   Pastor Steve's sermons and our Sunday bulletins are both posted on-line. Click here to find the listing of sermons. Generally, the sermons will be posted for two months.
Ottawa Presbyterian Church is proud to host Putnam County Habitat for Humanity. The office is in the rear of the church and meetings are held once a month. Just click on the logo to visit the website.
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Our Church LeadersSabbath Cinema Update - They Were Expendable (scheduled May 29, 2010) Made by noted director John Ford in 1945, They Were Expendable tells the story of PT Boat crews in the Philippine Islands in the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and through the fall of the Philippines in the spring of 1942. The film stars Robert Montgomery, who served as a PT Boat commander in WWII, along with John Wayne and Donna Reed. All three give wonderful, understated performances. Wayne and Reed in particular might surprise you! Character actor and Ford regular Ward Bond also stars. Bond and Donna Reed would rejoin each other the following year in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. This is a war film, but it focuses more on the human cost of war than on battle scenes. We see the characters struggling against their desire to be elsewhere and their feelings of inadequacy in the face of circumstances and events. Above all, the film shows the toll that war takes on individuals, some of whom are ordered to leave the islands in the face of Japanese advances in order to help plan the return in 1944, while more are left behind to defend the islands as best they can and buy time. This is a film ultimately about sacrifice and the willingness to give oneself for a higher cause. It is a beautiful, even poetic, film, both in its cinematography as well as its message. I highly recommend it, for all ages! Pastor Steve Elderbrock
Hi!
My name is Steve Elderbrock, and I've been serving as the pastor here at Ottawa Presbyterian Church since February, 2002. Before coming to Ottawa, I served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in LeRoy, Minnesota for 5 years.
I was born and raised in Findlay, Ohio, and am a lifelong Presbyterian, although I took a few years "off" from organized religion during my college years. Speaking of which, I am a graduate of Denison University, where I received a double major in Philosophy and Cinema. After that, I tried my hand at philosophy in graduate school at Yale, but the world did not need one more mediocre philosopher. So then I packed all my belongings in my car and drove out to Los Angeles to seek my fortune in Hollywood. That, too, was not where God was calling me. So I returned to Ohio, got a master's degree in American history at Bowling Green State University, and while doing that someone whose opinion I trusted suggested that I should consider seminary to become a pastor. The idea at first seemed rather crazy to me, but after much prayer and reflection (and some help from Saint Augustine's Confession), I realized that becoming a pastor would pull together many of my passions and interests and experiences, which up until then had seemed random. I moved to Atlanta and received my Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
That’s my story – so far. Thanks for reading it. And now my story is part of the larger story of Ottawa Presbyterian Church. If you’d like to be part of our story, and part of our family, here, please join us for worship or other activities sometime. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your story.
Other Church leaders In every Presbyterian church, there is a group called the "Session" which is composed of "elders." Together with the pastor, this group is responsible for overseeing all church programs and activities. OPC's Session has nine elders, with each elder serving a three-year term. Every year, three new elders are chosen by the congregation to replace three elders whose terms are completed. Our current session members are listed below. Class of 2010--Janice Gordon, Mike Kaufman, Beth Myers
Class of 2011--Paul Baransy, Arlene Cress, Jane Doepker
Class of 2012--Rick Barteck, Susan Schroeder, Jean Setser
Our church secretary is Cindy Schomaeker. She is in the office on Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon. Mike Kaufman is our church custodian, Beth Myers is our organist, and Chas Myers is our choir director. Jan Crawfis is our financial secretary and Rick Barteck is our treasurer. |
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