After nearly 39 years, Rev. Buhler retires from New Home General Baptist Church

Rev. Calvin Buhler’s passion in life is loving the Lord and helping others experience the joy of having God in their lives.

After he and his wife Shelbea served the congregation of the New Home General Baptist Church for 38 1/2 years, Rev. Buhler gave his farewell sermon at was March 31.

“It’s just time for us to retire,” said Rev. Buhler, 75. “The church is doing well and has no indebtedness.”

Fighting back tears, Rev. Buhler and Shelbea talk about their love for God, their service to New Home Church and its congregation, as well as their retirement.

Formerly an assistant pastor at Collins Chapel Church in south Poplar Bluff, Rev. Buhler knew God wanted him to pastor the church on Highways AA and B before anyone spoke to him.

“When my husband was young he preached at a lot of revivals,” said Shelbea recalling, he was conducting a revival at either Rombauer or Broseley and they were passing New Home nightly. One evening as they drove by, Rev. Buhler said, “Shelbea, the Lord is going to send me there. I don’t know when or how.”

The church was a traditional General Baptist flock when they arrived nearly four decades ago and had a congregation of about 25 people. Today, around 200 people attend regularly and on special days 300 are at worship.

“Actually my training was on the job,” Rev. Buhler said. “I didn’t have any pastor training. I had a wonderful mentor, Rev. Melvin Kenna.”

Praising Rev. Kenna for his “wonderful training in how to win souls for the Lord.” Rev. Buhler said, “He taught me to pray with people and teach scriptures.”

He’s followed his mentor’s footsteps to “get people saved and baptized for the Lord.”

While he’s gone through “a lot of battles,” Rev. Buhler said, “If God is for it, He will take care of it.”

Smiling, Rev. Buhler explained before going into the ministry he worked at the shoe factory where he supervised 45 women and had to keep them happy.

“I think the Lord was telling me,” he said.

Early in his time at New Home, “lots of ladies came and their husbands didn’t,” he said. The congregation was mostly elderly.

“The first year, 50 people were saved and the second (year) 49,” Shelbea said.

Along with the size of the congregation, the physical church building has grown. The church also incorporated and has a constitution.

Changes through the years have helped expand the ministry. A youth ministry was added and contemporary music helped increase the number of worshipers. Wednesday Bible study is now in the morning so those who usually attend don’t have to get out at night.

The last three years the hardest parts of the job have been the “funerals of the good, faithful people,” he said.

A nursing home ministry at the Manor is one thing for which he’s proud. The church take gifts and he has baptized residents in tubs.

The congregation has neither indebtedness nor a building payment.

“It has been a good ministry,” Rev. Buhler said. “I want the church to continue to grow. I pray the new pastor can go further.”

The Buhlers said their children have had to sacrifice. They have one son, Phillip, who was a teenager when they started pastoring the church. Today, he works for Gates Corporation. Their daughter-in-law is Donna and their grandchildren are Allyson and Kyle Buhler, and Madison and Zack Goode. They also have a great-grandson.

The hardest part of retiring is leaving their family and church friends. The couple will be looking for a new church home but their family will be staying.

Shelbea Buhler said of her husband, “He is going to fish and rest in the Lord.”

Rev. Buhler’s going-away gift is a trip and it will be one of many the couple hopes to make with family and friends.

Oakland City College honored Rev. Buhler during his career. The college president Dr. Ray Barber said, “Calvin and Shelbea have a deep love for God and service to his kingdom. Their commitment has made a difference in the lives of others.”

Dr. Ron Black, executive director of Baptist Ministries, Retired, said, “The Rev. Calvin Buhler has been a leading pastor in the General Baptist movement. The leadership Calvin and Shelbea Buhler has given to the Lord and the church have positively influenced many lives. Because of their ministry, lives have been changed and the church has grown.”

Jeanne Stevenson, Linda Plumb, David Dugger and Jeremy Jackson were among the many church members who wanted to share thoughts about their longtime pastor and his wife.

“They will be greatly missed,” saud Stevenson, who has known the Buhlers 33 years. “They were valuable to the ministry. They were more like family. I pray God will provide someone to fill his shoes. I wish them a blessed retirement.”

Plumb said, “I just love them to death. I will miss them like crazy. They are wonderful people.”

Plumb has known Buhler since the mid 1970s “when he use to come by my house asking me to church.”

Describing the Buhlers as “Godly people.” Plumb explained, he was “taking care of us and worried about us. We were his flock. He tried to be a good shepherd. He was good at it. He will be sadly missed.”

Dugger, a deacon at New Home Church, has known “Brother Calvin” since January 2006 when “he came to my house and I was saved in our kitchen,” Dugger said. “I started going to church,”

While Dugger’s relationship with the Lord and the church grew, so did his and Buhler’s relationship.

Calling Rev. Buhler an “inspirational leader,” Dugger explained, the pastor took him “under his wing” instructing him in the Bible.

Buhler “worked with me several months to prepare me to be a deacon,” Duggar said, adding his friend and former pastor is “very dedicated to everyone. He can see nothing but good in people. He is a true servant of the Lord.”

While the Buhlers may become members of another church, Dugger is certain they will remain friends.

“We are going to go on a couple of different trips together. We plan on keeping in touch. I will be calling and asking him to explain things.”

Dugger described Rev. Buhler’s job as being “on call 24 hours a day. I know we are going to miss him. We love him but we want him to enjoy his retirement.”

Jackson called Rev. Buhler “that persistent pastor who never gave up on you. My wife and I moved back for my job (Corp. of Engineers at Wappapello) in 2003. In 2005, we started attending the church.”

They were looking for that “typical feel good about life” experience, but they got much more, “Pastor and Sister Buhler put their hearts and time into me, my wife and family,” Jackson said.

He said the Buhlers’ caring hearts and soul helped change lots of lives.

He called Rev. Buhler “a great man,” “wonderful” and “a perfect living example of the Savior who died for us and gave us something to work toward.”

Jackson explained, he had “never set foot in that church, but something always drew my attention. God was working.”