Pastor Johnson is still amazed at how, “God took a church janitor and made him the pastor,” offering this as an example of what God did in his life to inspire others. What a privilege it is to pastor in the community where he grew up.
Each day, he is building the Congregational Church through his relationships with people and his involvement in community programs such as the West End Business Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Food Bank, and Forks Community Hospital.
Warren, who has attended the church regularly since 1985, felt called to ministry in 2008. That year, the church was down to six members with $20,000 in the bank, in a building with a diesel furnace, plaster falling off the walls, and single-paned windows. He became a lay pastor, was licensed in November 2014, and was ordained on September 21, 2024. He was the first pastor ordained at the church in 122 years.
“Small churches need bi-vocational ministers they can afford to pay,” he said. Warren worked in the woods industry until he was 30, cut meat until he was 40, studied, and then taught computer classes at Peninsula College until he was 50. Soon after he was called to ministry, he became a corrections officer with the Corrections Department. Sixteen years later, in 2023, he retired to complete his ordination requirements and focus on the ministry.
The church was founded in 1902 and moved into its current building in 1955. The church then had 300 members but split and half left when the church voted to join the UCC, Warren said. Others joined Lutheran, Bible, Methodist, and Disciple churches. The rest of the decline came from deaths.
Now the church has 35 members with 40/50 attending worship and 16 attending a Sunday Bible study before church in recent weeks.
“Since 2008, we have put $400,000 and a labor of love into the church, adding a heat pump, a new roof, double-paned windows plus several coats of paint, new lighting in the sanctuary, and remodeled bathrooms. This summer, volunteers helped put in a new lawn and sprinkler system,” he said. “Now it is fixed up and used every day of the week.”
“Being across from the high school we saw the need for a food pantry to help supplement the food for kids going to school. The food pantry is emptied daily by families in need, homeless people, high school students who come after school, and high school students who are couch surfing and take food to families they are staying with.”
In late September, the food bank received a $6,150 grant from the Haller Foundation to stock food. It spends about $500 a month for food, said Warren, who is also president of the food bank board. “In November, we filled 400 food baskets, and 374 families received them for Thanksgiving meal,” he said. “We usually serve 330 families a month.”
The church building/fellowship hall is available free for activities, groups, and events.
We are the church that does the most in the community, so many see us as the community church,” he said. Lots of nonprofits meet at the church which includes the Grief Support Group, Soroptimist Women’s Group, West End Business Association, Clallam County Emergency Management, Piecemakers Quilt Club, Senior Lunch every second Wednesday, Volunteer Fairs, Santa’s Breakfast with Kids, free movies and more. “If an indigent person dies and there is no money for loved ones to bury him or her, we sponsor the service,” Warren continued.
The church recently fed about 350 people for its annual Harvest Dinner, which raised $3,800 for nonprofits that meet at the church.
Forks is a town of 3,000 people with 13 churches in the surrounding area.
“Many who do not go to church consider us their church because we welcome all, no matter where they are on their life journey,” he said. “Many visit, come back and then attend regularly, some parishioners are glad that we are a liberal church or some are glad that we are a conservative church but our focus is on building a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said.
Warren also builds relationships on Thursdays as the hospital chaplain, praying with staff at 8 a.m., visiting acute care patients at 8:30 a.m., on Thursdays, and then leading a Bible study for residents at the long-term care facility at 10 a.m. “At FCH Long Term Care we sing lots of the old hymns and then share the same bible study we do at church. I don’t know who gets fed the most the residents/staff or us leading the study.”
“Sunday is for God and God’s Word. Sermons are to lift spirits and feed people,” he said. “This is my fifth time through the lectionary. I have a file of my sermons, so I review them to keep offering fresh ideas.”
Much of Warren’s time is spent counseling people, “People need someone to listen to them.” With all the tech, people spend too much time on their phones. I meet with people face to face,” he said. “I help people deal with grief to move them from letting their loss consume them so their grief grows smaller so they can move on in life.”
“Grief may be from losing a job or a traumatic event, not just death. If people do not deal with their small traumas, a big trauma can overwhelm them,” said Warren, who has had training in grief, trauma, and elder abuse counseling.
“I love being a small-town pastor, but I can’t go to a store often, because someone is always coming up and asking me to pray for or with them,” Warren explained.
Now 68, he said people sometimes ask how long he will be a pastor. His response is “When the Lord is done with me.”
For information, call 360-374-9382 or email wrjfork@hotmail.com
Reprinted with permission from Pacific Northwest Conference United Church News © December 2024
https://www.pncuccnews.org
