He had served as pastor, Minister of Education, and had served several deteriorating churches. When the Search Committee discovered Stan, he had just completed an unusual Call as taxi cab driver minister, reminiscent of the old Methodist clergymen who had moved by horse on the American frontier.

   During his long career the Keaches had not avoided controversies. Lola was a social worker and had developed a very successful ministry at Walpole State Penitentiary. Stan loved music of all kinds and often included musical pieces in his sermons.

   Stan understood the timing and his own grief well and gave a sermon that greatly deepened our own understanding of the most important Sunday of our Christian year.

   During Stan’s ministry, the longest term of any minister in our Church’s history, 64 new members joined, many in direct response to one of his many visits and obvious concern for all people. Stan was the driving force in raising our membership to 125, the most in all our history.

   Stanley Keach had the rare courage to take daring stands on social and political issues, but he always did so with humility and the sense that no-one can know the truth or God’s position with certainty. That kind of faith fostered an openness and willingness to expand our mental and spiritual boundaries to explore new possibilities. When he was asked what his proudest achievement was in Deering, Stan explained it was the time he had invited some of our more conservative members to hear Rev. Jessie Jackson speak. He wanted, he said, not to change their minds, “but [for them] to be exposed to views and stands on issues different from their own.”

   We also remember Stan’s wife Lola, who was as dedicated to social justice as her husband. She had served in a long-running prison ministry and infused Deering with her energy and positive attitude. Lola died in 1990 and a year later Stan married Alice. Alice plunged into her new life in Deering, and with her sharp mind, ready wit and devotion to social justice, soon won over the church membership and many others in Deering. She was a genuine companion to Stan and brought great happiness and meaning to him in his last years.

   After Stan retired in 1993, he very much wanted the church membership to vote him to Minister Emeritus status. For whatever reason this decision was long in coming, but happily Jane Spragg and Margaret Seymour delivered the citation to him as he lay dieing. They sat on his bed as Jane read out the words. According to Alice Keach, “Stan could not speak, but by the faint smile he was able to raise, we knew that he had understood.”

   During Stan’s last days his brother Rev. Richard Keach, Rev Carlson the N.H. Conference Minister, the venerable Rev. Dan Poling, our own Rev. Joyce Lovejoy, among many others made the pilgrimage to say good-bye to this great man. When Stan Keach retired in 1993 and died three years later, we lost one of the most inspirational ministers in our more than 200-year history.

   In 1994 the new Search Committee, chaired by Sherry Phinney and Chris Hague, set out on another adventure to find a new pastor for our Church. After an extensive round of reviewing applications and interviews, in 1995 the committee recommended Joyce Lovejoy and she was unanimously voted in as the new minister.

   Joyce, like Bill and Stan before her, had worked in other careers before finally responding to God’s call to become a gospel minister. She had worked as a teacher and computer specialist in business before attending Andover-Newton Theological Seminary.

   When Joyce came to Deering, she had the difficult task of following one of the most beloved of our ministers. However, with a very strong personality and a deep sense of faith, she quickly established herself as a strong presence and brought us a different theology. Many had called Stan Keach “almost a Unitarian,” while Joyce brought a stronger focus on Jesus Christ and the eternal forgiveness of God.

   During Rev. Lovejoy’s tenure Deering’s rapid population growth slackened and our membership dipped toward a hundred members. However, after the usual pessimism and frantic efforts to raise more money, the Church made its budgets every year. Joyce was instrumental in attracting a number of new families, several, like the Nases, Robinson’s and later Griests, Rivera’s and Dodsons, with young children.

   Many of us have watched these babies grow into school children and beyond, and their delightful smiles remind us of our own long-ago childhoods and the gift they bring to us with their weekly presence. During the Children’s sermons, we often sit in awe as profound questions and insights pour from their innocent minds.

   Joyce Lovejoy came to our congregation with energy and an approach to organization that surpassed any leader we had before. She instructed us in the ways of the computer and communication with each other that has left a lasting impression on us. One person said, "We are organized so well, now, thanks to Joyce, that we can run on autopilot for awhile." The click of her heels as she entered the hall or sanctuary challenged us to share innovative ways to express Sunday worship while still demonstrating the value of traditional liturgy in the new member ceremony and baptism.

   Joyce shared with Stanley a commitment to social activism and encouraged our members to get involved with social reforms. One example was our congregation’s rapid response to request from the Indian State of Gujarat for aid after the terrible earthquake in 1991. The membership generously raised $1,500.00 to contribute to relief efforts there. The Committee to move our church to adopt an Open and Affirming Policy also got under way during Joyce’s ministry.

