John Pugh has given a lot of sermons in his long life.
He grew up in Norfolk, Va., and first felt a calling as a young man.
Watch John Pugh remember his life in the cloth:
“I came out of that saying, 'Lord, if you can use me, I’m available,'” he recalls.
He was ordained 68 years ago.
Now at the age of 97, John continues to answer the call whenever he’s asked. Every third Sunday, you’ll find him leading the services at the West Park Village Senior Living Community in Billings.
“I enjoy the discipline of writing sermons. My memory picks up odds and ins all through the years, and I read continually,” he says.
John says the first sermon he ever gave.
“That was during my seminary days, and I practiced and it was exactly 18 minutes. I went to class and preached it in 13 minutes. The professor said, 'Mr. Pugh do you always talk so fast?'” he laughs.
The nervousness would go away.
John’s first assignment as a full-time minister was at a church in Libby.
“I had to get a map to find Montana, let alone Libby,” he says.
But Montana would become home.
He’s also served as a pastor in Great Falls, Shelby, Butte, Havre, Billings and Laurel and has stayed busy filling in at too many churches to count since then. He’s also helped many churches with their stewardship programs.
“I enjoy the people. All kinds of people. Good, bad, indifferent,” he says.
Over the years, he also developed a ministry working with recovery groups to help those with addictions and their families.
“That wasn’t what you traditionally see as the ministry, but it really was a ministry to so many of those people who were hurting in different ways,” he says.
It’s also the subject of a funny story he recalls.
“The lady who was state president of Al-Anon asked me if I would speak to them. And I said when I speak outside the church, I usually collect a fee. And she said, what is your fee? I said a lemon meringue pie. She said, we can handle that. I was talking to quite a large group of women and when it was over, there must have been 40 lemon pies out there,” he laughs.
John still drives and paints and plays bridge in his spare time. He also enjoys hanging out with his wife Inga, whom he met while attending church in Billings.
“I married a younger woman. She’s only 95,” he jokes.
He says he has no plans to stop answering that call he received so long ago.
“If someone asks me to preach, I’ll probably be doing it then,” he says.
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