The eight months since Michael Benner began to pastor Welsh Bethel Baptist Church have been busy for Benner and his wife, Lorna.
There was the summer church picnic scheduled for Kirby Park that, due to a lack of electricity in a park pavilion, quickly became “an indoor picnic” at the church building at the corner of Parrish and Loomis streets in Wilkes-Barre.
In October there was a celebration of Bethel’s 140th anniversary as a congregation, attended by about 40 individuals.
And on Sunday, the church will honor its military veterans during the 10 a.m. service.
The new pastor, who retired in 2017 as an environmental geologist for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and his wife, who is a retired teacher, are eager to spread the word that Bethel Baptist is a welcoming place.
It’s a place where, Lorna Benner said, people “can be fed spiritually.”
“We study the Bible as the basis,” Pastor Benner said. “I don’t go in and say ‘you have to believe like I do,’ but we always hold true to biblical foundations.”
The couple, who met when she attended an adult Sunday School class he taught at a Presbyterian church in Western Pennsylvania, have experience in several denominations.
“I grew up in a Methodist church,” Pastor Benner said.
“But you were baptized in a Lutheran church,” his wife reminded him.
“And we were with the Christian & Missionary Alliance along the way,” he said, “and with the Assembly of God in Little Rock.”
“And we were with the Assembly of God in West Pittston,” Lorna Benner said.
“We also started a home church, which wasn’t tied to any denomination,” Pastor Benner said.
Having experience with so many different churches is an advantage, Pastor Benner said, because for any newcomer interested in joining their church, it’s likely that “I know where they’re coming from.”
“We all serve God,” he said. “We all serve Jehovah.”
While Michael Benner holds a doctorate of theology from Andersonville Baptist Theological Seminary, his wife earned a master’s degree in counseling, and counsels people “from a biblical basis.”
“The Lord brings them to me,” she said. “And I talk to them.”
Lorna Benner, who is writing an autobiography, compares her life to a soap opera “exept nobody would make a soap opera like this, because it’s too much.”
From experiencing physical and emotional abuse as a child, to witnessing the gang rape of an older girl when she was 4 years old, to enduring eight years with her abusive first husband, to feeling unworthy of love, to being diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, and fibromyalgia,Lorna Benner seems to have suffered more than her share of tragedy.
“Through it all the Lord held my hand,” she said. “I know the Lord can heal.”
And she has made a conscious decision to not give in to despair.
“Like my favorite philosopher — I’m sure you’ve heard of him, Winnie the Pooh — said, ‘Choose happy,’ ” Lorna Benner said with a smile.
Welsh Bethel Baptist’s weekly workship service is at 10 a.m. on Sundays. Pastor Benner’s office hours ar 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and 9 a.m. to noon on Thursdays. Phone numbers are 570-822-3372 office, 570-592-4487 cell. The website is WelshBethelBaptistChurch.com/.
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