Minister in the Making

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dad was hitting his stride with the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in Ashland, Ohio. The church was active, growing, healthy, and seemed to be avoiding some of the problems that some churches face. Dad was happy, too, as he felt good about his family life, spiritual life, and work life. But even as all was going well, Dad was already making choices that would lead to difficulty and trouble in the years ahead.

In this episode, Dad will talk about church culture and church habits and how they lead to church growth. He’ll also talk about how he chose to manage his own time and workload (and how he seemed to think that he could find a way to work through any limits). Dad will also take us behind the closed doors of elders meetings. What goes on there anyway (and what is the minister’s job when he sits in that room)?

Do you have a question you'd like to ask Dad in a future episode? Email it to [email protected].

To stay up to date on Dad's cancer treatments and health, visit his CaringBridge page here. 

In another episode, Dad said that everything was going well for his ministry with the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in the mid-1980s. But at home, Dad and Mom were going through one of the hardest and scariest times of their lives. In 1984, tests revealed that their one-year old daughter, Bethy, had Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disease that was the #1 killer of children and young adults at that time. On top of the overwhelming confusion, fear, and frustration, Dad and Mom had to face the financial hardship that came from multiplying medical bills and trying to buy their first home. When families in the church face this kind of hardship, they turn to their ministers. But where do ministers turn when they’re the ones going through hell?

Do you want to ask Dad a specific question in a future episode? Email it to [email protected]. 

You can follow Dad's cancer treatments at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/travisirwin2

In the mid-1980s, Dad was finding his groove as a minister and as part of the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in Ashland, Ohio. While Church of Christ congregations nationwide were starting to shrink, the Steele Avenue Church of Christ was starting what would turn out to be two decades of trend-busting growth. How did this conservative congregation in small town Ohio manage to do what so many other congregations could not do in the 1980s? Dad will tell you what he thinks. We’ll also talk about the time that a woman in the congregation campaigned to get Dad fired and how he handled that situation and recovered from it. We’ll talk about how much education and training Church of Christ ministers need to do their jobs. I’ll also ask Dad if he thinks the things that grew the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in the 1980s will still work today.

Study after study, survey after survey, shows that ministers have a hard time forming and keeping friendships in their congregations. On one hand, ministers and their families can never quite escape feeling like they are different from everyone else in the congregation, like they are expected to be a little better than human. On the other hand, church members often only show ministers their best side. The majority of ministers in the United States report that they feel lonely. Perhaps that is why so many ministers burn out, drop out, or flame out because of exhaustion, failing marriages, loss of faith, or personal sin. For their own health and well-being (and the health and well-being of the congregations they serve), ministers need good friends. 

In this episode, both my dad (Travis Irwin) and mom (Debbie Irwin) talk about their experiences forming and keeping good friendships in the congregations they served for over 45 years of ministry. The inspiration for this episode is John Kerr, a member of the Steele Avenue Church of Christ who befriended Dad on the very first day of his ministry to that congregation. Dad and Mom talk about how their friendship with John and his wife, Jan, set the pattern and the tone for their entire 22 1/2 year ministry to the Steele Avenue Church of Christ. 

Dad and Mom will also share their insights on what it is like for ministers and their families to make friends in the congregations they serve and what boundaries need to be in place to keep those friendships "safe." I ask them what they wish that regular church folks would know and understand about their ministers and their families.

This is a good conversation about the importance of friendships to ministers. 

To keep track of Dad's battle with cancer and his latest treatments, please visit https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/travisirwin2.

Dad talks about what it was like to move to Ashland, Ohio, and start his 22 ½-year ministry with the Steele Avenue Church of Christ. How was Dad a different man and different minister starting with his third church at age 31 than when he started ministries at churches at age 24 and age 30? Dad will talk about what made the Steele Avenue Church of Christ really special as a place to do ministry. Finally, he will talk about what congregations and ministers should do for each other to get off to a strong start.

You can submit your own questions for Dad and I will ask them on a future episode. Simply email them to [email protected].

For updates on how Dad is living with cancer the second time around, visit caringbridge.org. 

In the 12 months between the summers of 1980 and 1981, Dad resigned from two different churches. The second resignation came after nine months in which "things just didn't work out" and Dad and Mom grew more unhappy in Cadiz, Ohio. But what would they do and where would they go next? Would any church even want to look at Dad after he abruptly left two congregations in less than one year?

Then, out of the blue, a stranger called Dad from Ashland, Ohio, where the Steele Avenue Church of Christ had problems, too. The congregation was dealing with the difficulties that came from firing two ministers in two years and being rejected by the minister it chose to succeed them. 

As if someone, somewhere scripted it, Dad and the Steele Avenue Church of Christ came together at just the right time. 

In this episode, Dad talks about how it all happened and what it all meant. Today's story is a family favorite that my sisters and I heard over and over as we grew into adulthood. Dad and Mom often bring it up as an example of how God is always looking out for us (even when it feels like he's not there) and that his timing is always just right.  

At the end of this episode, Dad will also talk about his recent cancer diagnosis and the low visibility of the days ahead. At the time of recording, the only information we had is that Dad's cancer from five years ago returned and is all over his body. 

Please keep Dad and our family in your prayers. You may keep up with Dad's cancer progress at his CaringBridge webpage. 

In this episode, we start the difficult task of unpacking Dad’s 22 ½ years as the minister to the Steele Avenue Church of Christ in Ashland, Ohio.

Most Church of Christ ministers work with one congregation for an average of three years. Dad worked with the Steele Avenue Church of Christ seven times longer than that. During his 22 ½ years there, Dad preached and taught more than 5,000 lessons and sermons and the congregation almost doubled in size. By the time Dad left in January 2004, the congregation was bursting at the seams and flying high from a successful campaign to raise funds for a new building. What went so right that Dad's work with the Steele Avenue Church of Christ lasted so long and led to such growth? What went wrong that Dad felt like he had to walk away from the congregation just as things seemed to be peaking?   

In this episode, we'll start the long process of mining the meaning in Dad's long love story with Ashland, Ohio. We'll begin by listening to Dad talk about three of his milestone moments: 1) His last sermon at the Steele Avenue Church of Christ on January 4, 2004, 2) The "high water mark" of his life and work in Ashland, Ohio (around the early 1990s), and 3) His first sermon at the Steele Avenue Church of Christ on August 30, 1981.

In this episode, we take a break from the usual format to take one last look at Dad’s life and work in the 1970s. I’m calling this our “1970s lightning round.” The questions are quick and cover everything from Dad’s favorite movies and music in the 1970s to how he voted in presidential elections to what church controversies kept him on his toes to what lessons he learned and wants to pass on. I ask him questions like:

This one is fun and moves fast and ends with some really good advice. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

The episode picks up in Cadiz, Ohio, in the summer of 1980. Dad was the new minister at the Church of Christ congregation in this one-stoplight coal mining town on the West Virginia border. Almost as soon as Dad started his ministry in Cadiz, he started counting the days until he could move on from there. What happened? Why did Dad want to leave Cadiz before he even unpacked his office at the church? Was it something Dad did (or didn’t do), or was it the church and town itself? This episode is about knowing when it's time to leave. 

This episode starts with Dad’s knee-jerk decision to quit his ministry at the West Side Church of Christ in Akron, Ohio, in the summer of 1980. His mishandling of both his resignation and the situation that followed forced him to take whatever job he could get as fast as he could get it. That job turned out to be minister to the Church of Christ in Cadiz, Ohio. At first glance, moving to Cadiz to work with the church looked like it could turn out to be a good situation, but almost as soon as Dad arrived, all signs started pointing to bad times ahead.