Western Springs Minister Retires after 60-Year Career

Many people will retire this year at age 65.

But Paul Stiffler has been working since all of them were in kindergarten.

Stiffler, 85, will deliver his last sermon this Sunday at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, retiring just five days shy of his 60th anniversary in the ministry.

“I didn’t measure things by years,” Stiffler said. “I just continued what I was doing.”

Stiffler joined the Western Springs congregation part-time 14 years ago as minister of pastoral care—five years after he retired for the first time in 1994. (Though, unsurprisingly, he continued to work part-time at various churches throughout that “retirement” period.)

“(I wasn’t) thinking it would be 14 years,” Stiffler said. “But it came out to be 14 years, and I loved every minute of it.”

The Akron, Ohio, native spent his whole career with congregations in the Chicago area after attending North Central College in Naperville.

Church, he said, was the one place where he felt peaceful in the wake of World War II. He made the decision to enter the ministry during his senior year of high school.

“It was an answer to restlessness, and I found peace,” he said. “And I still find peace.”

Stiffler’s legacy in Western Springs is helping other members of the congregation find that same tranquility.

He brought a 36-foot canvass labyrinth into the ministry for meditative, walking prayer, as well as Taizé services, which focus on music rather than a sermon.

“Several of the things Paul has brought to our congregations are things that I would never have thought of a mainstream Protestant church embracing,” Senior Minister Rich Kirchherr said. “But I think Paul was able to do that because he not only is comfortable in the intellectual part of the faith, but he is also comfortable in the heart of the faith.”

The congregation has found meaning in these tools through Stiffler’s gentle, loving spirit, Kirchher said.

Stiffler in return has found fulfillment in the church’s many charitable programs, including its Food Resource Bank, which has provided more than three million meals to people in need over the past 14 years.

“That delights me,” Stiffler said. “That makes what you’re doing relevant to the world in which you live.”

Stiffler has also authored two books, “Spiritual Pathways” based on the church in Western Springs, and “Make Angels in the Snow,” a book of love poems.

Many of those poems are dedicated to Stiffler’s wife of 63 years, Elsie.

The couple lives together at Plymouth Place in La Grange Park. Part of the reason he’s retiring now, Stiffler said, is that there are so many things he and Elsie still want to do together, including garden. The couple has two children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

 And even though he’s leaving the church staff, Stiffler said he won’t be going far.

“If Rich calls upon me to help,” he said, “I will be there.”

Paul Stiffler will deliver his farewell sermon at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, 1106 Chestnut St. A reception will follow.

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