News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Pastor Jim Erickson of Immanuel Lutheran Church stands next to the pulpit in the church’s sanctuary on Friday.

ALPENA — After 44 years of serving and loving people, Rev. Jim Erickson, of Immanuel Lutheran Church, is retiring as pastor, to become, in his words, “just Jim.”

Erickson grew up the son of a pastor, but never thought he would be a pastor himself. The family moved multiple times during Erickson’s childhood. He lived in South Dakota, Iowa, and Washington, where he graduated from high school.

“My dream was always to be a history teacher,” Erickson said. “And then things changed when I got into college. I was in my junior year at the University of Minnesota where I felt the Lord was directing me off into the ministry.”

He attended seminary at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Erickson said he loved studying the scriptures and church history.

Erickson was placed at Immanuel Lutheran in Alpena as vicar for a year, and in August 1982, he answered the call to serve as associate pastor.

“The Lord put me here. I just thoroughly have loved what I do… I know it was the Lord that was guiding and directing all the while, even though I was kind of a rebel at the start,” he said.

Erickson says some of his favorite memories over the years include being involved with youth ministry, evangelism outreach, teaching religion at Immanuel Lutheran School, and visiting with people at their homes.

“I’ve enjoyed just the community, being part of this community,” Erickson said. “And feeling like, yeah, this is home.”

Gerri Nelson, a former teacher at Immanuel, noted that the youth felt the same love for Erickson as he did for them.

“During Pastor’s first few years at Immanuel, as a vicar and later as an associate pastor, Pastor Jim was well liked by the youth of the congregation and community,” Nelson said. “He participated with them in sporting events, coached youth basketball teams, and made a good impression on their notion of what a pastor was like.”

Janet Winfield, a lifelong member of Immanuel, shared a memory about Erickson’s visits to students on confirmation day.

“On confirmation day in 1984, there was a large class of boys with few girls,”. “He always visited them at home later that day. My son, Kurt, waited for him all day and finally just before midnight, a knock came to the door. Here he was saying that he made it before the end of the day and knew that we would not be too upset by the lateness of the day. Oh, how we love that man despite his tardiness!”

The best part of his work, he said, is proclaiming a message that the world needs to hear.

“Proclaiming this wonderful gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ crucified, risen and coming again,” Erickson said. “It never gets old…it’s a life changing message.”

“This is a unique calling to be a pastor and you’re dealing with eternal things, and it’s so different than just dealing with lifetime things, you know, they’re just earthly things,” Erickson said. “But when you’re dealing with eternal things, dealing with the souls of people and doing soul care, there is a special reward.”

Rev. Jeffrey Nickel, praised Erickson’s drive to share the gospel.

“By His death on the cross our Lord won salvation for us, and by His resurrection He opened for us the way to eternal life,” Nickel said. “In his ministry at Immanuel in Alpena, Rev. Erickson walked in the footsteps of St. Paul, pointing to the very same cross and resurrection of Christ Jesus.”

Erickson said the most challenging aspect of pastoring has been learning how to love all people equally.

“It can be challenging sometimes working with all kinds of different people and learning to love them all the same, and treat them all with kindness and genuine concern and compassion,” he said.

The biggest change to his work that Erickson has experienced is the development of technology.

“That certainly has changed the world and the way that communication happens and the way that church work is done,” he said.

With cell phones, people can easily contact Erickson anytime, anywhere. In the past, he could only be reached through calling the church, calling his house, or stopping by for a visit.

“You have to be kind of prepared for that, to be contacted at any time of the day or night,” he said. “But to some degree you have to have some cautions too. Otherwise, if you’re answering your phone day and night, well, it’s gonna take its toll. There’s a time you have to just walk away from it.”

Erickson’s last day as a full time pastor will be June 30. From there, he will serve part time until a new lead pastor is found.

In retirement, he hopes to travel, spend time with friends and family, and play some golf.

“To the people of the congregation, I just owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, for their kindness that they’ve shown,” Erickson said. “And a tremendous debt of gratitude to God, to the Lord, who saw fit to find me a place that really has become my home.”

“Our church has certainly been blessed to have him here these past 42 years,” Tina Boven, altar guild director at Immanuel, said. “We will certainly miss seeing him every day, but we know he will still be out there in our community always demonstrating God’s love. One might say he just enlarged his congregation by a thousand fold! At that we rejoice.”

While he will no longer hold the title of pastor of Immanuel, Erickson will still be involved with the community and doing the work of a pastor in a new way.

In 2018 Erickson was named the Alpena Outstanding Citizen of the year by the Alpena Chamber of Commerce and he said he intends to continue to be active locally even in retirement.

“I won’t be pastor of a local congregation,” he said. “I’ll be ‘just Jim,’ and that’s okay. A pastor is always a pastor, but when you’re no longer working full time as a pastor, you kind of settle into the role of being ‘just Jim,’ just an ordinary, ordinary guy.”