I crossed the threshold of the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren for the first time in well over year this past Sunday, July 8. It was a homecoming of sorts - and yet a bit strange. Mostly it was great to see all of the friendly faces that I came to know and love over the course of several years of attending the church. Carolyn and I had ’shopped’ for a church to call our home shortly after we began dating in 2000. We soon determined that despite that fact that it was the furthest church from our house, we simply got the most out of Bear Creek.
The number one reason that we chose Bear Creek and the reason that I visited there again on Sunday was one and the same: the church’s pastor Ron Wenzel. Ron began his ministry at Bear Creek in 1996 right about the time that my Dad moved from Kettering to Brookville and began attending the church again. He had actually gone to Bear Creek as a child…and I had been officially dedicated to Bear Creek as a baby, as it was the first church that my parents attended. My Dad raved so much about the new, young pastor that I made my way out to Bear Creek on several occasions to participate in some evening services that they were holding.
So Carolyn, Ashleigh, and I - often along with Briana - would generally attend every weekly service possible for about five years. Ron was even our minister of choice for our wedding ceremony. He was also the one who baptized Ashleigh in April 2004. Ron was always very supportive of our young family - whether visiting us at our house or taking me out to lunch. Carolyn and I went through pre-marital classes and Bretheren Heritage classes, both taught by Ron, and he was often our morning Sunday School teacher. He always did an excellent job preaching relevant, understandable lessons during each morning’s sermons.
Ron officiates our wedding in 2003.
After Carolyn and I separated in May of 2006, circumstances in my life had irreparably changed and I felt it was time to move away from the church. Not only would it have seemed bitterly strange to attend the same church solo that we had chosen as a couple, there was the additional mitigating factor that it was so blasted far away.
But in tribute to the great memories, valuable lessons, invaluable friendships, and this irreplaceable period of my life, I decided to visit to the church again for Pastor Ron’s last day, before he embarks on another occupational journey with Mutual Aid Exchange (MAX), an Anabaptist insurance firm. I relished every minute of his sermon, knowing it would be the last one I ever heard from him. It was also great to see his wife Sylvia, his kids, and indeed the entire church family whom had meant so much to us: the Pattersons, the Landises, the Buchers, the Vecchis, the Gauthiers, the Farnbachs, the Erbaughs, the Jacksons, and many others. My Dad, who hadn’t attended church much lately either, also showed up to see Ron. Bill and Dottie, of course, were there as well and I enjoyed sitting with them at the fellowship lunch following the service. In fact, the last time Bill, Dad, and I were in church together was in Plains, Georgia to see Jimmy Carter, where we heard one of the same hymns that was performed at this very service: “It Is Well with My Soul.”
Although I felt a bit self-conscious about running around and snapping pictures during the lunch after the service, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the little Gauthier girls: Eliza and Jorryn, two of my favorite kids from the church - now a full year older than when I had last seen them.
Jorryn and Eliza
Nice. I too don’t attend church nearly as often as I did when I was a child, but I did make it a point to attend my childhood pastor’s final sermon before his retirement some years ago. This spring, he returned to do a one-off, “guest-sermon” which I also attended. It was a very nice event that had a bit of a reunion and nostalgic feel to it. Hopefully for you, Pastor Ron will be back once in awhile in the years to come to do the same.
Peter
July 13th, 2007