After 55 years of active ministry, Resurrection Church Lead Pastor Roger Pierce has retired. The much revered and respected Pastor Roger leaves an impressive legacy. Over the course of his time ministering to SaddleBrooke residents, he challenged us with his sermons, counseled and prayed with us as needed, married us, baptized our grandchildren, visited us when ill, was with us when loved ones passed away and led many memorial services.
Pastor Roger first appeared in SaddleBrooke about 20 years ago as a visiting pastor at the Community Church. He soon signed on as an assistant pastor and eventually, became the Community Church Lead Pastor. During his tenure in that position, he presided over a period of rapid program expansion and membership growth. Sunday service attendance was in the neighborhood of 350 when he left in 2011.
It was in 2015 that Pastor Roger became one of the preaching pastors at the recently established Resurrection Church. In doing so, he was reunited with Wayne Viereck and Palmer Ruschke, two of the founding pastors of Resurrection Church, and pastors with whom he had been colleagues at the Community Church. As the structure at the new church evolved, Pastor Wayne became the Lead Pastor, and it was Wayne who Roger succeeded in 2021 when Wayne passed away.
A native Texan, Roger met his wife-to-be, Sue, when they attended the same high school in Dallas. Two years after graduation, Roger and Sue married while he was a student at Southern Methodist University. This year, they observed 62 years of marriage.
After completing his degree at the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and serving as a pastor in Dallas, Roger entered the U.S. Navy. He retired with the rank of Commander in 1992 after 20 years of service. A highlight of Rogerβs Navy career, and for the Pierce family, as well, was his three-year tour at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
After the Navy, Roger served for four years as pastor of Central Christian Church in Killeen, Texas, which was then followed by another four years at the national offices of the Disciples of Christ Church in Indianapolis. He and Sue then moved to Oro Valley to be close to their daughter.
A deeply spiritual individual and profound thinker who also happens to be highly creative, Rogerβs βShining Spiritβ blog has attracted a large following. And after writing poetry for some 40 years, the plan is to organize and compile most of that work in a way that a lack of time in the past has prevented.
On Sunday, October 22, after the Sunday worship service, the Pierces were honored at a brunch at the HOA-2 Clubhouse where 170 were in attendance. Next up for Roger and Sue will be venturing to Oregon for four months to live close to their son. After Oregon, maybe a similar adventure in Virginia where their other son is living. And then, and it might take a while, but itβs probably back to living in Oro Valley.
Resurrection Church at SaddleBrooke holds its all-denominational Sunday worship service at 9 a.m. in its now permanent home, the Ballroom at the HOA-2 Clubhouse. All are welcome!
