Golden Anniversary Memories

By Donna Shelton

My husband Rich and I were engaged in a game of Do You Remember When…?

Rich kicked it off with party lines. “When I was a preschooler, I’d pick up the phone and talk to the ladies on the line,” he said.

“Do you remember when a purple first-class postage stamp cost 3 cents?” I countered, “And a Milky Way candy bar was only a nickel?”

Even better: I remember when I first got saved, and Mona Warner was the whole worship team!

She was both piano player and song leader.

I was saved on April 5th, 1975, in a Saturday night music scene at The Door in Tucson.

A girl’s band from Prescott, Arizona was playing that night, since the Tucson church didn’t have any music groups yet.

Kevin Greer got saved in May, and Paul and Renee Stephens got saved later that same month. By then, we had expanded to fill the whole duplex on Veteran’s Blvd., and it even had the same color carpet throughout. I thought we had really come up in the world!

Shortly after Paul and Renee were saved, they sat in front of me at church. With his long, dark, slightly curly hair, I thought Paul looked like Charles Manson. Larry Beauregard had already been saved for more than a year. He thought Paul looked like Jerry Garcia.

This guy will never make it, I thought. That’s funny to me now, as I look back over the years and see all the churches that Pastor Paul and Renee have started.

Maria Cocio (now Urbina) was one of my first friends. We both lived near the U of A and used to be running buddies in the evenings at Mansfeld Middle School. We were both from religious backgrounds. She was Catholic; I was the daughter of a Protestant pastor.

Maria didn’t feel like she fit in with “all those druggies at The Door,” and said she was happy when I showed up. I was also a little uncomfortable. I even considered looking for another church to go to, but I decided to give it more time.

Somewhere within those first three months, I read 1 Corinthians 12:18 that speaks of God placing members in the Body of Christ just as He pleased. With that revelation, I locked into the church and believed God had me just where He wanted me, so it no longer mattered whether or not I was comfortable.

Plus, I had found The Door through a co-worker at the House of Fabrics in Park Mall, and had immediately become Beverly Lippert’s ride to church.

People were getting saved in every service, and by the end of 1975, Kevin Greer had begun the music group Hosannah, while Paul Campo led the band Oil of Joy. I remember being amazed that out of such a small church we had so much talent.

I never knew what went on behind the scenes; I just remember loving to go to music nights.

I asked Kevin what some of his memories were.

“The thing that really rings like a loud bell in the heart of my remembrance is the way God would use us to reach the lost,” he said. “There were times when you felt like you were in Heaven already, playing at the throne. The Holy Spirit would rest upon us all when we would finally stop bickering and play our music for the Lord.”

Kevin told of a trip the band took to play for the church in Flagstaff. “First we ran out of gas, so there we were: Frank Escobar, Ken Haining, Vince Dorsett, Bob Marker, Debbie Teeple, and Julie Gonzales and me, all sitting on the side of the I-10. Frank, the only real adult in the room, volunteered to walk to the nearest gas station, and soon we were on our way – only an hour and a half later.

“No matter, God is on His throne, and off we go to Flagstaff. There were no cell phones back then, but we heard a report of a snowstorm ahead, and advisories to put snow chains on the tires. Being the man full of faith, I decided that we should press on, that God will see us through, and besides, we’re already behind schedule.

“As we climbed in elevation and snow was piling up on the edge of the road, we soon came to a roadblock where the police were turning everyone around who didn’t have snow chains. We wound up halfway back down the mountain at a lone gas station behind a long line of cars getting chains put on their tires, and reached the church just in time for the altar call.

“Needless to say, there was no grand ministry of the group Hosanna that night, and we wound up sleeping in the church basement. But that trip and others created a great bond of brotherhood that I don’t think can be achieved any other way,” Kevin concluded, “and I have to say, I cherish that very much.

I loved going to music nights and outreaches. They were a big part of church life and fellowship. I remember the expectation for people to get saved. And they always did.

Revivals back then ran from Sunday through Thursday. Wes Baker was at our church often and he always prayed for people to receive the Holy Spirit. He ministered the night I got filled with the Holy Spirit, and also a few years later the only time I was slain in the Spirit.

