|
|
The Rev. Ben Stuckey sits in a meeting area of the First Church of God, where he has served the past six years. (Standard-News Photo)
When God speaks, Ben Stuckey listens.
And for now, the popular LaGrange First Church of God pastor said he needs to rest. Stuckey announced his resignation Dec. 20 and delivered his final sermon Sunday.
“Saying goodbye has been hard,” said Stuckey, who lives in Kendallville with his wife, Kristen, and their two young children. They were infants when Stuckey came to LaGrange in 2015. Having immersed himself in the church and the town, he found little time for family and regrets that he’s missed many of their milestones.
While he will step out of most of his local commitments, Stuckey will remain active with the LaGrange County Early Learning Coalition, modeled after efforts that established Lighthouse Montessori Education Center in Ashley last year.
Reaching out
In 2009, Stuckey forged a relationship with the First Church of God, encouraging it to start an outreach for special needs individuals. To this day, it offers a monthly All Stars program, a party that brings disabled people together while providing respite for their caregivers. The church also hosts a regional Night to Shine, a special needs prom in partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation, and is involved in Special Olympics.
When he was hired to serve at the First Church of God, Stuckey was working for a nonprofit organization for people with disabilities in Anderson, a job he embraced after serving at Ovid Community Church. While pastoring monthly at the growing Ovid church, he earned two master’s degrees, but his passion has been helping those that society tends to brush away.
Stuckey attended Southeastern Bible College in Alabama.
With a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies, he took his first ecumenical job in Alabama. He encountered around 100 old, rich, white people, he said, worshiping in a church situated on the edge of a less fortunate community. Stuckey said he “went up into the hills” and found people he felt needed to be ministered to, people suffering from addiction and a hopelessness he knew all too well before he gave his life to God. By the time he left, he said Wednesday night prayer group was bigger than the traditional Sunday service.
While he had taken a break from pastoring, after getting to know the congregation at the First Church of God, Stuckey said it was the one church he really wanted to serve.
“I just saw so much potential here,” said Stuckey. “I knew it in my heart.”
He blazed into town, telling his congregation: “We’re going to shine so bright that if our lights flicker, the city will feel it.”
In a Google review of the church two years ago, Tiffany Reese referred to the LaGrange First Church of God as “a family” and said Stuckey is “absolutely amazing.”
“Ben is truly the mouthpiece for God,” Reese said.
“I think the mission statement that God laid on Ben’s heart – ‘putting light in dark places’ – right before COVID really held us and our community together,” said Erica Cook, outreach director at the First Church of God.
“It was a mission statement that was felt through a lot of the community. He was big on being the church outside the four walls.”
The church was a driving force in the creation of the Ashley Montessori school, and Stuckey says he is dedicated to seeing a similar project occur in LaGrange. Studies have shown that northeastern Indiana is a “childcare desert,” he said, and with the proper efforts and partnerships, the hurdle can be surmounted.
Stuckey and Cook created Shine LaGrange, a way to bolster and support local businesses and people during the long, difficult pandemic. Over the past year and a half working in the community, Cook said she has heard echoes of Stuckey’s mantra, “putting light in dark places.”
“It was a statement our community needed and could get behind especially during the uncertain times of the pandemic,” Cook said. “Pastor Ben is truly an amazing gifted leader and had a unique connection to his people and our community. He helped raise the willing in the church and equipped and challenged those like me who needed a little push and affirmation.”
Coming to Jesus
Stuckey shares his “coming to Jesus” moment in gritty detail.
He dabbled in delinquency throughout his teenage years and attended Howe Military School, where several generations of his family had walked the halls. He said he is grateful for the structure the school provided, but once he graduated in 1997, his life took a trajectory to the dark side.
Stuckey was heavily involved in drugs and drinking and got mixed up in an incident in which a Bristol area house was peppered with bullets in a drive-by shooting. In the days prior to turning himself in to serve a year in Elkhart County Jail, Stuckey decided to take a trip to Las Vegas. He wrapped up several days of epic partying by winning $800 on the blackjack table.
On the plane ride home, despair swallowed him. Stuckey had given up; sitting in his parents’ basement with a fistful of pills and a bottle of gin. His father walked in and threw down an envelope with his name written in calligraphy.
Inside was a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelet, a brochure and a Bible verse. In that hopeless moment, that envelope – from whom, Stuckey did not know – turned his life around.
“I had a lot of people that believed in me,” Stuckey said.
A God thing
Over the past several weeks, he’s been packing up the books in his office and saying goodbye to parishioners.
The decision to leave the church wasn’t one he expected to be making, but whether he was ready for it or not, God told him it was time.
Stuckey has a “code word” with God. It’s very unique, he said, and not something that would just come out of someone’s mouth.
But in a meeting at the church late last year, those very words were spoken. In shock, Stuckey realized the Lord was telling him what he needed to do.
So that is what he did. He said he looks forward to rest and reflection and some time just for his family.
Leave a Reply