Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Dawn Burleigh

Arriving in March was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and Pastor Loyd Thurman starting a new position at Community Christian Church.

“I was voted in on March 15, and officially started on Sunday, March 29,” Thurman said. “It was difficult because the churches were shut down and it was two months before I saw my people again.”

​Thurman and his wife, Leslie, have been married for 30 years and have three children and three grandchildren.

He was actually on a sabbatical and was looking forward to retiring when he heard the calling to Community Christian Church in Orange.

He graduated from Southwestern Assemblies of God University in 1996 with a Bachelors in Cross Cultural Communications.  He was ordained in 1997 with the Assemblies of God and has been involved in many roles of ministry since 1990, including Pastoring four churches, Missions Crusades, and church plantings in various parts of the world.

“I have been ministering for 25-ish years,” Thurman said. “We have held services online. This is a strange and new territory we are in.”

Stretching one’s boundaries has brought new experiences for the pastor.

“We are thankful for online,” Thurman added.

With the relocation to a new church also brought the need for a new house. With a pandemic, that brought other challenges for the couple.

“We have spent three months looking for a house,” Thurman said. “People did not want others in their home dur to COVID-19. We have been living here for six weeks.”

With so much transitioning, Thurman said there has also been so many miraculous events along the way.

“With Loretta joining the school and the accreditation for the school, there are miraculous things happening,” Thurman said. “Lord is helping the church. We are seeing a higher attendance with COVID-19.”

One challenge he has faced is one he said all pastors are facing today, how to pastor during a pandemic.

“We have done drive by services,” Thurman said.

He believes the Lord has a plan for the church.

“The Lord has a plan to bring the church to its former glory,” Thurman said. “The best is yet to come and the latter is better than the former. This is just building the foundation.”