Longtime pastor saying good-bye

After 38 years behind the pulpit, Pastor Jerry Buchanan is saying good-bye, retiring from the First Baptist Church of Columbia Falls.

Buchanan is only the second pastor to lead the church in its 75 years, which it also celebrates this year.

The church was founded by Pastor Ralph Werner in 1945, with no congregation. Werner didn’t even have the $10 to pay the moving charge.

Today the church has about 75 members and a noteworthy facility, complete with a multi-purpose gym and gathering place and a basketbal court, all built without a single penny of debt.

Buchanan said his preaching philosophy is simple.

“You just preach the truth and it will make an impact,” he said in a recent interview.

He noted preachers just can’t pick what they like from the Bible, they have to adhere to the entire word. Some people don’t like that.

He said he came to know the Lord at age 23.

“Before that, I was a mess,” he said.

In today’s world, he objects to, but doesn’t condemn, churches that put their songs to modern rock music to draw crowds. It’s contrary to the Baptist church’s conservative values.

The church adheres to original hymns and the music that accompanies them, “not to sound like the bar down the street,” Buchanan notes.

Over the years he’s done thousands of sermons, of course. One of his favorite books of the Bible is Psalms. Psalm 34:8 comes to mind.

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him,” it reads.

Another is 27:1

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Buchanan notes that the old testament speaks to Israel, while the New Testament speaks to us more directly through the teachings of Jesus Christ.

One of his favorite passages comes from the book of Matthew.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” it reads.

Buchanan was a long-distance runner in high school and still enjoys hiking today. He recalled taking youth groups of young men up the mountains of the Swan Range near the church’s Lake Blaine Bible Camp.

Having stood on more than one mountaintop over the years, he is still awed by the site. Growing up in Lewis, Kansas, they used to drive hours to climb the mountains of Colorado.

“How can you say there’s no God?” Buchanan said. “The heavens declare it. Yet people reject it.”

At age 70, he still gets out and hikes a few times a year, “whether I need to, or not.”

Over the years there’s been some lighter moments as he’s preached. Early in his career he recalled a bird in Kansas that swooped through one window, flew through the sanctuary and flew out another window.

One time in Columbia Falls he recalled giving a prayer only to have someone flush the toilet from the nursery upstairs during the moment of silence.

He calls the Bible the “owner’s manual” of life. It teaches how to have a successful family, government and church, he said,

He thanked his congregation for his success.

“We’ve got a great bunch of folks in our church to endure me for this long,” he joked.

The congregation had a celebration for Buchanan and his family on Sunday and celebrated the 75th anniversary as well.

He said he plans to stay in Columbia Falls with his wife, Debbie. They have three grown children, Kim, Tim, and Laurice and eight grandchildren. They plan to travel more and visit them, as they all live out of state.

The church has started a search for a new pastor, but admittedly, the search has been slowed by the coronavirus crisis, Buchanan noted.

He still may have to give another sermon or two in the interim, retirement or not.

The book of Psalms will be there to help.