neither did I try to hide it. I tried to be fair with everyone, and I think I did that. It was a great honor to serve this way and I developed many new friends and acquaintances.

So to all the Terry's out there, use any method God opens for you to reach out to someone else. God bless you as you find opportunities to serve in your community.

Welcome to VCC

Welcome to our wonderful world. Somehow you found me, whether from our church website, www.ValleyChristianCenterSumner.com or from another link, I'm glad you are here. If you are looking back through the archives, this is my first posting to this blog. A long time in coming, and hopefully worth the wait.

First, a little more about myself than you will see in the "profile." You will find out very soon that I am thoroughly enjoying life, in all its fascinating aspects. Whether as a husband of 40 years, father to my 3 children, grandfather of 6, pastor, chaplain, businessman, bicyclist, boater, studying, writing, or just relaxing with a good book, I'm having more fun than should be allowed.

As a Christian and life-long believer, I am happy and satisfied with how God created me. When I finally realized I as a type-A personality, and it was ok, I began to relax and enjoy my energy and drive. I work hard, and yet try to enjoy the important things of life: wife, children, family, and especially my faith. I have done many things through life, and I will explore them in this column. I will look back on my days growing up as the eldest of 9 in a Pastor's home in Washington state. I will look back at 9 years of working as a Minister of Youth and Music. Then there has been the years pastoring churches, which all add up to over 42 years in the ministry. During most of those years, I have been known in my communities as a local businessman as well as a Pastor. I've been an insurance salesman, certified state mediator, property manager, real estate salesman, Police Chaplain, EMT, ambulance driver, motorcycle mechanic, home remodeler, drywall contractor, boat restorer, mechanic, volunteer fireman, and consultant. I served 8 years as an elected Mayor, and even went back to Graduate School and got my Masters degree. Whew, now how did I get all that in? Besides all that, I have preached almost every Sunday for the past 30 years straight, and usually taught a Bible study during the week (for the first 15 of those 30 years, I preached twice on Sundays). All I can say at this point is that I have had a lot of fun doing these things, and guess what, I'm not done. Life just has too many opportunities to slow down now. But slow down I will, well, one of these days.

So I'm going to have fun talking about where I've been, where we have been as a church. I'll write some about doctrines, but this is not going to be a "heavy" discussion. This is going to be fun, and I hope you can enjoy it with me.