Story and photos by Kathy Tretter
For 41 years, Nathan Held attended St. Peter’s UCC in Lamar.
Why is that relevant in the great scheme of things?
It means Chip Jahn (officially Reverend Dr. Paul Jahn), who has served St. Peter’s and its sister church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Fulda, for 42.5 years, is the only pastor Nathan has ever known.
That may be a tad inaccurate as Held likely has contact with others who serve the Lord in this capacity; however, Chip Jahn is the only minister at Nathan’s church during his lifetime.
Sadly (and yes, it is sad), that will all change after this Sunday, January 9, when Rev. Jahn preaches his last sermon.
To say that Rev. Chip Jahn and his wife, Gayle Morley Jahn, are Spencer County living legends would be completely accurate, although both would deny it if confronted with the proof. In their own way both have helped shape their community and Chip literally helped change the world through his work negotiating between warring factions in the Sri Lankan civil war, at great personal risk.
The Jahns are not Spencer County natives, nor did they ever envision spending Chip’s entire career at two rural churches located just a few miles apart.
Both were born and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb.
They met in high school (although Gayle claims it was actually during grade school). Chip was a year ahead of Gayle. After graduation he spent two years at a community college before transferring to Southwest State University in Springfield, Missouri, where he secured a Bachelor of Science in psychology with a minor in history. Gayle studied early childhood development and after Chip graduated the two tied the knot.
Chip decided to continue his education at Eden Seminary which, as luck would have it, is located in Webster Groves. During his final year Chip served under the pastor at Bethel Church in Evansville, which was their initial exposure to southern Indiana.
After graduation the two went into job search mode and the UCC Conference Minister told the Jahns he had a church for them, actually two churches.
“We had no intention of staying,” Chip reports with a rueful smile.
They didn’t think their choice would be a rural church in the wilds of Indiana, much less two country churches, but when the Jahns were invited for an interview they obliged.
“After the first interview we looked at each other and said ‘we like it!’” Gayle remembers.
“But we never imagined being here all this time,” adds Chip.
Reverend Paul “Chip” Jahn presided over his first service at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ on Sunday, July 1, 1979 — and the rest is history.
That last statement isn’t a stretch of the imagination. In the intervening 42 and a half years much history has been made on a local, national and international level.
While it is not unusual for a pastor to stay for five to seven years, it’s a rare occurrence to serve ones entire career at the same church (even if this pastorate involves two churches).
“We love the area, love the people and the congregations are just powerful,” Chip asserts.
A long-time pastor who served as a substitute for St. Peter/Trinity told Chip, “You are lucky, you have only two churches who don’t need a pastor.”
“There is a lot of leadership [among the congregation] Chip notes. “We’ve seen a couple of generations of very self-propelled people.”
Take, for example, young Ethan Roos. On his way to a baseball game in Cincinnati he saw people congregated under a bridge. He asked why and learned they were homeless.
This bothered him greatly and he asked Gayle about solutions.
“I don’t know if you know this,” he told her, “but there are people who don’t have a house.”
“I tried not to cry,” Gayle recalls, “but some tears leaked out.” Ethan wanted to fix the problem of homelessness, and thus began a 10 year partnership between the church and Aurora-Evansville, a nonprofit striving to prevent and end homelessness.
The work often implemented by children in the congregation such as Ethan spreads far beyond the region.
A young girl at Trinity organized the Jubilant Jog 5K to help fund the construction of water wells in the West African Republic of Niger after learning residents had to walk five miles to get water. With help from other North Spencer clergy and churches, funds were raised and used to dig four wells.
The churches also support a Children’s Home in Louisville and participated in a capital fund drive to add needed classrooms. One of the dreams beyond the necessities was a splash park and when they considered the idea one of the kids pronounced, “We’ll do that!” They got other UCC churches involved and one of their parishioners, Elisa Peters, told the kids if they raised $1,000 Rev. Chip would preach in a penguin costume since the Vacation Bible School theme’s mascot that year was a penguin.
Chip declined.
Elisa kept raising the ante until she finally asserted, “If the kids raise $5,000 you will preach in a penguin costume.”
Thinking this was unlikely, Chip agreed.
The kids raised $5,000.93 and guess what? Reverend Jahn preached in a penguin costume!
