OAKLAND TWP — After pastoring for short stints at three churches and serving as a traveling evangelist throughout the eastern U.S., the 39-year-old Rev. Richard “Dick” Jenks hoped to stay at then-Institute Hill Alliance Church in Butler for three years.

He has met that goal 15 times over.

Jenks, 83, celebrated his 45th anniversary as pastor at what is now Faith Fellowship Alliance Church off Fared Drive.

“It just was the place God prepared me for,” Jenks said of his tenure at the church.

Jenks oversaw the church’s name change as well as its move from the intersection of Second and Beech streets in Butler to its breezy, 10-acre spot in the countryside.

Jenks recalled traveling to Canada in the late 1970s or early 1980s while a pastor at the Butler church and sitting by a scenic lake.

“God said ‘I want you to get your men together and tell them I’m going to build the church by giving to them, miraculously, money they don’t have,” Jenks recalled.

Jenks said God gave him an amount he and his wife would have to sacrifice, and later, his wife said God told her the exact same amount.

God told the couple, separately, that they would have to sell their motor home and donate the proceeds to the project to build a new church on new land.

Jenks did so, and organized a breakfast with church leaders to tell them to pray and ask God how much money or what possession God would channel through them to raise funds for the project.

“Every man prayed, and God gave them a figure,” he recalled. “They went to their wives, and the Lord told them the same numbers.”

So on a special Miracle Sacrifice Sunday, congregants donated $32,000, and others brought in items to be auctioned.

Jenks said a Pontiac Trans Am, antiques and family heirlooms were donated for an auction.

“Children brought their piggy banks,” Jenks recalled.

More offerings rolled in to further burgeon the amount available to purchase property.

An auction of the donated items brought another $10,000 to the coffers of the new church project.

In 1983, the congregation bought the 10 acres on Fared Drive.

“When the property was paid for, we had $1,000 left to build the church,” Jenks said. “Then people began to give. As the money came in, we built.”

A basement was built on the new property and used for two years before the first floor narthex, offices and sanctuary were completed. The congregation and staff moved upstairs on June 10, 1986.

Jenks is proud to state that the property was purchased and the church built without a penny of debt having been incurred.

Another miracle occurred among the families who sacrificed money or gave up cherished items to pay for the property and church.

“Every family gave, and every family received more than they gave,” Jenks said.

Having sold his motor home, Jenks and his wife were able to purchase a new RV to replace it.

Another family who sacrificed a large amount of money saw their daughter give birth to her first daughter in her 40s, then another daughter later.

“What better gift could the Lord have given them?” Jenks said.

A parsonage was added in 1994 and a youth building in about 1996, Jenks said.

Today, Jenks sees those same people in the congregation with their descendants.

“I’m ministering sometimes to the fifth generation,” he said. “We have three or four families in their fifth generation here.”

Although he could have done so two decades ago, Jenks still has no plan to retire.

“You retire so you can do what you want,” he said. “I’m doing it.”

Jenks said God called him to be a pastor as a child growing up near Binghamton, N.Y.

“He was preparing me for this ministry here, and it is my life,” he said. “Someday, the Lord will say ‘It’s time to retire.’”

But don’t expect that announcement any time soon.

“The miracles people have seen happen in their lives financially and physically and seeing our people grow spiritually is really what keeps me going,” Jenks said.

Jenks graduated from Nyack College in New York City with his bachelor’s degree, and earned his divinity degree from Circleville Bible College in Ohio, which is now Ohio Christian University.

He had two sons, Richard and David, with his first wife, Dorothy, who died in 1991. David died of cancer last fall.

Jenks married his second wife, Becky, in 1996 and the couple was thrilled to welcome their son, Ethan, in 1998.

In addition to serving as a successful and much-beloved pastor, Jenks also calls himself an artist and horseman.

His acrylic landscape portraits can be seen hanging in his office and in the small studio he set up for himself in one corner of the sanctuary.

Jenks’ beginnings as an artist came during revival meetings, where he would create a landscape scene in eight to 10 minutes to give to the person who brought the most people to the service.

Jenks said he paints landscapes, takes a photo of the result, attaches the Scripture that inspired the work to the back of the photo and gives them out to those he visits in the hospital.

Regarding horses, he has not ridden in the four years since his hip replacement, but hopes to get back in the saddle this summer at the Mahaffey Camp and Conference Center in Clearfield County, where he always has kept his horses.

“I’ve lost my reputation as a cowboy,” Jenks said with a laugh.

He preferred Tennessee Walkers when he was younger, but now favors the Halflinger breed.

Still, Jenks admits he doesn’t have the energy he once possessed for his hobbies or duties as the pastor of a busy church.

“I’ve slowed a little bit,” he said. “I’m not working as hard as I did when I was 80.”

Jenks said he has been blessed with many wonderful assistants throughout the years, and considers serving Jesus Christ and knowing the fullness of God’s spirit “a joy.”

“And the congregations is one of the most amazing group of people to work with,” he said. “I have been loved, as I have loved them.”

Bonnie Jacobson, of Butler, has been Faith Fellowship’s church secretary for 24 years.

She said Jenks’ long tenure at the church says a lot about his vision, leadership and skill in teaching the Gospel to his flock.

“Being around this long, he’s gained a lot of wisdom, and he’s very approachable and easy to talk to,” Jacobson said.

She said the congregation is planning a celebration for Jenks’ anniversary in the fall.

“We certainly want to honor him for 45 years of faithful leadership,” Jacobson said.