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When Pat and Bob O'Dell moved to The Villages 10 years ago, they immediately began looking for a church like the one they loved in Bloomington, IL, where they had been very involved in leadership.
The pair had differing ideas of what a new church would mean for them. While they were both more comfortable in a large church atmosphere, Pat was eager to get involved while Bob wasn’t planning to do more than usher and greet on Sunday morning.
“I took a different path than Pat for the level of involvement I wanted at Hope," says Bob. "Because I had been in church leadership my whole life, and because I had just retired as a lawyer, I had this idea I would retire from church, too. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to participate, but I had done so much of that leadership work that I told myself I would back off.”
But soon after arriving at Hope, Bob was asked by the Council President to finish out another person’s term on the Hope Lutheran Church Council. He lovingly blames the request on Pat, who recommended her husband for the role based on his skills.
Hope had need of some legal support around property and Bob was fully qualified to help them. “He did real estate mergers and acquisitions,” shares Pat. “He is also compassionate and good with people.”
After that first opportunity, he served a full two-year term on the council. Today, Bob continues to find himself in roles where property and new ministry starts utilize his professional training and gifts. He serves as the chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the new Hope South Campus.
Bob thought he was supposed to “retire” from church, but today he feels differently. “The new ways God uses me to help with plans at Hope is God’s message to me that there are still opportunities to serve him. That type of service benefits me personally when I use my gifts. I see that the most important thing we are doing is reaching out to other people. One of my biases is that I don’t like churches that just serve themselves or build monuments to themselves. They just want to do things for themselves and say they are serving the Lord. But at Hope, we are reaching out to others. Whether at Hope Lake Weir Campus, at Hope Central Campus, or at Hope South Campus, that is what we are all about – spreading God’s word to other people. It is just like our mission – To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known.”
Bob sees now how God has continued to use him to advance Hope’s call to make Christ known beyond Hope Central Campus. He also sees first-hand how each campus is transforming lives in the community and expanding Hope’s reach.
Bob’s friend, who doesn’t really attend his own church, lost his wife a couple weeks ago. “We were having dinner and he brought it up that he attended service at Hope Lake Weir Campus," Bob says. "He told us he had a great Sunday and that the people were kind. They came up and talk to him and he said he had never really experienced that in his church.”
As God continues to expand the reach of Hope into the wider community, God also continues to expand the reach of ways Bob can share his gifts with this ministry he has come to love and believe in. Bob is grateful that God was not done with him yet.
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