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A new beginning

A pastor endures physical and emotional pain, finally finds inspiration and now will start his own church.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published September 16, 2006

EAST LAKE - The pain in his back started 15 years ago when the Rev. Dennis Williams was 34 and working as a minister at a United Methodist church in Cincinnati.

In the years since, that pain has led Williams in and out of operating rooms and to other changes in life. The latest will come Sunday, when Williams launches a new church, Calvary Christian Fellowship, in East Lake.

To understand how Williams got where he is, though, we have to go back to the day he was driving his new Pontiac Grand Am down the street. A teenager pulled out of a gas station and broadsided him, spinning his car around three times.

The car was destroyed, and Williams was laid up for six weeks with three herniated disks in his back.

He moved to Pinellas County in 2000 and had his first surgery in 2001, but the pain came back. When he could no longer stand the agony, he underwent another surgery last year to fuse part of his spine.

But as soon as he came out of the fog of anesthesia, he realized his real suffering was just beginning, although at the time he could not articulate it.

He discovered that during the operation, he had suffered a stroke that left him numb on his right side, blind in his right eye and without the ability to speak.

And although the church he had co-founded in 2003, New Purpose Community Church, provided a steady income during his recuperation, he felt he no longer belonged there and left. New Purpose has gone on, and now meets at the Muvico theaters on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor.

Then last year, his wife divorced him.

All he had left was his little black cocker spaniel, Casey, and a small apartment.

This is a test, he thought.

"God didn't cause it," Williams said, "but indeed he used it. He used it to help me grow. It tested my faith."

When he started to feel stronger in February, Williams began attending Calvary Chapel in St. Petersburg. He came away inspired by the church's "systematic study of the Scriptures honoring and giving priority to the word of God," he said.

He was so uplifted by the messages he heard at the interdenominational church, he decided to start his own. He calls it Calvary Christian Fellowship, and the first service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday at the East Lake Professional Center, at 3488 East Lake Road across from McDonald's.

"It's a start," Williams said. "I don't know what to expect."

He said God led him to Calvary Chapel, one of more than 1,000 such churches in North America and around the world.

A pastor named Chuck Smith started the first Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif., in 1965 to minister to those, especially hippies, who had been rejected by more mainline churches. Calvary Chapels are not governed by any church body. Each has its own style.

Williams can't wait to start preaching on Sunday.

"I get energized and supercharged," he said. "I feel like I'm in my element."

* * *

Williams, 49, was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio, north of Cincinnati.

He earned a bachelor's degree at Wilmington College in Ohio and a master's of divinity from Emory University.

He served at various United Methodist churches until 2000, when he became the senior pastor at North Bay Community Church in Clearwater. Three years later, he started New Purpose Community Church with Jim Sisk.

On Wednesday evening, he led a Bible study for his new church in his cozy first-floor apartment in Palm Harbor.

The group studied Genesis, Chapter 7, and discussed why Noah built his ship and how he got an estimated 45,000 animals on it.

"I wish the snakes had been left out," Williams said with a laugh. "Just my opinion."

Jan Webster, 82, chuckled.

She has followed Williams since she met him at North Bay Community Church.

"He is a marvelous teacher," she said. "He has brought me so far like no other minister I've ever had. I have been in the hospital five times since November. He came all those times. He said, 'That's my job.' That's why I'm here."

Glenna Watters, 64, agreed. She said she has tried other churches, but "they didn't feed me the way I needed to be fed." She said she was so unhappy that she had considered suicide. "But I have now found a safe place to land," she said.

Eileen Schulte can be reached at schulte@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4153.

[Last modified September 16, 2006, 06:21:21]