The pastor of a small Rockford church is expanding his reach by using social media and other outlets.
Gary Schwerin is the pastor of Caledonia Congregational Church. Schwerin grew up in South Dakota. He said he’s ministered since he was 19, but being a pastor was not something he wanted to do.
“I didn't think that was a good fit for me,” he said. “I thought there was too much politics, there was too much -- monkey business, I just wanted to do ministry.’
Schwerin started working with an organization called “Young Life” in North Dakota. He went back home and tried to start that group in his hometown.
“I failed pretty miserably. It didn't, really take. So, I was kind of looking around for a place to come to and Rockford invited me to come to apply for a position,” he explained. “We didn't have any interest or knowledge of Rockford. It didn't sound like a place I would be interested in.”
He said he thought he would be in the city for about five years. That was over 40 years ago.
Schwerin started Bridge Ministries in 1993. He said this group was created to bring the city’s spiritual leaders together. He said it makes sense for the leaders to focus on what they have in common and not what divides them.
“Our mission is to bring the whole church together,” Schwerin said. “Catholics and Protestants, Black and white, Asian, Hispanic, rich and poor. We feel like there's really only one church.”
He said the group would walk neighborhoods and pray for those areas. It brought people together who had things in common but didn’t know it.
“A lot of walls came down, a lot of bridges were built, thus the name,” Schwerin added.
Although he was a part of this organization, he still wasn’t sold on the idea of leading a church. Then one day the pastor of his church left. Someone suggested that he fill in temporarily. Schwerin is still in that role 27 years later.
“I still don't think I could be a pastor in any other church,” he said. “I could be a pastor in this little church, but I don't think I would want to do it anywhere else.”
But his message is spreading beyond the walls of Caledonia.
Outside of his role with Bridge Ministries, he is also the spiritual emphasis director at the Rock River Valley YMCA. He said he was asked to do a devotional newsletter for the staff called “Strong Spirits.” That publication was later shared with church members, which included the editor of the Rockton-Roscoe News. The editor, Michael McGinnis, asked if he could publish it in the newspaper.
In addition to that Schwerin shares messages on Facebook. This started during COVID-19, but the pastor kept it going when he found out there was an audience for it. Both the video and the newsletter are short versions of his weekly sermons.
“And so, Mike found a way to put those two together, and he puts them on, I think every week, he puts them on his newsletter,” he said. “And if I send some weeks, I don't do it, then he has to go and dig around and find if they're all backlogged in our Facebook page, somehow, he finds a way to do it.”
A man who said he didn’t want to lead a large congregation is doing that inadvertently. He said according to McGinnis, over 500 people watch his video messages every week. There’s only about 40 people in his small congregation.
Schwerin said he loves what he does. He is past retirement age, but he said he doesn’t see himself doing that anytime soon. He said his main mission is to continue to bring Rockford residents together.
