For the third time in seven years, the College United Methodist Church in Philomath is welcoming a new pastor. The Rev. Lyndon “Duff” Gorle succeeded Jim Pierce in the position this week and his first Sunday service will be coming up this weekend.
“It’s exciting but I’m feeling — trepidation is a strong word but you wonder how they’re going to be, how they will respond, what it will feel like,” Gorle said during a conversation Wednesday in the church’s sanctuary.
The Philomath congregation numbers 75 to 80 in all, Gorle said, but he’s told that attendance is more around the 20 to 35 range. Most churches have witnessed a post-pandemic trend of fewer people attending in-person services.
“We’re blessed to be a loving, small church family and we’re looking to grow,” Gorle said. “We’re not into the fancy bells and whistles and we aren’t a trendy church; we have a liturgical background.
“For example, if you come to services, you’re not going to have a paid worship band or something … it’s going to be a mixture of hymns and some contemporary songs but reading of the scripture multiple times in the service,” he added.
Bill Seagren served as the College United Methodist Church pastor for 16 years before leaving in 2017 to perform overseas mission work. An interim pastor, Michael Gregor, was sent to the church for two years before Pierce arrived in 2019. Pierce moved on to perform those same duties at Methodist churches in Baker City and Haines.
Gorle, 68, previously served as pastor at Foothills Community Church in Chandler, Arizona, leaving that position at the end of last year. However, his primary background is in the Free Methodist Church, where he formerly held a position as a senior pastor in Phoenix.
He said the Free Methodists and United Methodists “pretty much have the same theology and doctrine but a little bit of a difference in practice here and there.”
The Philomath assignment will be his first with the United Methodists.
The Philomath church received word of Gorle’s appointment in March. Bishop Cedrick D. Bridgeforth, who oversees the United Methodist Church’s Western Jurisdiction, made the appointment. The Western Jurisdiction covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Guam and other Pacific territories.
Pastors go through a very thorough process before the bishop and cabinet make decisions on where to send someone. Prior to an appointment, it is the norm for candidates for a particular church to be sent on site for an interview.
Gorle said he never really went through an interview with members of the Philomath church and only met with them for an introductory meeting.
“They appoint us for one year at a time … you re-up or they send you somewhere else if it’s not a great fit,” Gorle said.
Gorle, who was born in South Africa and lived in places like Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and England, came to the United States at age 19. He enrolled at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
After three years, Gorle started touring with gospel music groups, most of the time with the Heritage Singers — a well-known music ministry founded in Portland before relocating to Placerville, California. He finished his bachelor’s degree work at Eastern Washington.
“I felt a calling to the ministry as a young boy,” Gorle said. “My dad was a pastor and an academic in South Africa and then later in Australia, where he was an academic dean at a university in Sydney in his final 20 years of work life.”
On a side note, his grandfather served England during World War I and was one of two people from southern Africa to earn the Victoria Cross — known as the highest and most prestigious decoration that is awarded for valor. He returned to his home country of Rhodesia — now known as Zimbabwe — and served in the country’s parliament.
Education was highly valued in his family — his brother earned a doctorate in England.
“I tried to avoid the ministry thing … I went and did an MBA at one point,” he said. “But it’s hard to get away from something that’s more of a calling than just a choice. It just feels like it’s the right thing for me.”
Gorle’s wife, Denise, works in the Portland area where a 15-year-old daughter is going to school. One of their adult daughters and her three children are also living in the home. As a result, he said he has a sort of “hybrid situation” on living arrangements.
“I’ll probably be down here like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then come back down Saturday and Sunday,” he said, mentioning the use of the church’s parsonage. “So there will be a little bit of back-and-forth commuting.”
The College United Methodist Church traces its roots back to Philomath’s beginnings. Formerly known as the United Brethren Church, a group of pioneers established Philomath College in 1867. The congregation met in the college building for nearly a century until the current church building was constructed in 1964.
Welcome to the Philomath community, Rev. Gorle!
Pastor Gorle certainly has a very interesting life story. I hope the congregation appreciates that. Ed and I would certainly love to hear him speak, but we live in southern California. We belong to the Corona United Methodist Church. Ed grew up in Philomath where his family attended the Christian Church in Corvallis.