ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996                 TAG: 9605160026
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                PAGE: E-9  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER

BACK IN THE PULPIT WITH RENEWED HOPE

When Mike and Sally Wilshire celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last month, they had more than a little to be thankful for. On April 19 of last year Mike, the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in the Hollins area received a double lung transplant to save his life after a rare infection destroyed his ability to breathe.

Today, the Rev. Michael Wilshire, 48, is back in his pulpit in the stone church his congregation built nearly 20 years ago. Because of the surgery - performed, he said, only for about 10 years and not always successful - and a convalescence of more than nine months, he believes he has a good chance of living for many more years.

"I've never met another person with a double lung transplant," he said in his study on Woodhaven Road. "They're pretty rare, even with just one lung, but it was my only chance to stay alive."

Staying alive, let alone resuming the work of a busy pastor to many young adults, required a lot of adjustments for Wilshire. There's the oxygen tank he trails around when doing anything other than sitting. He can remove his breathing apparatus for an hour's interview, and he said he can still preach and teach for a moderate time without undue fatigue.

Then there's his posture, about which he is somewhat sensitive. Once a tall man, he is now bent from osteoporosis brought on by the heavy doses of steroids prescribed for his lung disease. At times he uses a walker, and is glad he has to negotiate few steps around Cornerstone.

Yet with the help of his wife and the Rev. Jeff Copper, Wilshire's associate for many years and for most of 1995 the church administrator, the pastor manages to keep up with his work. He spends two days a week in his study and the rest in his home office on Poor Mountain Road near Salem.

Three afternoons a week, he receives physical therapy, which he says "does me a world of good."

Mike Wilshire has had a dramatic life. When he and Sally first came to Roanoke County in 1976 from a ministerial internship in Petersburg, they represented the Rock Church of Virginia Beach.

Wilshire spoke frankly of his former "hippie lifestyle" in which he experimented with "about every kind of drug." Desperate for more meaning in his life, he became involved with Rock Church, met social worker Sally and eventually became an organizing minister.

The congregation flourished, especially after buying several acres where an old drive-in theater once stood. Several craftsmen in the congregation remodeled a building on the property and later added a new wing. After several years, leaders voted to become independent of the parent church, took the new name of Cornerstone and now prefer the term "evangelical" to "Pentecostal," Wilshire said.

Three years ago, Wilshire was ordained in the Reformed Episcopal Church represented by a congregation in the Starkey area. It is biblically conservative, Wilshire noted.

The Wilshires' only child, Micah, grew up playing guitar and singing in the contemporary music services. Micah and his wife, Lori, now are touring members of a contemporary Christian band.

Wilshire's health trials began about five years ago when he became ill with sarcoidosis, an uncommon lung infection. After months of unsuccessful treatment, he went to the University of Virginia Hospital where he was found to have only half his normal breathing capacity. His doctors told him his heart also was damaged from the struggle to get enough oxygen. He had smoked only in his teens.

As he waited for a suitable donor of lungs, Wilshire continued his work until he collapsed one Sunday trying to climb the steps to his mountainside home after preaching. Two months later, after his operation, doctors discovered his diaphragm was paralyzed. It took eight months of therapy to get it to work again.

By Christmas, Wilshire was home. And now, he said, his blue eyes moist, "The children say they still pray for me."

LENGTH: Medium:   77 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  The Rev. Michael Wilshire uses a walker sometimes, and 
          he receives pgysical therapy three afternoons a week, but he's glad 
          to be alive. Double lung transplants are rare, and they're not 
          always successful.