Chuck was my pastor from May of 1999 till June of 2005. I loved his sermons, they were so down to earth and easy to understand.
The passage tells of God’s wishes for the church and how important it is people become strong enough to withstand being “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men.”
It also speaks of how members of the church can work together as one unit, building itself up as each part does its work.
No one can say Richardson hasn’t done his share of building his church up. At the end of this month, he will retire after almost 40 years as minister of the Morris church. As its leader and preacher, he has led the growth of the church from a small, 4,000-square-foot building on Southmor Road to a 43,000-square-foot facility with a gymnasium and a weekday preschool.
Since he arrived in 1972, those who attend Sunday morning services increased from 50 to around 800; annual tithing offerings rose from $12,000 to $1.2 million; and the church has six paid staff members, up from just the one 40 years ago.
“My vision was to grow it to 300 in attendance,” Richardson said of his early goals. “For the first 20 years, we never had a year that we didn’t have growth.”
He acknowledges how uncommon it is for a minister to remain at the same church for so many years. He doesn’t know many who have. But he made a pledge to God when he first arrived that he has felt he has honored.
“I made a commitment to God to stay as long as he was blessing the church and as long as the church was growing,” Richardson said. “Recently, he has helped me recognize when I had done as much as I could do and when it was time to move on. . . I could have stayed, but that’s not the deal I had with God.”
He made that decision to retire a couple of years ago. Ten days later, he had a heart attack.
“It was almost like a confirmation,” he said.
His congregation understood, but if it were up to them, they would not have let him go so easily.
Founding church member Marge Southcombe said it was God who brought Richardson to lead the church and that it couldn’t have worked out better.
“He has always been a good preacher and a good minister,” Southcombe said. “He and Janice (his wife) are real nice people. They have been real good for the church.”
Dick and Shirley McCrite have been members of the church since before the Richardsons arrived.
“He is very genuine,” Dick said, “and if he has something he wants to say, he steps up and tells his congregation.”
“Whether we want to hear it or not,” Shirley added with a laugh. “His style has changed a great deal from the beginning. At first, it was very much scriptures and notes and all right on cue. Today, it’s still all about scripture, but his sermons are more personable. He’s able to share stories relating to what he is preaching about. . . but number one has always been his love for the Lord. It isn’t just a Sunday morning job for him.”
Dick said Richardson’s favorite place to be was at the pulpit or visiting members. Richardson also made trips to Papua, New Guinea, to help build a home for two of the church’s missionaries and to New Orleans after the hurricane and to other missions. Richardson has also guided the church with a steady financial hand, members said.
“Chuck has a very complete set of competencies and skills,” said member and finance team leader Dave Bonomo, “and that’s what impressed me so much early on, especially in the area of being very analytical and complete and precise with church finances. . . He’s made sure we’ve always been ahead of the game. We’re going to miss him terribly. I truly believe God has blessed our church because of Chuck.”
Janice Richardson is also retiring from her position as teacher at Rainbow Preschool at First Christian Church, although she is staying until May. Members acknowledge it’s true teamwork with the two, with Janice beginning the children’s programs years ago, leading Bible studies, teaching Sunday School, and a lot more.
“(Chuck’s) ministry has been a partnership with Janice,” said church member and friend Nancy Gaffney, “and that is part of the reason for their success here in building the church. They both do so much behind the scenes that people don’t even know about. . . They are both very humble and live the Christian life in all walks.”
The Richardsons both grew up in Centralia, Ill., and both got degrees in ministry from Lincoln Christian College. They married in 1968. Chuck Richardson said he knew the Lord was calling him to ministry from an experience he had at a high school summer camp. He began preaching at small churches his freshman year in college.
“I think it was a little early for me to do it,” he said with a laugh, “and I wouldn’t recommend it, but it was a good match.”
Richardson had originally thought he would go into youth ministry, but after his experiences behind the pulpit, he soon realized his real passion was preaching.
After getting his master’s degree from Lincoln and working a few years at smaller churches downstate, he interviewed with members of the First Christian Church in Morris for the position of minister, but he thought the interview had gone badly and that the church wasn’t interested in him.
But surprisingly, an organization he belonged to that led ministers to new churches in the Chicago area assigned him to the Morris church.
“They surprised me,” he said of the notice. “I thought I would be called to Valparaiso. . . They told me First Christian Church was interested in me.”
Richardson said his goal was to start out in a small church with growth potential.
“I saw in this leadership a potential for growth,” he said. “They had been without a minister for ten months, and they had built their first building without a minister.”
Richardson said his two favorite parts of his job the last 40 years have been the preaching and the pastoral care, or visiting members at their homes, hospitals, or nursing homes.
“This is the part I have loved the most and I have missed the most,” he said of pastoral care. “The larger a church gets, the less time you have for that, and the more the needs focus on staff. I don’t think I’m as gifted at the staff-leading aspect of ministry, and I’ve recognized that in the past few years.”
Richardson said he has always felt that preaching was his number one responsibility, and he always tried to “inform and inspire.”
“The Bible is extremely practical,” he said. “The books of the Bible were written to teach us about life. As long as I’m focused there with my sermons, I know it will meet needs.”
That’s why he always begins each sermon with a Bible passage and uses various other ones throughout. He sprinkles in anecdotes and personal stories, but is sure never to make them the subject of the morning.
“I make sure I’m just preaching what the Bible is teaching,” he said.
FCC member Glenn Harms said Richardson’s sermons have meant a lot to him and other members throughout the years.
“Chuck equips those who hear him with the ability to go to the scriptures to know how to deal with every situation,” Harms said. “He just calmly provides us with guidance from the Bible to deal with the challenges of life, and he has been consistent with that. . . His delivery is calm and solid and prepares us to leave the church ready to live that faith.”
Richardson also has been sure to avoid politics in his sermons.
“I’ve tried to stay away from political positions,” he said, “and let people decide that for themselves. . . I think it can get us sidetracked, and that’s not my responsibility.”
Richardson said he always works on a sermon until he finds an angle that sparks his enthusiasm or a new application to scripture that he hadn’t thought of before. His perspectives on scripture have changed over the years from his personal walk and from his ministry.
He has worked especially hard on his last few sermons, trying to get as much in as he can before he leaves. Sermons the past two Sundays have focused on understanding of individual purposes in life and of the purpose of the church. An especially important point, he said, is taught through the parable of the talents.
“God has always been displeased with the status quo,” Richardson said. “That is a parable that is important to me. . . Maintaining the status quo is totally unacceptable.”
Richardson said that has become part of the DNA of First Christian, to continue to grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men, just like Christ did, and he believes the membership and leadership in the church is strong enough to continue to do just that.
“I think the best years of our growth are still ahead,” he said of FCC. “If God could grow us as much as he has done already, what could he do now? I think the future is really bright for the church.”
Richardson said he and his wife plan to do some traveling in their retirement, then he hopes eventually to return to part-time pastoral care.
“We’re not planning to move,” he said in answer to the concerns of his members.
“My wish for their retirement is that they would stay here in Morris,” Marge Southcombe said, reflecting the hopes of many. “I would like for them to stay. I really would. Chuck and Janice, they’re just special, and that’s all there is to it.”
