Birthday Celebration & Ordination Anniversary—

A Great Surprise For Methodists’ Senior Pastor

By Shannon Hicks

For a man who is not easily surprised, the Revered Terry Pfeiffer was caught completely off guard last month when his family and the congregation at Newtown United Methodist Church (his extended family) surprised him with a huge party following a worship service.

The celebration was two-fold. It was a chance to celebrate Reverend Pfeiffer’s 65th birthday and also to honor his 40th anniversary of becoming an ordained minister.

“My wife arranged the whole thing, and it was a complete surprise,” Mr Pfeiffer said recently. “Family, friends, parishioners from previous churches that I’ve served at… there had to be 350 people there!”

“There” was the fellowship hall at NUMC one Sunday morning in December. Following that morning’s worship service, Mr Pfeiffer was stationed at the front door of the church, ready to greet parishioners as they left church. Not many people were walking out the front door, however.

“I thought it was a little odd that no one was coming to see me,” Mr Pfeiffer said, “but that was also the day we had our pageant. About 150 children were in that, and their parents had been told to pick them up downstairs. That accounted for some of the adults, but not everyone.

“Finally, Dick Yerrington [NUMC’s associate pastor] came by and said ‘You’ve done a good job, Terry. Why don’t you come downstairs for some coffee?’” said Mr Pfeiffer.

When he walked into the fellowship hall with Mr Yerrington, Mr Pfeiffer was greeted by hundreds of people.

“I don’t know how in the world they pulled this off,” Mr Pfeiffer said. “There were people everywhere, so much food, and even a video.”

His wife Margey, it turns out, worked with the church’s secretary to create fliers that were put into the church’s November newsletter, Evangel. When the ladies had Mr Pfeiffer check the newsletter before it was printed and mailed out to the members of NUMC, of course, they gave him one that did not include the flier about the birthday party. Children were also given invitations to the birthday party during Sunday School the weekend before the big surprise.

The Pfeiffers’ two sons, Douglas and Michael, were both in attendance at the birthday party, as was Douglas’ fiancée, Karen Carbon. So were stepson and wife David and Trish Hale.

The Pfeiffers also have a step-daughter, Karen Roberts, and four grandchildren, Kai, David, Katelyn and Chloe.

“Our children all spoke during the party,” said Mr Pfeiffer. “They gave touching vignettes, and thanked me for my love and support over the years. I was moved deeply by all of this.

“Friends and church members also spoke, and I cried and cried. I was so deeply moved by how much I am loved by the church — the children and all ages, it was very special,” he said. “I cried so much. Every time someone stood up I started crying more.”

Mrs Pfeiffer put together a video that ran during the party as well. With John Denver music playing in the background (“which is something I really like,” said Mr Pfeiffer), she had compiled a video that celebrated six facets of her husband’s life: Terry as Family Man, …as Husband, …as Father, …as Grandfather, …as Adventurer, and …as Pastor.

Mr Pfeiffer originally thought his surprise party was going to happen in November. Margey Pfeiffer had told her husband that he was going to have to miss a meeting with the regional bishop in November.

“The bishop had set up a meeting on missions, on the same Sunday — November 20 — that we had set aside to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family,” Mr Pfeiffer said. “Margey was adamant that I did not go to that meeting. ‘You promised to be with your family,’ she reminded me. And it really was for Thanksgiving — there was no surprise birthday party then, so I figured nothing was going to happen.

“Then Sunday, December 18, arrived and the whole church was involved,” he continued. “I was totally shocked and surprised.

“I’m very seldom fully surprised. This was well planned. Not a single person let anything slip.”

Mr Pfeiffer has been the pastor of Newtown United Methodist Church since late June 1992.

He is a graduate of Yale Divinity School. He holds two degrees: a master of divinity and a master of sacred theology. He was also a teaching fellow at Yale for two years.

After graduation, his first assignment was at Diamond Hill United Methodist Church in Greenwich, from 1965 until 1977. Subsequent work has been at Danbury United Methodist Church, 1977 to 1988; and Fairfield-Grace United Methodist Church, 1988 until 1992.

Before he was ordained he was a student and associate pastor in other churches.

When he arrived at NUMC, the Sandy Hook church had six children on its register. Now there are more than 140 children in the church’s membership.

The church’s building has also grown since Mr Pfeiffer’s arrival. A full educational building, which includes Wesley Learning Center (a public preschool and kindergarten), opened during the 1992 Christmas season, and the church’s Narthex was built onto the sanctuary during Mr Pfeiffer’s tenure.

NUMC, says Mr Pfeiffer, is much more global in its projects than it was when he first arrived. Members are occupied with projects that benefit people in Bolivia and Haiti, and the church has regularly increased its donations to UMCOR, or the United Methodist Committee On Relief, which is a service agency that helps churches direct ministry to people in need in the areas of emergency response, hunger and poverty, refugees and immigration.

NUMC members have also become involved in The Heifer Project, the international effort that helps impoverished families around the world become more self-reliant through the gift of livestock and training of their care. One year alone, the church raised more than $10,000 toward that effort.

Last year, from mid-April until late August, the Pfeiffers took a sabbatical from NUMC. It had been encouraged by the district bishops and it was, said Mr Pfeiffer, “very relaxing, and very enlightening spiritually.”

The couple traveled more than 10,000 miles in their car, and flew more than 15,000 miles, visiting family and friends in several states and Prince Edward Island. They went to three weddings, a funeral, and a baptism. They also went to church every Sunday, regardless of where they were each week.

“We went to 19 different churches,” Mrs Pfeiffer said.

“We learned a lot about hospitality and greeting, and brought home some new ideas,” added her husband.

Home is where the heart is, goes the saying, and for the Pfeiffers, home for the last 13½ years has been the parsonage next to the white church at 92 Church Hill Road.

“The people here are very open and respectful of my leadership, and I appreciate that” said Mr Pfeiffer. “They’re very gracious, generous, and big-hearted.

“With my family and this church, I am a very fortunate man. I’m very happy here. I really am.”