Prescott Community Church Gets New Pastor

PRESCOTT - Th e Krutsch Family came to Prescott last month to call the Prescott Community Church their new home. And even though they've never lived in a town as small as Prescott, they're adjusting just fine.

"We're excited about pastoring and getting to know this community," said Mike Krutsch, the church's new pastor.

Mike moved here with his family on Dec. 29 from Denver, Colo. Mike is 41 and his wife Kim is 39. They have two children, Kyle, 5, and Callie, 3.

Steve Hoffman, the chairman of the church's board is thrilled with the new pastor and his family. It has been about 10 years since the church had its own resident pastor, he said. The church often held services with Prescott's Presbyterian church and had a permanent guest speaker.

Last summer, the church board members decided to use an organization called Village Missions that plants pastors in rural churches. In October, Hoffman learned the church would have a pastor soon.

And since Pastor Mike Krutsch started preaching Jan. 1, Hoffman said the congregation has grown from about 20 or 30 attendants to nearly 60.

Hoffman said the pastor will be able to inspire not only improvement in the church, but in the community as well.

"We need somebody to reach out and bring unity on everybody," Hoffman said.

He added that the new pastor is really down to earth, but the whole family has also lived in many cultures. During seminary, Mike was the English-speaking pastor at a Chinese church in Portland.

"I got my feet wet," Mike said.

Next, he and his wife Kim were doing mission work in East Asia. Their son Kyle was born in Singapore and Callie was born in Thailand.

Before coming to Prescott, Mike took on a more administrative role, organizing church and college mission work in East Asia.

Needing a change from the more human resources work to pastoring, the Krutsch Family decided to join the Village Mission program and move to a small community that needed them. Prescott is perfect, Mike and Kim say. Kim grew up in a small town and Mike grew up in Puyallup and his family still resides there.

The town is smaller than the family is used to, but Kim said it hasn't been a culture shock because they have tried to prepare themselves.

"I've never lived in a town quite so small," Mike said. "But it's been very busy."

The family is still settling into the green house behind the church and working on getting everything in order. The church board is doing some remodeling in the church to prepare for its new future.

The church holds an adult roundtable group on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. and regular service is at 11 a.m.

Kim hopes to start a children's

Sunday school in the near future.

Mike is pleased with the turnout on Sundays so far. His mission here is simple - listen and learn first.

"We need to listen well and then eventually dream together," Mike said.

The family will get to know the needs of the church and the community and make it an asset and blessing. Then, Mike wants to inspire the congregants to become blessings to the community themselves. Eventually, the family would like to meet all of the board members, then the church members and then the whole town.

The program does not set the amount of time the pastor will be at Prescott Community Church and Mike said he hopes to be in Prescott "a good long time."