Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200229
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
INCOMING BRETHREN EXECUTIVE EAGER FOR NEW CHALLENGE
Thirteen years ago when Dave Shumate was working full time, completing college in his native southern West Virginia and doing some heavy courting, he was visited by the Rev. Owen G. Stultz, the executive for Church of the Brethren work in the Virlina District.That Stultz came up from Roanoke to talk with the 22-year-old assistant manager of a drug store about a possible ministerial career seemed strange to Shumate, who recalls that he had only "vague ideas about maybe going to a Bible college. I didn't really think of myself as a minister."
Today, as Shumate prepares for his installation Sunday as Stultz's successor, the turn of events seems even more surprising. Not only was the young man ordained but he now coordinates 91 congregations in southern Virginia and a few in North Carolina and West Virginia.
In a recent interview, the new executive smiled as he recalled a meeting of the men in the Roanoke Valley in similar positions with their denominations.
"One couldn't help but remark that I might be a bit young for my job," Shumate, 35, said. The committee that chose him, after he had "reluctantly" allowed his name to be entered as a candidate, decided on not only a baby-boomer clergyman but one who has spent most of his life among the people he will serve.
Shumate has come from the pastorate of two Pulaski County congregations. Until Jan. 1, he served First Church of the Brethren in the county seat and the smaller Hiwassee congregation in a rural area. Together they have about 125 active members. In that pastorate since 1985, Shumate admitted he had met his challenges in the town and wanted a new one. Active in several human service and ministerial groups, he recently had bought a house in Pulaski's historic area and was thinking about entering politics.
Shumate's wife, the former Dorothy Lee Pugh of Oak Hill, W.Va., is a pharmacist. She works for a drug store chain in Pulaski, where she still lives while settling the family's affairs in preparation for moving to Roanoke later this year. She will look for a similar job here, her husband said.
Another consideration in the move is a suitable special-education class for John David, the Shumate's 5-year-old autistic son.
A 90-minute interview with the new Brethren executive revealed an uncommon knowledge of the culture of the Virlina District and its diverse people. Shumate knows the little churches and folks who still center their faith in their families.
He can talk family all right; a great-great grandfather, Isaac Snuffer, came to the Beckley, W.Va., area from Floyd County prior to the Civil War. Snuffer was elected "a gentleman justice of the county court," and because he violated ultra-conservative Brethren views of the separation of church and state was thrown out of his church by a brother. They never again met, their descendant relates sadly.
Growing up in the Crab Orchard Church of the Brethren near Beckley, Shumate said he experienced plenty of such conflict. One of the perennial disputes over doctrines and practices drove his parents into an American Baptist congregation. He saw such conflict too when he had a year's internship in an isolated Illinois congregation while attending Bethany Theological Seminary. There he rode out problems resulting from the death of a man who had controlled congregational polity for 50 years, he recalls.
Despite his ease in talking about the problems of churches, Shumate says, "The core for me is evangelism. . . . Brethren are great on service - doing good things to help people - but we must never forget we are doing this for Christ because he loves us."
In his eight years in pastorates, Shumate said he has found that many Brethren still are counting on family inheritance of the faith to keep their church strong. They do not reckon, he said, with America's urban culture, the changed nature of the family and the complex problems technology has brought.
Evangelism for him is a far cry from the traditional revival meeting; it is, he said, day to day sharing of the fact that God is truly important in one's life. He sees other church terms in similar broad fashion: Christian education is aimed at specific interests and age issues and done in small groups where spiritual growth can be nurtured; stewardship is offering personal time and care rather than just money; family includes more than those connected by blood or marriage.
Shumate said as he was called for leadership by a discerning pastor, he wants other clergy who work with him to be similarly aware of the need for new blood in a younger generation. His own seeking for God really began in a revival meeting at 14, he recalls, but "I buried my feelings because a kid that age certainly doesn't want to be seen as a preacher by his peers."
Nearly out of college, Shumate experienced the unexpected death from a heart attack of a family friend. His grief and frustration raised serious questions about God's place in this event. His pastor recognized his depth of spirituality that had grown since his early teens.
That was the occasion for Stultz's visit to the Crab Orchard Church and his suggestion and later encouragement that Shumate become a pastor.
Such encouragement was a mark of Stultz's more than 23 years as coordinator of work in the district and a "pastor to pastors."
The office, says his successor, will be hard to fill, but Dave Shumate is eager to get on with the job.
Shumate will be installated as executive for Virlina District Churches of the Brethren Sunday at 3 p.m. at Williamson Road Church, Oakland Boulevard at Pioneer Road Northwest.
The installation will be performed by Karen Peterson Miller of Lancaster, Pa., national director of district ministries for the Church of the Brethren. Preaching will be the Rev. Dr. Harold S. Moyer, host pastor.
Shumate's office is in the 300 block of Hershberger Road on the grounds of Friendship Manor retirement home.