WILMINGTON — It's just shy of three months since the Rev. Robert Hess was appointed pastor at the Wilmington Church of the Nazarene, but things are going well.
The Ohio native met his wife, Leah, of the Massena area, at InterVaristy Christian Fellowship while at Clarkson University. In college, they talked about living one day in the Adirondacks. It is a dream come true for them and their almost 2-year-old daughter, Rebecca.
At Clarkson, he majored in political science and later worked as a New York legislative aide in the Ohio Senate and for a couple of campaigns.
"I realized it wasn't for me and felt the call to ministry," Hess said. "I started to help out at a small nondenominational church in Ohio. I was brought into the Miller Church in Johnston, Ohio. Dr. Cal Alexander brought me in and trained me and helped me get my licenses."
In 2008, William Carr, superintendent of the Upstate New York District of the Church of the Nazarene, invited him to pastor a church in Johnstown, N.Y., which he did for three and a half years. When the opportunity came up in Wilmington, Hess met with the church board and was later chosen to lead the congregation.
"It's a small community church with a long history," Hess said.
Since 1906, people have gone to the site, which was a Holiness Campground. The church was founded in 1921. The denomination was established in the early 20th century and emerged from the North America Holiness movement.
"People got excited preaching holiness and making your faith real in your life and banded together and made the Wilmington Church of the Nazarene," the pastor explained.
The Wesleyan Holiness church is among one of the oldest of its kind in the Adirondacks.
"Our real emphasis is placed on holiness, not just committing your life to Christ, but your mind and will completely to Christ to become more Christ-like," Hess said. "We're a mission-based church. We support a lot of mission in pretty much every country around the world. We're part of a global church. It's a pretty good-size denomination."
There are nearly 28,000 churches, 40 of which are located in the Upstate District. Before Hess came, the church was in decline.
"There are no jobs for young people. They move away. There is no industry to work in. It's very limited. The economy is bad everywhere else. An area like this gets decimated."
At 33, Hess is a young minister.
"We've seen younger people coming in. While the church was a graying church, the past couple of months we had to start a nursery. It started out with two kids. Now, we have six to 10 kids go downstairs. We see more younger people coming. We're trying to do things with them and for them."
New initiatives include a potluck Bible-study outreach ministry on Tuesday evenings and a men's breakfast to begin on Jan. 27.
"We will meet, eat and do a devotional fellowship and a little doctrine."
More women attend church than men, who, Hess said, tend to have a mistaken idea that they will be asked to be something they're not.
"Hopefully, we can change that idea. It's going great," he said.
Many of the congregation members work at Whiteface, so attendance has been down.
"In the winter, it's tough. We're still up from where we were. People are responding," Hess said. "I'm a different kind of pastor. My message is 15 minutes long. It's pretty direct. I don't beat around the bush."
Email Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
