It was nine years ago today that I preached my first sermon at First Presbyterian Pine City as the official pastor. I had been providing pulpit supply for a few years prior, but had finally decided to leave Walmart and move back into full-time vocational ministry following a prompting from God and repeated promptings from several at the church!
Hard to believe it's been nine years already. Especially for someone who never really aspired to becoming a senior pastor.
The church celebrated it's 150th Anniversary last year and as a part of that we put together a heritage book of reflections. Here's what I wrote about my experience at FPPC.
150th Anniversary Reflections
Rob Spahr
“I heard that First Presbyterian Church is looking for pulpit supply. You should check that out.”
So said the pastor from Evergreen Community Church back in 2009. Our family had been attending there and I served as a volunteer youth leader and elder at the time. I had preached at Evergreen a couple of times and the pastor there suggested contacting the Presbyterian church about the opportunity to preach more frequently.
I didn’t know anything about First Presbyterian Pine City, other than that it was in the big white building next to the Mainstreet Milkhouse gas station. I was very familiar with Presbyterian churches, having attended a Presbyterian college, King College in Bristol, Tennessee. In fact, I regularly preached at a small Presbyterian church in Churchill, Tennessee, my junior and senior years in college, and while at Bethel Seminary I had served as a youth intern at Hope Presbyterian in Richfield, Minnesota. But it had been many years since I had any contact with any of the Presbyterian denominations or churches.
At the time, I was employed at Walmart, having taken a break from full-time ministry after 15 years as a youth pastor. Vocational ministry is challenging, and I had been involved in a few difficult church situations, so I was enjoying the change of pace that serving in the marketplace offered. Nevertheless, I decided to inquire about the opportunity to preach at First Presbyterian. I contacted Bob Werner and eventually interim pastor Harry Lichy. I began subbing for Harry on occasion in late 2009 and continued to do so over the next few years.
Just about every time I filled the pulpit at First Presbyterian, Bob Werner would remind me, “Hey, you know we’re looking for a senior pastor!”
“I’m not a senior pastor,” I would respond. “I’m a youth guy!”
“We don’t care,” he would reply. “We still want you.”
“I’m not even Presbyterian.” I reminded him. I had grown up in a Baptist General Conference (Converge) church, attended a BGC seminary and then was ordained in the Evangelical Free Church.
“We don’t care.” Bob insisted. “We still want you.”
“I already have a job.” I told him. I had started as an hourly associate at Walmart after having left my last youth pastor position and had moved steadily up the ranks, eventually becoming a salaried member of management.
But no matter how much I protested, invariably Bob would remind me each time, “We’re still looking for a senior pastor, you know.”
I continued to preach once or twice every month or two. Every time I would hear from Bob, “We’re still looking for a pastor…” This went on for a couple of years. Eventually God began to nudge both Rosalie and me, giving us an inkling that we might not yet be done with vocational ministry. I had spent three and a half years at Walmart and enjoyed my job there. My prospects for the future with the company were good, but I was becoming increasingly aware of a sense of holy discontent. As successful as I was in the marketplace, I knew God was calling me back to service in the church.
But I was very wary of pursuing the opportunity at First Presbyterian for a couple of reasons. First, the church had declining attendance and participation with an aging congregation. It was still locked into a very liturgical style that would have been familiar to previous generations but was increasingly unfamiliar an inaccessible to newcomers. However I was encouraged by the fact that Jen Hansmann was the pianist and had introduced more contemporary songs at the beginning of the services. I was confident that with her help we could begin to develop a thriving worship ministry that blended both the traditional favorites with more modern songs. Having Jen as the pianist was a big factor in my decision to pursue the opportunity to serve FPPC as pastor.
The other reason for my caution about the position was that my protests to Bob were not simple excuses. I had never aspired to become a senior pastor and had only desired to serve in student ministry. I had my Master of Divinity degree, so education wasn’t an issue. But I still felt apprehensive about stepping into a lead pastor role with no previous experience. Fortunately my time at Walmart taught me a lot more about working with people of all ages and gave me to confidence I needed to take the leap.
We decided to, in a way, lay out a fleece: if Bob asked again and indicated that the church seriously wanted to pursue having me as pastor, we would take that as a sign to investigate the possibility of serving full-time. Sure enough, the next time I preached at FPPC, Bob said, “You know…” and this time I replied, “Let’s talk about it.”
I had some doubts that it would even be possible for me to serve as pastor, not having credentials in the PCUSA. But after meeting with several people from the Presbytery, we were given the go-ahead to continue. The Manse was sold to help fund the housing part of my salary (three-quarter time at first) and I began serving as pastor on January 13, 2013.
I went in with fear and trepidation. Would I be a good fit? How would I do at preparing a message most every week of the year? Would I be able to navigate the challenges of serving a church as the lead pastor? Would the church be able to continue to support my family financially after the proceeds from the sale of the Manse were depleted? Would I even be able to remember everyone’s names (a superpower some pastors seem to have but which I seriously lack)? There was a lot of uncertainty. This move was a huge step of faith for our family, but I trusted in God’s leading.
It turns out that trusting God was a good idea. (Who knew?!) I was surprised at how open the church was to change and growth, and the lack of conflict and infighting was a wonderful change from some of my more recent church experiences. It turned out that God had been preparing me for exactly this position. I have been able to utilize my teaching and leadership gifts to serve the older members of the congregation while also continuing to minister to teenagers through our youth ministry.
I’m so grateful to the people at First Presbyterian for bearing with me through the years as I have grown in my role. You have suffered through some pretty mediocre sermons at times, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes in leadership, but have always received a lot of grace, for which I am thankful.
As with any church, it is the people that make it special. I am indebted to so many for their support and encouragement. They have welcomed both my family and me and truly made this our church home. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to help shepherd this congregation over the past decade and we look forward to seeing what God will continue to do through this gathering in the years to come!
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