Services could be rockin’ in those days, with loud song services, evangelists giving people words of knowledge, big altar calls, and demons being cast out. It was all so new to many of us, but it was also so exciting, as God’s presence was moving.

On August 1, 1975, Frank and Susan King got saved. They had been married five years and had a 3-year-old son, Sean. Susan was pregnant with their daughter, Kristin – a fact that excited all the girls who prayed with her at the altar. A few weeks later, those girls gave Susan a surprise baby shower, and that event locked her into the congregation.

In early 1979, God began dealing with Frank about a children’s ministry. He saw kids coming to the altar, but rarely did anyone pray with them. When Frank went down to pray with one boy, he realized that a child’s ability to comprehend the things of God was different from that of their parents. He began to wonder if there should be a special church service geared to a child’s needs and competence.

After several meetings with Pastor Warner and one with Pastor Mitchell, Frank and Susan realized that God had called them to that ministry. Looking around the congregation for other interested parents, they spotted a new couple: Herb and Cheryon Unruh, who appeared to have several kids. They approached them and found them agreeable.

In June 1979, the four adults met with twelve children in the living room of a duplex apartment adjacent to the church for the first Children’s Church service. All those adults and many of those children are still serving God.

Today, there are dozens of children’s workers and hundreds of children involved, and the fruit of the children’s ministry is evidenced throughout every other ministry in the church.

Cheryon Unruh and Mariah Ford started Faith Roots in 1985 to minister to the 3-year-olds in the gap between nursery and children’s church. Personally, I missed a lot of sermons when my son was 3 because there was no Faith Roots, so I was constantly leaving service to quiet him down. Parents, don’t forget to thank the children’s workers for blessing you with uninterrupted services!

Larry Beauregard was our first song leader from August 1975 until October 1977, when he was sent out to pioneer the church in Douglas, Arizona.

Richard Kirkpatrick started the Tucson choir early on, but when I joined, it was already under the direction of Stuart Reblin, who led it masterfully for many, many years.

The choir played a big part in helping me feel involved in the church. It was a great place to meet people and feel useful. We used to go to malls and nursing homes at Christmas time to witness and to sing Christmas carols.

When I first got saved, Pastor Warner often encouraged us to study the Bible, but I hadn’t been out of school very long at that point, and I didn’t want to study anything!

After fourteen years of great teaching from the pulpit, I was at a place where I wanted to learn how to study the Word for myself, but I was unsure how to go about it.

Then I saw a poster advertising the Ladies’ Bible study. Arlene Chase was the leader. I didn’t know who she was, so I searched her out.

I’ve been studying God’s Word with her now for more than thirty years, and it has taken me from a place as a very insecure Christian to one of confidence in who my God is and how faithful He is to His Word. I even ended up teaching teenage Bible study myself for a few years.

Arlene had searched for ten years for someone to teach her how to study the Word of God for herself. Through a series of events, God introduced her to the inductive study method used by Precept Ministries.

She got certified to lead these studies and has been serving faithfully as the Ladies' Precept Bible Study leader at Door Church Tucson since 1989. This ministry continues online and in person to this day, ministering to ladies throughout the United States and in countries overseas. It’s exciting to look back and see how God has strengthened my faith by participating in this ministry.

From the very beginning, Pastor Warner was always talking about reaching the world for Jesus.

Our first Bible Conference was held in May of 1977, when we sent out Kim Pensinger to pioneer a new church in Clifton-Morenci, Arizona. At that point, I had been saved for two years and we were sending our first church into another city in Arizona.

Reaching the world was a concept that was beyond my vision. I just didn’t really believe our little church could ever do that.

Now, I love to look at all the flags hung around the sanctuary that represent all the nations that have been touched by God as a result of ordinary people in a small local church obeying the Great Commission for 50 years.

Arlene and I even got to go to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and see what God is doing there in Africa. What an honor that God has allowed us to be even a small part of the work He has been doing in the earth!

I feel so privileged that God saved a little church girl forty-eight years ago and allowed me to experience the humble beginnings of Door Church Tucson.

I’m excited to see all the ways that God is going to move in our midst and continue to use us for His glory in the coming years.