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Our History
Humble beginnings
Our story begins in 1932, when a little church building was built in Bodega Bay by local contractor Jean Robertson. The church, which seated about 60 people, was owned by the Methodist Church in Petaluma, but was to be used by the local people along the coast. Prior to the church being built, there was no place to worship, but there was an active women’s Bible study among the local coastal rancher women. The building wasn’t put to much use in those early years, and within five years, the doors were closed.
Missionaries arrive
In 1937 a missionary named Carl Jungkeit from the American Sunday School Union (ASSU) came to the area and held a Sunday school class in the building each week. This class was active for 17 years, and many members of the local community attended what was now called the Bodega Bay Union Sunday School.
A second birth
In early 1953, Darrel and Margie Hurst, apple ranchers from the Sebastopol area, started attending and working in the Sunday school. A decision was made to start a church, and on June 25, 1953, Bodega Bay Union Church was incorporated as an independent, non-denominational church. The “Union” in the name came from the American Sunday School Union, which is now known as the American Missionary Fellowship (AMF). The ASSU assisted with the incorporation, and even held a position on the church board for a while, but the church was in fact a totally independent body. Even after more than five decades, the Bodega Bay Church is still affiliated with this organization.
Heroes of the faith
Through the years that followed, the little church had numerous dedicated pastors, Sunday school teachers, and other workers, some of them working in the church for many years. In the early 1960s, Pastor Earl Lackey came to the church and served as pastor for nine years. In 1965, Earl and Helen Nevins arrived in Bodega Bay on a fishing boat and started serving in the church in various capacities for several years. When Rev. Lackey left the ministry, the Nevins’ became the pastors as a husband and wife team, a post they held through the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Through this time the Nevins’ served the Lord faithfully by serving those in the community. Their names are still fondly etched in the minds of many, many people in the Bodega Bay area. The Nevins’ retired from active ministry in 1992.
The vision
In the 1980s Earl Nevins had the vision to construct a new church building. The congregation was still very small and had little income, so it appeared to be an impossibility. But with God, all things are possible. Someone donated a piece of land in the Bodega Bay area to the Nevins’, and they signed it over to the church. The sale from the land brought enough money to start the initial building process, which was begun in 1993. The process was slow, but those who followed after the Nevins’ continued in faith with the building project. At long last, on Easter of 2004, the doors of the new building were opened!
Into the new millennium
Several pastors filled the pulpit from the time of the Nevins’ retirement in 1992 until 2001. In 2001, after the previous pastor left to work with another Christian organization, long time members and elders Jerry Lites and Pat Parks filled the pulpit, taking turns at the job. A few months later, when the church formed a pastor search committee, Jerry and Pat were presented with a document typed on church stationary. It was a request from the entire congregation that Jerry and Pat consider becoming the co-pastors of the church. The paper was signed unanimously by the church members. After consideration and prayer, they both accepted the offer, and the congregation officially voted them in as pastors in March 2001. Both Jerry and Pat were still working at other jobs at the time: Jerry as a Lieutenant with the Sebastopol Police Department and Pat as Chief of Police of the Petaluma Police Department. They have both since retired, and are now able to serve more fully in the Lord’s work in the church. There is no indication that either of them will be leaving any time soon.
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