   Joyce was dedicated to ministering to the sick and troubled. She religiously visited those in the hospital or recovering at home. She patiently listened to people’s problems and always offered her quiet support. She brought a passion and excitement to her preaching and no one who attended church during her tenure could doubt Pastor Joyce’s deeply felt faith.

   Joyce’s pastorship came to a premature conclusion in 2002 when she announced that health reasons were forcing her to leave her work with us. After Joyce’s departure, Rev. Janice Shepherd bounded into our midst, with her infectious enthusiasm and unorthodox services and sermons, to serve as our interim pastor. Jan was something of a jazz minister, often improvising as she went along. She turned sermons into discussions, debates and constantly urged us to be the Church that we were meant to be.

   She also wanted us to spread the news of our own successes and assets. She ordered two large signs announcing the Church’s presence to place along the highway, persuaded us to paint the side entrance door blue to be more inviting, and scheduled a number of pot luck suppers to promote community and explore new ideas for our future. She commissioned a long time line that traced the Church’s past two plus centuries and scheduled historic moments as part of the Sunday services.

   The World Service and Prayer Committee, in co-operation with the Smith Church, sponsored a series of talks on Islam and the background to the rise of terrorism. These programs attracted from 50 to 80 participants. This committee also sponsored two programs at the Deering Town Hall, one on the War in Iraq and a second on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. These public affairs evenings were the first such discussions in the Town Hall in many decades.

   Pastor Jan was warmly affectionate and under her ministry there was a noticeable increase in hugs and kisses, and she was known to shed a tear when the Holy Spirit overtook her during sermons.

   Jan was one of a kind and another unique person in a long line of unusual pastors who have served our church.

   Shortly after Pastor Joyce’s departure, the congregation selected a Search Committee to seek a new minister. The Committee asked Church members to complete two questionnaires and participate in one of eight small house meetings and a pot luck supper to discuss our Church’s future.

   The two main goals that emerged from these gatherings were the goal of engaging a full-time pastor supported by our own financial contributions and becoming a more active presence in Deering.

   At first, in her honest and straightforward way, Barbara informed the committee that she was almost sure she would return to California where she had worked so many years and where her two grown children lived.

   No-one in the Church knows exactly why she changed her mind, but we are grateful that she did. Swapping warm and sunny Los Angeles for cold and rural Deering remains a divine mystery.

   Pastor Barbara gave her candidacy sermon on October 5, 2004, and at the meeting of the congregation soon after the membership voted unanimously to offer her the Call to become our pastor. Pastor Barbara agreed to begin her work with us in November. She and her husband Neill moved to the old Loveren farm on East Deering Road, originally the home of the men who built our church.

   Barbara describes her theology as rooted in service to others through love. She writes, “For me love is the centerpiece of my theology. I believe that God is love: ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’” (1 John 4: 7-8)

   At Pastor Barbara’s glorious Ordination in Portland, Maine, the Search Committee, on behalf of our membership, presented Rev. Currie with a pewter cross and stated: “We called Pastor Barbara to be our minister because she is a person of deep and abiding faith who will bring forth in us greater faith, hope and commitment. We called her because she will help us move our church to the center of Deering’s community life as we work toward justice for all in these troubled times. Most of all, we have called Barbara because she embodies and teaches us that love expressed in service is the cornerstone of our faith.” Pastor Barbara was officially installed as our minister on February 8, 2004.

   Since beginning her ministry with us, Pastor Barbara has plunged into her duties with efficiency and gusto. Her sermons enlarge our understanding of God and challenge us to live up to our professed words in a complex and global world.

   She is continuing the long tradition of tending the sick and troubled and has actively visited with some of our absent members whom we dearly miss. Pastor Barbara has also called on people in need and responded to their urgent pleas for help and has invited our neighbors to visit our Church services on Sundays.

   As our Church enters its 225^th year, we can look back on both times of expansion and growth and dark days of mere survival.

   But we also know that faith endures in good times and bad and that God’s call is constant, even if we willfully block our ears. We also know that we are privileged to share our lives in service to others and with a remarkable membership who unfailingly manifest concern, kindness and active support for one another and for the wider world community.

   As a Congregational church, totally dependent on the commitment and generosity of its members, we can truly say the future of our church is, with God’s grace as prime mover, in our own hands.