- May 18, 2024
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By: Robin Mueller
Pastor Bill Douthwaite, 64, will retire July 17 after 26 years of service as a pastor at Shepherd of the Coast Lutheran Church, Palm Coast, and 36 years as a pastor in The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
“I've learned that most of the job is just being there, in the pulpit, at the hospital, at a graveside, in a home, at an event. Your presence — incarnational ministry — speaks loudly.”
— BILL DOUTHWAITE, pastor
Pastor Bill accepted the call to SOTC in June 1996. The congregation, established in 1987, was “a small church in a rapidly growing community and a perfect fit,” he said.
He led the congregation through growth and change as it added another classroom to SOTC's first church building (today's Fellowship Hall) in 1997, constructed an outdoor pavilion in 1999 and completed a new sanctuary in 2005.
Pastor Bill and SOTC members, usually numbering around 350, reached out to the community with the Open Arms Preschool, which operated from 1993 to 2017. The preschool helped to grow its weeklong Vacation Bible Schools throughout the years. Vacation Bible School often had 60 SOTC volunteers serving more than 100 local children from ages 3 to 11.
Pastor Bill led a weekly chapel for the Open Arms Preschool until its closing in 2017. From 2015 to 2020, he and SOTC volunteers led Good News Clubs, after-school Bible clubs, at Belle Terre Elementary in Palm Coast. (Since 2020, COVID halted both VBS and the Good News Clubs.)
Pastor Bill and SOTC members served the larger community, helping a food pantry in Bunnell and Family Promise, an organization housing homeless families in local churches as they found jobs and homes. He also volunteered for years in public schools, helping kindergarteners and first graders with reading and math.
He and his wife, Lisa Douthwaite, a nurse practitioner who teaches nursing students at East Coast Polytechnic Institute in Lake Mary, took part in medical missionary trips to Haiti in 2010, 2011 (with a larger group of SOTC volunteers) and 2016. They also took part in medical mission trips to Kenya in 2013 and Madagascar in 2014.
Pastor Bill began a blog, “Stirred, Not Shaken,” in 2010, and discovered a love for writing, which he intends to pursue in retirement. A musician (he plays trumpet and guitar) and singer, he used music to enrich worship services and was best known for his casual, direct preaching style, walking and talking conversationally in front of the altar with an open Bible.
In 26 years, the father of three, one son and two daughters, has become a grandfather of eight.
“I had the unique privilege of baptizing, confirming and marrying my children and ordaining my son,” he said. “I've learned that most of the job is just being there, in the pulpit, at the hospital, at a graveside, in a home, at an event. Your presence — incarnational ministry — speaks loudly.”
The congregation will hold a farewell open house at Palm Coast Community Center at 4-6 p.m. July 16 to thank Pastor Bill for his faithful years of service.
Pastor Bill will lead his final worship service at Shepherd of the Coast Lutheran Church at 10 a.m. on July 17.