By the way, Elisa and her husband, Brian, have been devoted congregants. The Conference wanted to give Chip the very first 3 Great Loves Award (an initiative of the United Church of Christ) but he deferred and said the Peters were more deserving of the honor.
For those not familiar with 3 Great Loves it was launched in 2017 at General Synod in Baltimore and it seeks to make a just world for all through the lens of 3 Great Loves — Love of Neighbor, Love of Children, and Love of Creation.
Chip would add a fourth great love in his position as minister: “Love your people.” He says, “If you don’t you aren’t doing yourself or them any favors.”
He shares another example of the love shown by his flock, explaining when a 20 month old child in the congregation had a serious accident and was flown to Indianapolis, member Don Foertsch immediately and without question flew Chip there to be with the family. In the hurry and upon arrival, Chip realized he wasn’t wearing a decent shirt. “Don took his shirt off and gave it to me. That was so symbolic of this community. That’s Spencer County — why we love Spencer County!”
Gayle has been equally engaged. She organized the Sew Be It program. The loosely formed group doesn’t keep minutes or hold meetings, they just do. For the Louisville Children’s Home (and for victims after Hurricane Katrina and for so many others) they make Christmas stockings. Pre-COVID they would cut the stockings and take them to the Women’s Prison in Indianapolis for the inmates to sew, although this year they sewed 160 in house (last year it was 125 and the year before 250 to 300). As both the Jahns see it, collaboration is key.
Gayle also organized Days for Girls after hearing from Dr. Jeanie Gruber, who took a medical mission trip to Kenya. Gruber explained the drop out rate for girls in Kenya was 25% because they have no feminine hygiene supplies, so they would miss a week of school every month and get too far behind in their studies. Consequently they dropped out and if they don’t graduate they can’t get a decent job. After Gayle and the congregation learned of this from Dr. Gruber, they claimed, “We’ve got to do this,” and began a year-long mission to create kits filled with necessary supplies.
The drop out rate went from 25 to three percent.
Talk about making an impact!
Members of Sew Be It also make walker pockets for those using a walker, school bags filled with supplies for Church World Service to be sent to undeveloped countries, fiddle quilts for those with Alzheimer’s, as well as weighted blankets to help with agitation and so much more.
“We don’t keep records or have a budget,” Gayle explained. “It’s a very engaging group. We always have projects.” Over the 20 years or so since its inception, the group has completed a plethora of projects that have reached out across the world and made a difference.
During the Jahns time here their four children were born — and they added a foster son to their family.
Their daughter, Caroline, is a professor at Jefferson County Technical College and lives in Carrollton, Kentucky. Paul is an electrical engineer living near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Muriel is a pastor in Belvedere, Illinois and Marie is a mechanical engineer in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Their foster son, Darrin, is the oldest and lives in Fishers.
It is protocol for a pastor to leave the area when his time is finished. “We need to let the next person have their honeymoon with the congregation,” Gayle explains.
“I hope whoever follows is well received and feels comfortable,” Chip adds.
After Rev. Jahn preaches his last this Sunday, the couple is moving to Carrollton.
To say they will be missed is a massive understatement.
A Community Open House to wish the Jahns a fond farewell is scheduled for this Sunday, January 9 at St. Peter’s UCC from 1 to 3 p.m. Central and everyone is invited!
Parishioners have also placed a Memory Box inside the entryway at St. Peter’s. According to Nathan Held, who is on the Transition Committee, “This is for anyone to drop in a card or letter to Chip and Gayle with memories and thoughts people want to share with them. These can also be sent to the church at: St. Peter’s UCC, P.O. Box 22, Lamar, IN 47550. Once they are settled into their new home, they can sit down and read through them.”
In addition, an endowment has been established at Eden Seminary in St. Louis in Chip and Gayle’s name. One of Chip’s post-retirement plans is to work on setting up the Center for Just Peace at Eden. Held explained, “Our hope is that this endowment will give that a jump start and assist in long-term funding.”
This endowment is open for donations from anyone and can be accessed at https://www.eden.edu/just-peace/.
Sunday was a bittersweet day for members of St. Peters and Trinity United Church of Christ, as Reverend Paul “Chip” Jahn presided over his final service at both churches after 42.5 years at the helm. An afternoon reception followed the services in the reception room at St. Peter’s.
The photos below are from the reception!
