Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 57 Long time pastorate ends/New Pastorate begins
In 1995, then church historian, Dr. Malcolm Cass, reported that with the new Conference year, Pastor Linwood "Lin" Arnold would begin his 17th year of service to and with the Peoples community. Little was it known that it would be Lin’s last year with us. At the end of the Conference year in 1996 Lin would leave to serve the School Street United Methodist Church in Gorham, Maine. Lin and his wife Judy had both graduated from South Portland High School some years before and were very comfortable with their "home" surroundings. They had served in Newport and South Berwick before coming to Peoples. They first lived in the parsonage on Beverly Street and then moved to the home purchased by the church for a parsonage on Muzzy Street. The old parsonage was sold to Doug and Linda Greer who were long time members of Peoples.
While serving as pastor, Lin and Judy raised four sons all of whom graduated from South Portland High School. In turn each of these young men were valuable members of the Sunday school and Youth Fellowship. Their love of music and sports attracted a number of young folks to the Peoples program especially when the Youth were engaged in putting on remarkably polished musicals in Ellis Hall. Matthew, Tim, Pat and David can all be remembered for their roles in these productions as well as those held at the high school.
Judy was active with Sunday school, serving a stint as the Superintendent of that institution. She was a vibrant member, always with a smile and a good word to say for someone and was involved in several other church activities. She was also a wonderful support for Lin as he ministered to his flock of parishioners.
Lin’s easy going nature and willingness to share leadership were but a few of his attributes. He was a good listener and was able to make his insight useful in church matters. Not only was he active in leading the Peoples flock, but he was also active in the Maine Conference.
Peoples was growing in various ways during this time. The work expected of a pastor became great enough to lead to the hiring of what was sometimes referred to as the Growth Coordinator mentioned in a previous episode. With the new position Lin could continue to develop those skills that he was best at and at the same time allow leadership to expand into areas that had not been covered as well.
Many people who joined the church during Lin’s pastorate had known no other pastor, or at least in an itinerant system, which is what the Methodist system is. Most frequently if one looks at the record of past ministerial appointments the average length of stay would be three to five years. Frederick Olsen who served from 1916-1926, an appointment of 10 years, had previously held the record. Blake Ellis, 1963-1971 and Gene Koelker, 1971-1979 were next in length of service to Peoples.
A major church party ended the formal relationship that the people of the church shared with Lin and his family. As is the case when a pastor does not move far from his original parish some members will follow them to the new church or seek other church locations because, to them, the pastor was the church. Some may have left because they were dissatisfied with other parishioners and yet others may have been dismayed at the appointment process.
Some folks will wait until the new pastor "settles in" to determine whether they will stay or seek spiritual shelter somewhere else.
A transitional service of leadership took place on Wednesday, July 20, 1996 in the sanctuary. Leadership passed from Lin to Frederick "Bill" Shuster. 40 people were present at the service. Bill had most recently served as an Interim Pastor at Thornton Heights and prior to that had had long-term service as Chaplain at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Bill was somewhat older than Lin and brought a new dimension to Peoples. His wife, Jan, became very active in Sunday school and would often perform during the Children’s service with her puppet, a Duck. Young children were rapt in the story when the Duck was present.
After the number of years that we had had with Lin, many folks found adjusting to someone else as pastor difficult. It is this writer’s belief that anyone who would follow in the footsteps of a long-time beloved pastor would have had the same difficulty making adjustments to new styles of pastoral leadership.
Bill was a remarkable man in his own right. Although he was legally blind, Bill, became a good visitor, one of his many assets. There were stories told that while he was unable to drive a car and Jan was not always available for the purpose it would not stop him from visiting folks, sometimes several blocks away from the church! No one that I can recall that have become pastors at Peoples have ever indicated how happy they were in being appointed to Peoples as did Bill. He indicated in his first services that change would come only slowly and with proper calculation and the support of the congregation. He was not one who would make change simply because he was a new pastor. In the first Annual Report produced under Reverend Schuster, he said: "As I see it, the pastor, his or her skills, experience, talents and idiosyncrasies are at the disposal of the church and its ministries. Exactly what of me would be relevant will not be necessarily known until the moment it is needed. Therefore, I try not to pre-decide for the church on how the parish needs to utilize me and what I have to give. The way I, in my pastoral role, can best support the parishes ministry will be an on-going, dynamic negotiation with the whole parish."
From the wording in the preceding quote Bill was a master with words. His sermons were often quite intellectual and could be very stimulatingly related to the messages of the Bible. He was a leader who was serious in letting others share in the operation of the parish. It was he that was most supportive of the "Focus" group that prior to the millennium tried to set some directions for the parish in the early stages of the 21st Century. He shared that leadership with Wanda Stahl who then was serving as Growth Coordinator/Church Family Life and also working on a Doctorate at BU. The work of the Focus group and the booklet it produced did serve as a good directional guide for a few years and still influences the work of the church today through the Mission and Vision statements that were generated from that group work. Wanda’s work with this group did help her in time in writing her Doctoral thesis with the title, "Revitalizing Local Churches: Engaging Congregations in Personal and Social Transformation Through Small Faith Communities".