Blending A Church Anniversary Theme With A Pastor Anniversary Theme

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Church Anniverary Theme and Pastor Anniversary Theme

On November 19th in 2005 my wife and I will flew to the Kansas City area to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of Blue Springs Church of the Nazarene, a church we founded in 1970.

It was only after I was writing about starting that new church that I realized that this church anniversary event was also the 35th Anniversary of my pastoral ministry career. It probably comes to no one’s surprise that more churches reach their 35th year than do pastors reach their 35th anniversary of their pastoral career.

Nonetheless, as I reflected on my pastoral career and though about the process leading up to starting a new church, the following article began to take shape.

The Original Dream Of Beginning A Church In Blue Springs

Late in 1969 and early 1970, two seminary couples began to sense the need for starting a new church in the community of Blue Springs, Missouri. Coming from opposite coasts of America to attend Nazarene Theological Seminary, they had little in common except for attending the same graduate school and attending the same local church, Independence First Church of the Nazarene.

The East Coast couple, Bob and Marge Pulkkinen, met the West Coast couple, Paul and Aleta Slater, at Independence First Nazarene. Bob and Marge were graduates of Eastern Nazarene College and Paul and Aleta graduates of what was then Pasadena College, now Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.

Both couples lived in Grain Valley at first. Bob and Marge managed a new RV campground and Marge also taught school in Grain Valley School District. Aleta taught first grade for the Blue Springs School District. Paul and Aleta moved to Blue Springs early in 1970 in anticipation of starting the new church.

Starting The Church Was The Result Of A Joke

The need for starting a church actually began because someone jokingly said “we ought to start a church closer to home”. You see, we were getting tired of the drive to Independence to attend church services and activities. While that’s not the most holy reason for starting a new church work, God can use any excuse to start a new church!

Based on that very practical reason for beginning a new church, we learned that the Kansas City District of the Church of the Nazarene had targeted Blue Springs as a community needing a Nazarene Church in response to the population growth taking place. I believe the population at that time was a bit over 5,000 residents.

As to who would pastor the new congregation, the fact that the Pulkkinens worked on Sundays at the RV camp meant that Paul became the “designated pastor”. Soon after we met with District Superintendent Wilson Lampher and began strategizing as to how the new work would begin.

Launching A New Church Start

We actually started services in June of 1970 with Sunday afternoon worship services. The District Impact Team, made up of high school students from various churches from the Kansas City area, helped us staff a Vacation Bible School in the mornings.

At the same time we had a tent revival in the evenings with seminarian Ted Lee preaching. A few local families attended but most in attendance come from the Nazarene Churches in the KC area or fellow seminarians who came to help in our new church startup efforts.

Services were held in the Masonic Lodge basement on Main Street. Pastor Paul would arrive early on Sunday mornings with cleaning supplies and lots of Lysol spray, attempting to produce a more conducive atmosphere for worship services. Arriving early allowed me to spray and pray, both actions needed to rid the building of anything contrary to our efforts to lift up Jesus!

I think it was probably August of 1970 that Sunday morning and evening services were begun. We had no one from the local community attending and our transplanted helpers from Independence were tiring out. So we figured we had nothing or no one to lose by starting morning and evening services.

Starting a Sunday School at the same time, this decision actually made it possible for local people attend. Attendance was soon in the twenties and thirties. The church had its official launch in November of 1970 with about twenty charter members, if I remember correctly. But even if my memory isn’t serving me the correct data, it makes a good story!

An Old Church Building Gets A New Lease On Life

As to when we bought the old Methodist building, I am guessing that it was in 1971. Now get into your mind that I was a baby faced 25 year old kid with little life experience. How young did I look? Well let’s just say that the neighbor kids use to come to the door and ask my wife if Pastor Paul could come out and play!

At a ministerial meeting, I learned that the Methodist building was for sale. The Methodist pastor told me it was on the market for $100,000. Dr. Lanpher told me to make an offer so, using all of the real estate expertise gained from my limited life experience, I offered $35,000! They countered at $37,500 with the stipulation they owned the stained glass windows and the rest is church history.

