A PLACE TO TRUST & SERVE

Chuck Gorgen loves sailing. He and wife Claria have always lived by water with easy access to setting sail in their boat. Prior to retiring, Chuck would tow their sailboat from their former home in Minnesota to Florida each year. As he traveled south along the coast, he visited various communities, searching for a place for retirement. In each potential retirement community that he checked out, Chuck would visit the local Lutheran church. On one of those trips, he found a lot with deep water access on Distant Island and knew this was the place for their retirement home. Nine years passed before the lot became available, and each year he visited St. John’s as he traveled the coast.

When Chuck retired and he and Claria moved to Beaufort, the Rev. Ed Counts was serving as interim pastor, seeking to bring healing to St. John’s following a time of conflict. Chuck sensed this and had a feeling that the congregation was unsettled. He visited other local denominations but continued to return to St John’s. Then one Sunday afternoon, Pastor Ed rang Chuck and Claria’s doorbell. Chuck remembers him asking, “Why aren’t you joining St. John’s? Keep the faith. God will make everything okay.” After a great visit that offered Chuck and Claria this reassurance, they decided to become members of St. John’s.

Soon after they joined the congregation, Pastor Shannon Mullen accepted a call to be St. John’s pastor and Chuck has never regretted the decision. Over time, he became involved with the congregation, serving on the Endowment Fund and Finance teams and regularly putting his engineering skills to work creatively preparing the sanctuary for celebrations and festivals. If something is hanging from the sanctuary ceiling or high on a wall, Chuck probably had something to do with it!