Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Answering the call
New Lutheran pastor also father of eight
Sometimes, when God called, Christopher Gorshe tried not to answer — or at least, he was slow to get to the phone.
“I joined the local Lutheran church when I was in middle school because I had been invited by a friend,” recalls Gorshe, who just moved to Bella Vista. “My friend’s dad was the Lutheran pastor. I went through confirmation classes in seventh and eighth grade and was confirmed. I didn’t realize it then, but my pastor, Don Illian, and his wife Kathy began praying for me every day while I was in confirmation that I would become a pastor someday. They ended up praying for 13 years until it finally happened.”
Gorshe says he, “like many young people, made some mistakes along the way. I started and stopped college a couple times because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Being a pastor was always in the back of my mind, but I think I resisted that path. I didn’t fully commit to being a pastor until my final year in college.”
And then perhaps God wanted to test his mettle.
“I was all set to graduate from the University of
Northern Iowa in May 2003 when I got a phone call from the registrar. They had made a mistake with my credits,” he explains. “I was already signed up to take summer Greek classes at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. I had prayed to God that, if he really wanted me to be a pastor, He would have to help me pass summer Greek. I had little confidence that I would pass,
so I thought this may be my ‘out.’ My whole college career was riding on my performance in a class that I didn’t think I could pass.
“I committed to work hard, and the Lord got me through it. I graduated from UNI with Greek credits — a course which UNI doesn’t even offer! But more importantly, I knew I needed to continue through seminary.”
Gorshe’s personal life took the same perseverance. He met Bethany, the woman who would become his wife, at Lutheran Camp Perkins in central Idaho in the summer of 2002.
“In my mind, I think I knew the first time we talked together that she was the girl I would marry,” he admits. “I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, let alone a wife. But she was persistent. The running joke we share between us is that she chased me all summer. It wasn’t until the last week of camp that we were officially dating. Then she moved back to Wisconsin to finish school, and I returned to UNI to finish. We had to date long-distance until we
got married in 2005.”
Children came along — a daughter in 2007, then a son in 2009 — but the couple always felt called to adopt. The first time they signed up, they discovered Bethany was pregnant with a second girl. “So, we put the brakes on the foster care process,” Gorshe says. When they returned to the idea a few years later, the Gorshes had all sorts of limitations on what they wanted to do.
“Our plan was to adopt a baby,” Christopher says. “We also wanted only one child — two at the most. But God had other plans. First, we never got a call from DHS for a sibling group smaller than three.” Also, their oldest daughter wanted to remain the oldest, so “we decided to honor that.” Then the call came for a sibling group of five — with two children older than the Gorshes’ oldest daughter.
“We knew that she wouldn’t be happy if we said yes,” he remembers. “But we had also decided that, since the only calls we had been getting from DHS were for such big sibling groups, that God must be trying to tell us something. So we asked our daughter what she thought. To our surprise — and for the first time ever — she said, ‘Yeah, I guess that would be OK.’ So, all five of the kids were placed in our home. That gave us eight kids — and a dog!”
This month, the Gorshes — all 10 of them; the adoption should be finalized this spring — moved to Bella Vista, where Christopher will serve as associate pastor at Bella Vista Lutheran Church.
“I accepted the call because I was impressed by the members of Bella Vista Lutheran,” he says. “It is a church that is intentional about serving their community out of love for God, who gave them so very much.
“I also admire Pastor Hass and think that I can learn a lot from him as the senior pastor. I’ve already learned a lot from him as well as our family life leader, Chuck Merriman. Secondly, I think Bella Vista has a lot to offer my family. Bethany and I were impressed by the area, the schools and the proximity to all that Bentonville has to offer.
“We are looking forward to fitting in to this great community.”