Giving Someone The Cold Shoulder During A Church Service Was Actually Appreciated

I do remember that for our first service in that building, the weather was very cold, so it must have been winter. The reason I remember this is that the furnaces had all quit during the night. We attempted to light every one of those furnaces (I think there were 4 or 5) but without success. Later we discovered that the oil had run out during the night.

We simply bundled up and it was so cold that as I preached, I could see my breath. It was one of the few times that giving someone the cold shoulder during a church service was actually appreciated.

Spiritual Results From Starting A New Church

I served as pastor for three and half years, moving to Southern California in November of 1973. What was accomplished because we started a new church you ask?

I can think of several spiritual accomplishments from those beginning days.

1. A church was born. Even if the motivation was to not have to drive into the neighboring town so much, God used that motivation to see possibilities and to spark our faith. Faith is action, no matter what motivates that faith to begin.

2. A ministry career was started. It has just occurred to me that this is more than just a local church’s anniversary — it is the 35th anniversary of my career as a pastor as well.

3. Generations of faithfulness had its beginning. And subsequent servants of God have continued on because Blue Spring Church of the Nazarene was started.

Building Godly Generations

While we often focus on building larger congregations, God is interested in building Godly generations.

I firmly believe that the Christian Faith is one generation away from extinction. If so, what we do each and every day does matter in passing the torch of one’s Christian faith to the coming generations.

Two of our key families were the Parkers and the Russells. What a joy to meet Barry or Donna, 2 kids in our original youth group, years later at our denominations General Assembly or at one of our District Assemblies as they travel in their work for the Nazarene Publishing House. As our paths have crossed, it has prompted me to praise God that our obedience in starting the Blue Springs church has impacted succeeding generations, transforming them by His redemptive grace.

What a joy it was to return for the 35th anniversary of Blue Springs First Church of the Nazarene. I was thrilled that we couldcelebrate the 35th anniversary of my pastoral ministry career as well.

You see, that means that both the church and Aleta and I have kept on serving God. Celebrating ministry anniversaries means this one simple fact — we haven’t quit!

Thus we had the opportunity to celebrate faithfulness. You asked what I looked forward to the most in coming back. What Aleta and I anticipated to be the best part of this church anniversary theme was hearing what Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story”. Filling in the blanks of the faith story was what made this time of celebration memorable.

Foundational Truths That Impacted My Pastoral Ministry Career

As I reflect on the impact of starting a new church in Blue Springs in 1970, I see several foundational truths that had their start in Blue Springs and became the basis for my pastoral ministry career.

Foremost is the conviction that the church is God’s tool for reaching a lost world with the message of God’s love and grace. But to me the church has always been “people, forgiven fallen folk like you and me.”

Buildings can burn, hurricanes and tornadoes devastate church facilities, and yet the “church” rises to the occasion of simply “being” the church wherever we find ourselves, God’s people, in a given moment.

At that time, my pastoral career spanned 35 years, having served as senior pastor to 5 Nazarene congregations, 2 in California (Inglewood, Watsonville), 1 in Oregon, (John Day) and 1 in Washington (Bellingham).

I was an Associate Pastor to the Boise First Church Nazarene just before your Pastor at Blue Springs, Lyle Pointer, came as senior pastor.

In my pastoral career I also served as Director of Ministry and Technology for a Christian Internet Service, Reachone Internet. That experience became pivotal in directing me toward a healthcare chaplain career.

One of my most unique ministry portions was as a Faith Coordinator for the County of San Diego, serving as a liaison between government and communities of faith in meeting the needs of our citizens.

I also pursued professional chaplain certification, which was granted in April of 2005, by the Association of Professional Chaplains. My  ministry assignment at that time was Director of Spiritual Care for LightBridge Hospice in San Diego.

Now retired from healthcare chaplaincy, I  have an internet ministry called “Change Career With Purpose”, which I started in response to the problem of pastor burnout so prevalent in the church world today.

Aleta continued on as a classroom teacher throughout our ministry. She worked to support my home mission habit. In 2001 she received a Masters In School Administration from Seattle Pacific University.

She presently serves as Site Director of the Early Education Learning Center at Point Loma Nazarene University. Both of our children live in San Diego as well. 

I have often said that I would do it again! My ministry career has been rewarding, especially at this time of my pastoral career. But to say I would do it again, go into ministry that is, I would not do ministry in the same way. But then, that’s another article.