For pastor, it's all about balance

A Portland pastor who balances two careers is grateful for the opportunity to help others better themselves both spiritually and physically.
“You just try and prioritize,” said David Wade, who celebrated his 25th anniversary on Oct. 27 as pastor of Family Worship Center, 200 E. Elder St. in Portland, formerly the United Pentecostal Church.
The 56-year-old also works as a personal trainer at Jay Community Center in Portland.
 His second career path started when his wife Sue bought David a 30-day membership to New Body Fitness (now Patriot Fitness) in Portland as an anniversary gift. The couple married on July 28, 1973. David began working out at the gym and loved it. He was later asked to staff the gym three mornings a week, and when the owner asked the staff to become certified, David took the challenge.    
He became AFTA (American Fitness Training of Athletes) certified as a personal trainer in February of 2008. “It was a major accomplishment in my life,” David said. When changes in staffing took place, David was no longer needed as a personal trainer.
Jack Houck, executive director of Jay Community Center, asked David, later that year, if he was certified and if he would like to manage the fitness center at JCC.
He began working as a part-time personal trainer at first and later became full-time. David said he is given much flexibility at JCC to do his pastoral duties such as funerals and visiting the sick. “He’s been very good to me,” David said of Houck.
David has seven to eight customers a week and says his customers are mostly women. They range in age from 40 to 66, and one has lost 50 pounds. He begins his day at 6 a.m. and sometimes works until 7 p.m. “My hours are client driven,” David described. “I enjoy doing it, I really do,” he said and said he likes helping people receive a better quality of life.   
He is also now certified as a senior personal trainer and leads many classes for seniors at JCC, including “Silver Sneakers” that averages between 15 and 20 people per class. He also teaches a “Senior Strength and Flexibility” class and a “Yoga Stretch” class. More information on classes can be found on Jay Community Center’s Facebook page.  
Having another job while being pastor of Family Worship Center is not new to David. He worked at Indiana Glass Co. in Dunkirk from 1976 until 1992 and began his duties as pastor at the church in 1985.
David’s father-in-law Leon Gill was pastor of a church in Sullivan, where David is from. David married Gill’s daughter Sue, and the couple moved to Dunkirk in 1976 after Gill moved there to build and become pastor of the First Pentecostal Church in Dunkirk.
While working at Indiana Glass, David was also a youth director for 18 Pentecostal churches in Indiana. He did youth retreats and rallies for the First Pentecostal Church in Dunkirk and United Pentecostal Church in Portland.
He felt a call to ministry in 1974. It was a “strong feeling that I had,” David said and began leading some of the services in Dunkirk. He was asked to speak at U.P.C. when its pastor left in July of 1985 and after being asked to come back again, he was voted as the new pastor of the church in August.
David said after he first spoke at the church, two ladies began praying in their homes without the other’s knowledge and asked the church board if he could be the new pastor.
There were 25 board members who voted, and all of them voted in his favor. One of the ladies later told him he had received her vote but would have to earn her respect. “They’re still two of my biggest supporters,” David said.
After quitting Indiana Glass in 1992, David was able to be a full-time pastor at United Pentecostal Church. “It was great,” he said. “It freed me.” The church had enough “steady growth” that a building program was started.
In 1997, the church added 10,000 square feet and David was able to oversee the project after becoming a full-time pastor. A new sanctuary was added and the old sanctuary became a fellowship hall. There were also new classrooms and a new kitchen added.
David said all the interior work (except for the pews and carpet) was done by church members on a volunteer basis.
“It’s been rewarding, enlightening, instructional and sometimes it’s been a learning experience,” David said of his 25 years as pastor at Family Worship Center. There are peaks and valleys, but David likes to “keep a nice even keel.”
“I don’t do any of this without my wife,” he said.  
David and his wife Sue have two children. Melissa McKinnies and her husband Jason pastor Southern Illinois Worship Center in Herrin, Ill., and Nate Wade works as director of community and public affairs at International Aviation Mechanical College in St. Petersburg, Fla. They also have two grandchildren.
More information on Family Worship Center can be found at thefamilyworshipcenter.org. Pastor Wade also does a live broadcast on WPGW AM and FM radio in Portland each Sunday at 8:30 and 9 a.m.[[In-content Ad]]