Son follows father’s footsteps as pastor

GERING, Neb. (AP) - As children, we look up to our parents. We see the things they do and we want to emulate them.

When Pastor Tim Hebbert from Gering Zion Church was growing up, he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. But if you ask his father Paul, he’d tell you that you can’t predict the will of God.

“I started here just filling in until they could elect a pastor,” said Paul. “It was an old German church and they were looking for someone who could speak German to lead the congregation. So in December of 1976, they wanted to know if I would be interested in becoming the pastor. I said, yes.”

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald (https://bit.ly/2hxmdqX ) reports Paul’s background was Open Bible Assembly of God, so this would be considerably different than what he was used to.

“They worried that I might try to come in and change them,” Paul said. “But I said no, that’s not my philosophy.”

Paul said he’s seen it happen in other churches and it’s devastating.

“Where I come from, it was grape juice for communion, here it’s wine,” said Paul. “I remember the first time doing communion here and they took the covers off. Whoa, I could smell it. Of course, I had to take the first drink and it was probably the first drink of wine I’d ever had in my life and I remember it burned quite a bit.”

Communion wouldn’t be the only thing that was new for Paul. His idea of church is that it should be fun.

“They all came from a staunch background, where church is a solemn place, but I said, ’No, it should be a happy place,’” Paul said. “If you can’t have a good time in church, where can you have a good time?”

Paul recalled the first time he ever told a joke during a sermon.

“Wilford Kaufman was chairman of the board and he said, ’You know pastor, a few months ago if you would have told a joke and laughed in church, we would have fired you right on the spot,’” said Paul.

“Our story here is really kind of interesting,” Tim said. “We moved back to the valley when I was 15. The secretary at the junior high knew I was going to need a friend in the ninth grade, so she scheduled me with her son in all of the homeroom classes and we became best friends. His father was an elder here at the church, and because of my relationship with his son, my dad got to know his dad through our friendship, and that’s actually how my dad ended up getting the call to come fill the pulpit here.”

Now, 43 years later, Tim is the pastor at Gering Zion and that friend is still Tim’s best friend and also an elder in the church.

“It’s been a pretty cool journey,” Tim said. “I jokingly tell everyone that his mother made him be my friend.”

However, this was not the path Tim thought he would be on. He had no desire to be a pastor. But that was all about to change.

“About the time my mom passed away, God began to deal with my spirit about our home church,” Tim said.

The Hebberts are a musical family and his mother played a huge role in that part of his life.

“I spent about eight years as a music evangelist and concert artist. We’re a family of singers,” He said. “My mom, she passed away 10 years ago, was kind of the family music architect. My dad had the vision, but my mom was the teacher. She taught us all how to sing natural harmony without having to have it printed out. Singing together is probably at the very heart of our DNA. Pop is 83 and he can still sing with the best of them.”

While Tim was traveling around doing concerts, he grew concerned that there weren’t enough pastors to fill pulpits.

“I knew that in our church, as an independent church, that someday it was going to be an issue,” Tim said.

Tim tells people all the time that for the first 49 years of his life, he would do anything for God, but be a pastor.

“I did not want to be a pastor,” said Tim. “But, nine years ago, my wife and I were out on a four-week tour. We were at a little hotel in Kentucky and I told her that I don’t think this is what I’m supposed to be doing anymore. When I told her I felt like I was being called to be a pastor, her first response was, ’I don’t sing, I don’t play the piano and my fried chicken is not very good.’”

Tim came home and told his father that he’d do whatever he needed, and he became Paul’s part-time assistant for a few years.

“Four years ago, they ordained me here and it’ll be four years in January that dad and I switched positions,” said Tim. “We’ve kind of changed places, he’s still part of the staff, but his role now is to pastor me. It’s pretty cool.”

“It’s kind of like pastoring 200 people,” Paul said, jokingly. “It’s been fun, but I’m looking toward the sunset years now. Probably another 20 or 25 years and I’m going to retire.”

“It was exciting and scary when I took over, because dad’s kind of an icon here,” Tim said. “He’s been in the fabric of the longtime families in the church for 40 years now. But, we’re still a team.”

“I guess as a family, we’ve been in a 40-year love affair with this church,” Tim said. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

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Information from: Star-Herald, https://www.starherald.com