by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
FORESTERS FALLS — Pastor Lloyd Reaney, the minister at Whitewater Wesleyan Church, enjoys all that church life encompasses, including the studying, the preaching, the church life and the church community.
“It’s a calling,” he said about being a minister, adding, “It’s a sense of fulfilment for me.
“I felt I had a specific call to be a pastor in my late teens,” he recalled.
“It’s hard to describe. Doris and I were dating and I was in her church. It was just a quiet response time and I sensed in my spirit, at that point, a call,” Pastor Reaney recalled.
Doris and Pastor Reaney will celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary Aug. 23.
“I had the same experience in my own church,” he added. “About a month after that, I was asked by the denominational leader if I would consider being a pastor. I had the sense in my spirit of a call and then an invitation by the church leader.”
Mrs. Reaney said she’s not surprised her husband became a minister. She can recall people making the comment that he should be in the ministry.
“He was going for carpentry,” she said, with Pastor Reaney adding, “I was in house construction.”
Once he finished bible college, he was posted to Sydenham Holiness Church in Sydenham, beginning on Feb. 14, 1980. Six months later he was posted to Wellesley Holiness Church and remained there until August 1991. In 1984 he was ordained, explaining a student must earn credits and hours before being officially ordained.
Looking back, Mrs. Reaney said Wellesley was their training ground, because he was posted there right after they married.
On August 11, 1991 he became pastor at the Foresters Falls Standard Church, which later merged with the Wesleyan Church and on Jan. 1, 2004, became the Whitewater Wesleyan Community Church.
At one time the practice was to move ministers around about every two years, Pastor Reaney said.
“It was hard on the church,” he said. “You don’t get to know the church, you don’t get to know the community, So, they stopped that. Basically, if things are going well, leave it be,” he said. “I feel we have a good match with the pastor and the people. The people are supportive of us.”
He is hopeful as their minister he is helping each parishioner achieve a relationship with God through Christ.
Mrs. Reaney wasn’t expecting to be a minister’s wife. However, when she knew she was going to marry Pastor Reaney, she did ask God that nothing more be expected of their children even though their father was a minister.
“I felt as a pastor’s wife, I did not want or expect anything more from my children than if I was a parishioner,” she said. “So, I wouldn’t ask them to go to anymore services than if we were the parishioners.
“Our family would take on no different roles because they were a preacher’s kid,” she continued, adding, “I really wanted them to know the Lord as their saviour and I wanted it to be that they enjoy the ministry.
“I don’t remember them ever saying I wish dad was not a preacher,” Mrs. Reaney said, adding, “I really believe God has been faithful to my request, in that he would bring our kids up alongside the ministry.”
A social person, Mrs. Reaney did not work outside of the home while her children were growing up. Instead, she spent much time raising their three children – Amanda (married to Donaven Welk and they have three boys, Mavric, Cash and Parker), Candice (married to Curtis Tubby and they have two daughters, Camryn and Halle Jane) and Nathan (married to Kacie, who have a three-week-old son, Callahan); teaching Sunday School, which she has done since she was 13 years old and involving herself in the church life and community. She noted her family accepted Christ at a very young age, noting she accepted Christ as her saviour when she was six years old.
Mrs. Reaney said she never felt the need to go to church each Sunday, it was something she enjoyed doing.
“It never really took on a different pattern when I became a minister’s wife,” she said, adding, “That was my desire, of being in church and learning more about God and learning more about his word.”
“I’m not a church minister’s wife,” she said. “I’m in the community associated with the minister. I get my hands in and become involved. I want to be part of the ministry. I have a heart of wanting to help. I don’t have to go to (church) meetings and functions, I want to go. I’m not involved because I’m a pastor’s wife, I’ve always been involved. But, I do I love being a pastor’s wife.”
Pastor Reaney may get paid as the church minister, but he doesn’t consider what he does a job.
“There’s a sense of fulfillment in being able to communicate God’s love to the people,” he said, adding, “It’s not a job. It’s almost a lifestyle. I cannot imagine doing anything else.”
There are about 145 families involved with the Whitewater Wesleyan Community Church, and there are usually about 260 parishioners Sunday morning, noting there are many visitors throughout the summer months. There are two services each Sunday, one at 9 a.m. and another at 11 a.m., with a social time between the two services, he said. There is also Sunday School for the young children during the church service.
While many churches struggle to get people to attend church, Pastor Reaney feels so many attend his church because it’s in the ideal location.
“We’re 20 minutes to Renfrew, we’re 20 minutes to Pembroke and we’re about 20 minutes to Eganville,” he said. “We’re like a regional church.”
While Pastor Reaney believes people come to this church because the parishioners are welcoming, Mrs. Reaney believes many come to hear the word preached.
“Lloyd isn’t one to just kind of scramble a message together and stand there for five minutes or 10 minutes,” she said. “Lloyd has said if people are going to take the time to come to church, that he’s going to take the time to feed them in their spiritual walk. People need to hear the word of God and that’s why they come. Not everyone can study (the Bible) so they get the verses in the right context. Lloyd is able to do that.
“I don’t think people see him as a minister, but rather see him as a Christian who wants to serve Christ. I don’t put him on a pedestal. He’s an everyday person.
“Ministers are people, just like you and I are,” she said. “They are called by God to do a special task. They are speaking God’s truth to the people.”
Pastor Reaney is kept busy as the leader of his church, not only preparing for Sunday’s services, but also does a variety of other jobs, such as leading bible study classes, providing spiritual guidance, doing administrative work, holding staff meetings, visiting with parishioners, conducting baptismals, weddings and funerals, participating in the ministerial association and providing chapel service at Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Home in Cobden and Country Haven Retirement Home in Beachburg.
“I’m on call 24/7,” he said, adding, “It’s definitely not a nine to five job.”
To celebrate his 25 years as a pastor at Whitewater Wesleyan Community Church, there is a celebration at the church, located on Cedar Haven Road just outside of Cobden, on Sunday, Aug. 21 with a worship service in the big tent starting at 10:30 a.m.
Pastor Reaney said instead of celebrating his 25 years as the church pastor, it should be a celebration of the whole church.
“The focus should be on the fact it’s a congregational achievement as much as my achievement,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything like some great milestone. It has been a good match between the minister and the people. They have been very supportive.”
