Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 21, 2023

2

F.Y.I.

Mountain View News Saturday, October 21, 2023 


REV. DICK ANDERSON: - 40 YEARS OF SERVICE

Excerpt of an article by Craig Hakola 
Originally published August, 2008

 For the last forty years on almost 
any Sunday you could walk into 
Sierra Madre Congregational and 
witness Reverend Richard (Dick) 
Anderson preaching from the pulpit. 
He has been as reliable and 
predictable as the sun rising in the 
morning. Over the years he has both 
witnessed and been a part of many 
changes in our community. He has 
also been a teacher and friend to the 
since he first arrived. About three 
years ago Reverend Dick announced 
that one day he would be leaving his 
place upon the pulpit, and this coming 
Sunday he will do just that and 
ending an Era. 

The Era started fifty years ago for 
Pastor Anderson as he began a journey 
that commenced in five small 
churches in Eastern Canada. His 
first assignment was filling in for 
the winter for a pastor that traveled 
to warmer confines to escape 
the Canadian winter. Each Sunday 
he would set out early for the first 
church on his schedule and worked 
his way across the countryside, until 
under cover of darkness he reached 
the fifth and final church. The people 
he taught led modest lives which 
were reflected in everyway including 
the potbellied stoves they used 
to warm their churches. Though 
they possessed modest material 
wealth, their love for God was rich 
and Richard identified with it and 
has carried the love he witnessed for 
a lifetime. It must have been a lesson 
to him early on, because upon his 
completion of Fuller Seminary he 
found an entirely different setting 
as he accepted a position on the staff 
of the West coast’s largest church - 
Lake Avenue Church. 

It was after six years of serving at 
Lake Avenue Church that an opportunity 
availed itself for a position in 
Sierra Madre. He and his wife Dottie 
prayed and they decided to accept 
the new position. Sierra Madre Congregational 
and the community that 
we know so well today were vastly 
different when Pastor Anderson and 
Dottie arrived. It was the 60’s and 
Sierra Madre was experiencing the 
impact of the drug age. Sierra Madre 
Congregational Church was on life 
support as fewer than twenty adults 
could be claimed as active members. 
People were searching for something 
and many were beginning to 
discover that drugs did not fill that 
emptiness. A young, brown haired 
man name Dick Anderson would sit 
in the park in those days and play 
his guitar, and people would gather 
to listen. 

Many lives were transformed during 
those troubled times as current 
members of the church today and 
many in the community can bear 
personal witness. The first sermon 
he delivered to Sierra Madre 
Congregational Church was titled, 
“Christ is a Gentleman.” It is a 
view that has remained unchanged 
for him. Today he still finds in his 
Bible that God’s most overwhelming 
characteristic is that of kindness 
and love. Through the years 
at Sierra Madre Congregational he 
has made it a focus for himself and 
the congregation to strive to be like 
Christ. 

Richard Anderson makes no secret 
that much of his success is attributable 
to his wife Dottie. 

They have three sons: Eric, Brian, 
and Jayme, and five grandchildren. 
Richard discusses each with a separate 
and distinct pride. In many 
of Reverend Anderson’s sermons 
you will find the insightful lessons 
which his Father Victor taught him 
as a boy. His Father was reared in a 
Lutheran orphanage and despite his 
surroundings he was still able to retain 
a soft and caring heart. 

To this day Richard gives credit to 
many of his positive and Godly outlooks 
to a loving Father. It has been 
forty years serving a community 
that he thought he would leave after 
a few short ones. Leaving to pursue 
his dream of traveling back east to 
New England and finding a small 
church like the ones which had captured 
a young mans heart. Through 
the forty years he has made it a point 
to make connections with people. 
He always tried to stand aside and 
let God fill a place. Though, God 
had other plans for Dick than being 
part of a small church back east. 
Dick has done everything in his control 
to make certain that our big city 
has those same small town connections 
which he considers so important. 
If you were to put the question 
to him, are you retiring? He would 
say, “I am not retiring, God wants to 
use me in a different ministry, and 
now I can spend more time with 
my wife. I have been called to a life 
of prayer and counseling, a type of 
prayer which transforms the mind 
and the actions of a person.” Pastors 
Dick’s thoughts and concerns are 
not solely for himself and his new 
ministry. He is mindful of the pending 
arrival of the new pastor, Paul 
Beck. Pastor Anderson is a strong 
character reference and chooses his 
words carefully as he describes the 
incoming pastor, “A Good man, 
who Loves people of all ages and 
Loves the Lord.” Dick’s hope is that 
the warmth and gracious love which 
the community has repeatedly extended 
to him and Dottie will also 
be readily available for Paul and his 
wife Lisa upon their arrival. Behind 
the pulpit Reverend Anderson displays 
a comfortable ease. His white 
hair and runner’s physique, convey 
a wisdom and enthusiasm which is 
distinctive. You would not know it 
by looking at him today, but several 
years ago he was diagnosed 
with cancer. Through Gods providence 
he was been healed. “It was 
the greatest thing which could have 
happened to me,” he said. It taught 
him about his own temporary existence 
in this world and helped him 
to relate to the pain and confusion 
which others feel. It has drastically 
changed his view on life. 

 Seldom in life do we find an individual 
whom we can attribute the 
highest intellectual aptitude and 
also add that the person is found to 
have the softest heart. It is a special 
coupling which we find in Reverend 
Richard Anderson. Over the years 
he has witnessed countless beginnings 
and endings in our community. 
He has prayed with the feeble and 
nurtured the sick. He has celebrated 
with the bride and groom and he has 
cried at the gravesite. He has been 
there when we dedicate our babies 
and been there when we sent them 
to war. Through his steady service 
and following Gods voice he has 
given us a vibrant church, one which 
sends missionaries to all ends of the 
Earth, offers its youth a hip and 
dynamic youth group, a first chair 
music program, and many more 
ministries which he leaves to the 
community. Through forty years he 
has poured out his heart and shared 
the love of Christ with us. 

 I asked him if he would like to say 
any final words to the Church and 
the community, and he said , ‘yes,’ 
he paused for a period as he must 
have thought, how does anyone tie 
up forty years of experiences in a 
neat bow, with just a few words? 
The tears surfaced in his eyes as he 
waited for the words to come. “It has 
been good, very good. I am thankful 
that God brought me here, that 
same God is calling me away from 
this ministry to a larger ministry.” 
Amen

 
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