Final service Sunday for First Presbyterian Church in Worland

Sixty-nine years after the First Presbyterian Church in Worland organized the church will be closing its doors.

The formal closing will be on Nov. 30; however a closing worship service for the community to say its goodbyes will be 3 p.m. this Sunday afternoon. The PSALM Choir will sing and dignitaries from the Presbytery and local churches will participate in the service, according to Rev. Sherry Stottler, former interim pastor and now attendee and leader of the congregation.

The PSALM Choir rehearsed in the church for all 20 years of their existence.

Founded in 1954, with 29 members, the church met in until they began planning a facility at 403 South 15th Street across from the hospital in 1956. The church building was dedicated on Nov. 23, 1958.

In 2009 the church celebrated a remodel of the church facility with a Dedication Day on June 14, 2009.

The dedication program included an excerpt from a letter by JR McKibben that was placed in a time capsule at the church on Nov. 23, 1958.

McKibben wrote, “Today we are dedicating this beautiful House of Worship for our Master. It is a day of great rejoicing and satisfaction, terminating from the meeting of a small group of people four years ago. This was a group of determined people with lots of Hope and Faith in the future generations. So with this in mind I write this letter with great happiness and heartfelt satisfaction and say “God Be Ever With You.”

The rolls show the church has had more than 770 members worship and work in the community throughout the years.

Members of the congregation have been doctors, dentists, nurses, veterinarians, teachers, principals, coaches, part of Bureau of Land Management and Pepsi, actors, singers, rodeo officials, rodeo princesses.

Members have led and been on boards for the hospital, the museum, HeadStart, Special Olympics, FFA, FHA, Senior Center, Cloud Peak Counseling, Scouts, Kiwanis, Rotary, Elks, Eagles, VFW, Bureau of Land Management, firefighters, Christmas Basket program, Worland Ministerial Association, Worland Shooting Complex, state hunter safety, and more.

Fifteen ministers have served the church, many of whom the community will remember:

Rev. Gayle Prentice, 1950-1961

Rev. Wesley Jones, 1961-1963

Rev. Donald Cooper, 1963-1969

Rev. Harold Irwin, 1969-1971

Rev. Wilber Dierking , 1971-1972, interim

Rev. Errol Ford, 1972-1974

Rev. Roy Altman, 1974-1981

Rev. R. Nelson Buswell, 1982, interim

Rev. Randall Pence, 1982-1984

Rev. James Ludowise, 1984-1985 interim

Rev. Bill Foster Jr., 1985-2004

Rev. Sherry Stottler, 2004-2006 interim

Rev. Andrea Hinderaker, 2006-2008

Rev Sherry Stottler, 2008-2009 interim

Rev. Tom Kittleman, 2011-2013 parish associate

Rev. Guy Helms, 2009-2019

The congregation has been without a full-time pastor since May 2019.

“We’ve had wonderful pulpit supply preachers since that time with Rev. Tim Trippel, Kim and Lisa Daniels-Kielmeyer, Frank Ley, plus our own members,” Stottler said.

She added, “There are so few of us on a Sunday morning now. It’s been a painful decision. But to continue to simply worship without a critical mass of people to carry on the mission of Christ, does us and the community little good.

“What we will do now is join other congregations with our hearts and hands and continue serving with new sisters and brothers by our side. We don’t look at this so much as the end, but as the ultimate extension of our outreach ministry – literally giving everything, including ourselves, away.”

Giving is exactly what the congregation has done. In Missions, the active membership of 16 individually donated more than $45,000 last year to their personal charities both locally and worldwide, which they do every year.

The church has also given more than $70,000 in the past six months to local entities, including Special Olympics, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Worland Senior Center (adult day care program and cancer bus), Washakie County Search and Rescue, Worland Food Pantry, New Hope Humane Society, Washakie County Library (children’s programs), Washakie Museum and Cultural Center (scholarships for kids), Elks Diaper Bank, Blessings In A Backpack (elementary school food program), Jenny’s Store (kids Christmas shopping program at the Methodist church).

“The sorrow in closing our doors is lessened by knowing our resources have always gone to help so many others,” said Stottler.

The disposition of the church building at 403 South 15th Street is currently unknown. There have been a few inquiries and more are expected as the date of closure nears. Inquiries may be made to Franco Romero at Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices Hake Realty or to Rev. Stottler. The Presbytery of Wyoming also gets involved with the details now as the church goes into this next period of dissolution, she said.

The congregation invites the whole community to come celebrate its many years of ministry at its closing service Sunday afternoon, November 19 at 3:00 pm. A reception will follow.

The community will remember the Presbyterians’ annual Christmas Bazaar & Bake Sale.

QUICK FACTS

First budget at the first service June 24, 1954 was $5,400

Cost of the lot for the church building in 1957 was $5,540.

Cost of the church construction in 1957-58 was $55,000

March 3, 1957, service of worship for the breaking of ground,

Nov. 23, 1958, dedication of new building

June 14, 2009, dedication of remodeled building

Cost of the church remodel was $174,000

Nov. 19, 2023, final public worship service

Nov. 30, 2023 formal closing of the First Presbyterian Church of Worland.