A legacy of 35 years: Longtime New Jersey pastor retires

Lora Steinerlsteiner@franconiaconference.orgAfter serving for nearly 35 years as the pastor of Garden Chapel, Pastor Jesse Adams retired at the end of 2007.Pastor Adams began working at Garden Chapel in 1973, although his journey to the Mennonite church began more than a decade earlier, when he was a student at Fort Wayne (In.) Bible College. His school required that students participate in Christian service assignments each year, and one year, a woman stopped Jesse as he was walking across campus and asked him to consider working with her congregation, Fairhaven Mennonite Church.Following that year, says Jesse, he felt his time was complete and looked for a job as a student pastor at a different church.“Each time I thought about that,” he says, “I believe it was the Holy Spirit saying, ‘No, back to Fairhaven Mennonite Church.’”As Jesse completed his pastoral training, people at Fairhaven encouraged him to stay, but he wanted to return home. Jesse had accepted a temporary position with Mennonite Board of Missions in Elkhart, Ind., but after that job ended, he headed back to Chattanooga, Tenn.In 1966, while still in Chattanooga, Jesse was approached by Mennonites about a summer voluntary service assignment with Mennonite House of Friendship in New York City. During his third summer there, he met his wife, Martha, a nurse from Jamaica who had recently moved to the Bronx to live with her brother. The church also asked him to stay, “but to be truthful,” says Jesse, “I felt that New York was a good place to visit and not stay.”The congregation didn’t give up, though, and the Adams returned to the Bronx in 1972, where Jesse served as associate pastor. Fourteen months later, he was invited to Garden Chapel.The church has seen many changes since Jesse began. In the 70s, most of the members at Garden Chapel were Mennonites who had moved to the area to do voluntary service, but eventually all of them retired or left.“We have no one here that can be categorized as an ‘ethnic’ Mennonite,” says Jesse. “All the people here have been brought in the church by the Lord, by the ministry here. It’s God at work.”For Pastor Adams, the most rewarding aspect has been serving the local community. Over the years, the congregation has run a food pantry, housed people in need and hosted summer day camps for children. And even though people don’t attend church, they still call on pastors for funerals, marriages and sometimes counsel. The challenge of this, he says, is that “many times, the service did not result in church growth.”Relating to the community has also had its humorous moments. Jesse says that sometimes people from the area would travel to Lancaster, Pa. and when they returned home, would search for a nearby Mennonite church.“I remember one [of the visitors] asked, ‘Well, where are your farms?’ They were disappointed that Garden Chapel did not relate to what they had seen in Lancaster.”In considering what advice he’d give new pastors, Jesse suggests that pastors should expect the unexpected—seminary doesn’t prepare pastors for all the situations they’ll encounter.“[Pastors] have to be totally reliant on God to supply their needs,” Jesse’s wife, Martha, adds.Pastor Adams’ last day was December 31, 2007.