Pastor to Retire after 40 Years of Deep-Rooted Ministry

Rev. John Algera’s more than 40 years of ministry have been sustained by the Holy Spirit, enriched by time spent at monasteries, and enhanced by prayer walks he has taken with church members while praying for an end to violence and poverty affecting their Paterson, N.J., neighborhood.

Serving as a spiritual director, taking the local mayor kayaking down the Passaic River, and joining with others to drive nails into Habitat for Humanity homes have also been important aspects of his work in ministry.

As he now prepares to retire, we wanted to pause with him and reflect on his decades of serving the church.

Algera’s ministry work began in the late 1970s, when, fresh out of Calvin Seminary, he and his wife, Debra, returned to Paterson to be with her mother, who was sick.

He took a position at Madison Avenue CRC in Paterson to work with the congregation’s youth. Then one opportunity led to another, anchoring him in a church only a few miles down the road from where he had grown up.

And now, after serving for more than 40 years as a pastor of Madison Ave., Algera will be retiring, his four decades of continuous ministry in one place a testimony to the significance he has found in rootedness.

Being rooted in one gospel and in one neighborhood, in which demographics have changed markedly over the decades, and preaching Sunday after Sunday from the same pulpit have all been measures of his ministry.

And the qualities that have defined his work in parish ministry will move with him into whatever the next phase of his life will be.

“I’m not retiring because I feel worn out or discouraged,” said Algera. “I just believe it is time for new leadership at Madison Avenue.”

Colin Watson, Sr., the CRC’s director of ministries and administration, attended Madison Ave. CRC for many years and credits Algera with helping him grow in his faith as well as connecting him to the work of denominational ministries.

“A critical aspect of John’s ministry is getting people involved by working in the community,” said Watson. “I became involved in teaching and in men’s ministry and my wife (Freida) directed the church’s employment ministry.”

During a trip with Algera to pray with and for CRC workers in Sierra Leone, Watson got to know CRC leaders and eventually served on the board of Christian Reformed World Missions (now part of Resonate Global Mission), which led to other opportunities for service and eventually to his current position.

“John has led well through the transitions of the neighborhood as people have moved out and others have moved in,” said Watson. “John has believed that no one is too far gone to be beyond the reach of the gospel, and he has lived that out” in many ways and through the various ministries and programs he has supported.

Over the years, said Watson, with Algera as pastor, Madison Avenue CRC has developed a solid model of how to do urban ministry, especially in a time when cities have become growth centers pulsing with people from all over the world.

By staying put when others were leaving, Algera and the church began Madison Ave. Crossroads Community Ministries, an outreach that includes a child-care center, an after-school center, a summer day camp, a seniors group, an English as a Second Language program, a food pantry, a discipleship center, and a program to teach youth and adults to paddle the nearby river.

"Our's has been an incarnational ministry. We have wanted to be a presence reflecting the love and light of Christ to our neighbors," said Debra Algera, who has been active throughout the years in the life of the church which is just down just down the street from their home. "All of the people in the church and in our neighborhood are part of our ministry. We stand by them, walk with them, talk with them, cry with them. We are friends, family, sharing our joy and struggles together."

As one of the founders of Habitat for Humanity in Paterson, Algera and his church have played a role in building more than 300 homes for low-income families, some in their own neighborhood, in Paterson across the city.

Algera is also a founding member of Paterson Ceasefire, a faith-based group that has held many marches and prayer vigils over the years at the sites of shootings and other violence. The group also works to bring community and racial awareness to police recruits.

“We are grateful that through this, God has given us the opportunity to build relationships with the police,” said Algera.

“When five police officers were shot in Dallas in 2016, we held a prayer service in front of our police department and prayed for the officers and all of the victims.”

For several years, Algera was able to use his experience in urban ministry by working part-time to help train church planters on the East Coast for Christian Reformed Home Missions (now part of Resonate.)

“I’m very grateful that Madison Avenue gave me the freedom to to work more broadly in a larger context,” he said.

Above all, Algera said he has seen what an integral part prayer plays in touching people’s lives. As a leader of what has become the Global Prayer Safari, a Resonate-sponsored prayer journey that has taken place over the past several years in African countries, he recalls what happened once when they asked a police chief in Kenya if they could pray for him.

“Tears came to his eyes. He said everyone comes to them with problems or because they are angry. But no one had come to pray for them before,” Algera said.

Every Friday, people at Madison Ave. church pray for teachers and others who work in the public school across the street.

“I’ve learned that 95 percent of people say yes when you ask if you can pray for them,” Algera said. “We make the most of every opportunity that is given to us to bring someone to the throne of God.”

Along with prayer, finding success in ministry comes from being open to the leading of God. As one of Algera’s favorite scripture, Psalm 139:23, says: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

For Algera, part of the process of searching for God occurs while he is on retreat at a Benedictine monastery.

“Discovering the contemplative life has been transformative to me,” he said, noting he became more familiar with the Holy Spirit during his doctoral studies in the early 1990s at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. His dissertation served as the foundation for his book Signs and Wonders: A Reformed Look at the Spirit’s Ongoing Work (Faith Alive, 2006).

“I’ve come to see that less can be more,” said Algera of lessons he’s learned from being at the monastery, where monks pray at set hours during the day and silence is otherwise foundational. “By nature I tend to be busy like Martha, and I need to be more like Mary and experience God’s wholeness.”

Luke 10:38-42 tells of Jesus’ visiting the two sisters and of how Martha bustled around preparing a meal while Mary sat at Christ’s feet, listening to him teach.

Out of contemplation and prayer, said Algera, comes action; out of a deep connection with God arise those things, such as ministries through Madison Avenue church, that address cultural issues like homelessness and poverty, racism and brokenness, in cities and elsewhere.

Two years ago during a retreat, Algera heard God say, “You’ve been at Madison long enough. It is time to move on.”

And move on he will, serving as a spiritual director and continuing his ongoing and evolving walk with the God who has provided so much for him and his family in the neighborhood that has always been his home.

“I’m not retiring from the kingdom of God,” he said. “I know the Lord will be using me in other ways.”

A retirement celebration is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10, at The Bethwood in Totowa, N.J. For more information, contact Lenore Maine at 201-779-2738 or Joyce Jackson at 973-279-3132 or by email at [email protected].