ADDITIONAL MINISTRIES PASSED ON TO ME

Dan in his first office at Sevenoaks

Since Sevenoaks Alliance Church had grown from about 400 to 2,000 under the leadership of Pastor Bill Goetz, secretaries and pastors were scattered all over the church building.  Rooms which had been designated for other purposes were made into offices.  My first office was tucked away under the balcony of the youth centre.  My desk was immediately under the balcony risers.  Padding had been placed over my desk, lest I hit my head on a riser when getting up from my desk.  My room was quiet, out of the way, with hardly anyone ever walking by my door.  Al Runge was pastor for four months, before he ever found my office.  Sometimes when I needed a 20 minute power nap, I would stretch out on the floor and I was never ever discovered.

I learned early in my years at Sevenoaks that I should never point out a weakness or a need in the church, as I would be asked to fix it.  Here's what happened to me when I did such.  Though we had three youth pastors, giving good leadership to junior high through to and including college and career, no pastor was caring for the young couples. When I shared this with Pastor Al Runge, the senior pastor, he asked me to do something.  My first reaction was that is not part of my ministry.  However, I wanted to obey my boss and since nobody was looking after that group of young couples,  I was determined that I would do something.  I had first hand knowledge that nothing was being done.  I had a son and daughter-in-law and a daughter and son-in-law in that age bracket who were attending Sevenoaks Alliance Church at that time.

So, I contacted a family that had a big heart for the ministry of Sevenoaks to see whether they would be willing to make their home available for a pool party.  They had a swimming pool and a fair size house.  They were more than willing.  Next I secured a print out from the office of all of the couples in the church between the ages of twenty and thirty-five.  There were around one hundred couples and approximately half of them had young children and the other half did not, as yet, have any children.  I then asked a couple of the young wives if they would phone all of these couples and give them a personal invitation to attend this outing.  I invited another young husband and his wife, that were recent graduates of Canadian Bible College and were in Abbotsford visiting with his parents, if he would come and share a devotional thought.  This couple were about to leave to take their first pastoral position.  Seventeen couples came that night and the feedback that I received indicated that it was a success.  Well, I got the ball rolling and as best my memory serves me, someone else took over from that initial evening and ministered to these couples.

There were other ministries that eventually fell into my lap.  It seemed that over the years, I was assigned one or two additional ministries every time a pastor resigned.  Some of those additional tasks had to do with baptisms, baby dedications, communion, etc.  There were other areas assigned to me from time to time.  I was able to enlist some members to assist me in these areas.  These volunteers were a big help, enabling me to multiply my ministry. 

I said, in the previous paragraph, that whenever a pastor resigned, another ministry was added to my list.  The biggest additional ministry placed in my lap, in all of my years at Sevenoaks, was assuming the role of pastor to seniors, when Pastor Harold Collins resigned.  I took over this pastoral position January 1st, 1995.  So my ministry position now consisted of what had been the ministry for two pastors. A pastor for personal ministries was never hired to replace me when I became pastor to seniors, because in January 1995 we had an interim pastor and I am guessing that he did not feel he should act upon it.  So, when Pastor Rick Porter became senior pastor in September 1995, he saw me with these two pastoral ministries and he never hired a replacement for the pastor of personal ministries.  So I continued with my 57 varieties, not exactly 57, but a great variety of ministries until I retired.  When I retired my responsibilities looked much different than my initial job description.

Dan giving Dan Jr. some advice

I was rewarded with Harold Collins office, when he retired.  It was more than twice the size of my previous office. Of course I had at least twice the jobs, so why not a bigger office?  After this photo was taken, Pastor Rick saw to it that my office was spruced up with new furniture and new carpet.  I was being spoiled.

I did not have my own secretary during my ten years on staff, but I was able to have two or three secretaries that would help me out with some paper work and phoning, as needed.  I was also very thankful for the many volunteers working closely with me, plus my dear wife, Leona, who faithfully and cheerfully worked together with me.  

Since we arrived at Sevenoaks, in 1990, when they were without a senior pastor, I had opportunity to preach  quite often.  That was repeated when Al Runge left and prior to Rick Porter's coming.  In each of these transition periods, the pastoral staff took turns preaching for most of the time. I had figured that when I agreed to go to Sevenoaks that I would have very little opportunity to preach.  With several months between senior pastors, I had many opportunities, plus the occasional preaching opportunity in succeeding years.