The backbone of the 60 years of Faith Bible Fellowship has been the ministry of our pastoral staffs and the leadership of committed elders and officers. All of our pastors have been true to the Word and have openly taught God's truths. The founding pastor, James Koch, set a good foundation and met the needs of a new family that included many young Christians as well as numerous mature Christians. He related well to the members and spent time with them developing unity and goals. I especially remember spending time with him and his wife as they would take me along to various places such as Mizpah Grove.
In 1954 Annual Conference assigned Frank Herb Jr. to be our second pastor. He had a special connection to us because he was a son of the Lebanon church and was known by many of our folks who had previously attended there. He was a very strong Bible teacher and his solid pulpit emphasis was vital to our young growing congregation.
In 1958 we were assigned our third pastor, Rudy H. Gehman. And unlike our previous pastors, he came to us with many years of experience and this was important for our maturing congregation. His son, Richard Gehman, a college student while his dad was our pastor, later became a veteran missionary to Kenya and an author of several books. In 1961 we were stunned when the Lord suddenly took Pastor Gehman home with a heart attack while he was preparing for the final night of our VBS.
Two months later, Annual Conference appointed Norman Weiss as our fourth pastor. This was our first real experience with a pastor who had young children and we enjoyed seeing them grow and develop their musical talents.
At Annual Conference in 1967 we were informed that our fifth pastor was to be John Dunn. I knew most of the pastors in our denomination at that time and I admit that I was very disappointed when I heard this announcement. He was not known as a great preacher, he had pastored small churches, he wasn't dynamic, and he had a slightly deformed arm. But what I didn't know was that he had a heart for people. Soon we didn't even think about his handicap because people responded to his caring ministry. His influence in Lancaster still is affecting lives today, even though he is now in heaven. After a battle with cancer, Pastor Dunn announced his plans to retire in 1979. Incidentally, the Lord saw fit to heal his cancer and he lived a full life before the Lord took him home in 2009.
On July 13, 1980, thirty years after our first service, we approved a call to David Thomann to be our sixth pastor. With the exception of one year, he has served with us for the second thirty years of our existence. In 1986, he felt the call to become Director of the Pinebrook Bible Conference. During that year we struggled to find a new pastor. I devoted my time to finding weekly replacements for the pulpit, leading the services, and taking care of the church business while our pulpit supply committee interviewed numerous candidates. Thankfully our attendance and giving remained steady during that time and in fact we even gained some new folks. Then, a year later, Pastor Thomann accepted our call to return to Lancaster where he has faithfully served since that time.
In December of 1980 we called Pastor Dunn to return as our Pastor of Visitation and he teamed successfully with our new young pastor until 1987 when he moved to Florida. During the past thirty years we have also had a number of other men who have served in various capacities on our pastoral staff. And we are thankful for their ministry to our church family. Today we have four pastors on our staff.
But as I said originally, one of the strengths of our church has been the strong lay leadership, especially our elders. My father served in this capacity for 58 years. Richard Matthews has now served for 51 years. I served for 34 years, my brother Terry for 31, Monroe Kreisher for 22, Ken Malick for 20, Allen Minnig for 19, and Ted Cundif and Steve Groff for 16. Numerous others have now served for 10 or more years. Various folks have served as deacons, as elected officers and as directors of various ministries.
I thank the Lord that for 60 year He has called wise men and women to serve at Faith, and they have responded to His call. Sound preaching and wise leadership, yielded to the Will of God – a strong formula for God's blessing upon a ministry.
Picture - Joining buildings one and two
Tomorrow - Part 5
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