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Article From December 2, 2003 Congregationalist.org
Between Strikes
Ministering in a Bowling Alley
by Giovan Venable King
I am sure that several of you have watched “Ed,” the television series about the “bowling alley lawyer.” Tom Cavanagh plays the lead character, a New York City attorney, who returns to his hometown, Stuckeyville, and buys the bowling alley that he enjoyed so much as a kid. He also practices law out of the bowling alley.
The Rev. Sanford (Sandy) Freud greets new members in “bowling alley” church.
Whenever anyone says to him, “Oh, yeah, you’re the bowling alley lawyer,” he responds brusquely, “Bowling Alley. Lawyer. Two separate things.”
Well, Southern California is now proud to boast of its “bowling alley minister,” the Rev. Sanford “Sandy” Freud. And I believe Sandy is quite delighted to be so known.
Anyone who knows Sandy knows that he is a bundle of energy. Many in the National Association know him as the Cal-West Association’s Moderator in 1998 when the Association’s Annual Meeting was held in San Diego. Sandy is also currently serving on the NACCC Credentials Committee and his wife Linda serves the Missionary Society.
Sandy has been the pastor of Faith Congregational Church of San Gabriel Valley in California since 1994. But, this past year, he was installed as Pastor of a second Church, New Faith Fellowship, in Orange County. Faith Congregational Church has helped to sponsor New Faith (hence the name) and thinks of the nascent Church as its younger sister. New Faith’s meetinghouse: a bowling alley!
Members praise “bowling alley” minister for his concern for senior citizens.
Sandy is from Chicago, Illinois, where his father owned a bowling alley for 26 years (even though, interestingly enough, his father wasn’t a bowler). Sandy was baptized and raised as a Lutheran and was President of the young people’s group of his Church and of the All Chicago “Luther League.” He used to speak to other youth in ghetto churches and other Lutheran churches throughout the greater Chicago area, so his ministry skills were being sharpened even back then. He also worked at his father’s bowling alley.
Sandy continued to work summers and vacations at the bowling alley while a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Following graduation, he had a successful business career before answering the call to ministry. He clearly had some kind of call to bowling as well, since he was a semi-professional bowler while in Chicago and could have become a professional (if he had been willing to put in the long periods of time away from his family).
Sandy moved his family to California to accept a position in pharmaceutical sales and marketing in 1970 and became one of the founding fathers of the City of Irvine in 1972. The call to ministry grew stronger and stronger and Sandy returned to school in the mid 1970s. He attended Fuller Seminary, California Christian Institute and Chapman College and earned his master’s degrees in Pastoral Counseling and Marriage, Family and Child Counseling from Trinity College of Graduate Studies. He was ordained in 1983 at St. Paul’s Congregational Church in Claremont, California, where he served for eight years. Sandy has also served as a therapist at the professional counseling center of the Crystal Cathedral, in Garden Grove, California and as the Cathedral’s Minister of Single Adults.
From St. Paul’s, Sandy moved to Faith Congregational Church. But, all the while, he was still a darned good bowler. He became President of a Men’s Bowling League called “Club 55” (for those fifty-five years of age and older) and emceed their Bowling Banquet on Memorial Day a year and a half ago. They knew a good preacher when they heard one and Sandy saw an opportunity for ministry to the bowlers.
The bowlers undoubtedly recognized Sandy’s gifts for ministry even before the Banquet. He had regularly been calling those in the League when they were ill and was asked to do memorial services for some of his friends in the League. “I realized these people needed and wanted this kind of support, so I started thinking about a Church here,” says Sandy.
A core group of twelve people, including Sandy’s wife Linda, met in July of 2001 in Sandy and Linda’s home to discuss the prospects of becoming a church family. In September of that year they were officially affiliated with the Congregational Christian Churches and I was honored to participate in the service in which the Cal-West Association formally recognized New Faith Fellowship and installed Sandy as their Pastor. They were welcomed into the National Association at this year’s Annual Meeting in Spokane.
Ages of “bowling alley” church members range from 55 to 98.
The members of New Faith Fellowship range in age from fifty-five to ninety-eight. They meet for worship at 4:30 p.m. each Saturday, and began at the Orange Bowl Recreational Center, in the city of Orange. Following the service, most of the worshippers go out to dinner together. Oh yes, and they also take some time to bowl.
This past Easter Sunday, New Faith Fellowship moved into a new worship center; can you believe that it is in another bowling alley?! Regal Lanes is just a mile away from their first location. The quiet, carpeted conference center on the second floor has proven to be a perfect worship space and, according to Sandy, “an answer to prayer.” You can’t even hear the bowling below, especially over Sandy’s booming bass. I was privileged to fill in for Sandy this summer and to preach to this warm and friendly Church family, in space they have made sacred with loving care, inspiring banners and uplifting praise music. There is also an elevator, essential for some of these active bowlers who suffer from “bowlers’ knees” from time to time.
Sandy’s church soloist, Dorothy Roble, summed up what for her is the key to New Faith Fellowship: “One of the things we find in regular church is that not much is offered for seniors. They overlook you. They take you for granted . . . Sandy doesn’t!”
The Rev. Giovan Venable King is Associate Pastor at Hyde Park (California) Congregational Church and serves on The NACCC Credentials Committee with Sandy.
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