Jeremy Ratliff
Editor
Friday, October 2. marked the culmination of a pastoral career spanning over 40 years for Pastor Allen Worlin; 21 of which spent serving the congregants of Hillside Fellowship Assemblies of God, located at 1501 N. Pier St. Merrill.
Worlin cited his battle with Parksinson’s Disease as the primary factor for his retirement.
“I’m going to miss it, preaching that is,” he said with a smile.
“I’ll miss everyone of course, but especially the children. I’ve always been a sucker for kids.”
The roots of Worlin’s career date back to 1972 in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Worlin began his undergraduate studies in Biblical Literature and a Minor in History.
“I was 14 when I had a definite calling from God,” Allen states.
“This is something I’ve always destined to do
Following graduation in 1975, Allen studied for six months at the University of Helsinki in the Helsinki-the capital city of Finland- before returning stateside and attending Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN.
It was during his seminary studies that Worlin garnered his first pastoral experience; serving as an interim pastor in New York Mills, MN. Following graduation from the Seminary in 1978, Worlin started his first full-time pastoral position as a Youth Pastor in Westwego, Louisiana. For the next thirteen years, his career would continue, serving in various capacities around the midwest, including Merrillville,IN-where he met his wife Pamela- and Bunker Hill, IL before settling in Canton, IL where he served as Senior Pastor from 1991-99.
It was while serving in Canton, that Worlin learned of a Senior Pastor vacancy at Hillside Fellowship.
“It was the fall of ‘98,” he explains with a smile.
“My wife and I were pastoring in Canton and discussed looking for something different. We started looking for other open positions and learned of the opening. We had never been to Merrill, but the more we talked to people about Merrill, the more good things we heard. We became very interested and eventually interviewed with the church board in November. I remember thinking it must have went pretty well, as a few of the board members invited me to go deer hunting with them the following year,” he adds with a quiet laugh.
“The congregation voted to approve me for the position the following February and we relocated to Merrill in June of 1999.”
When asked of any particular memories that come to mind of his near half-century career.
Pastor Worlin quickly mentions his “sucker jar” and how it began as a simple idea, but soon became a mainstay in his service for over 20 years.
“I was still serving in Canton when I picked up a jar and a package of suckers one day, for the children at the church. I didn’t think much of it at the time, I just thought it would be nice to have for the kids you know.” Pastor explains as he cracks another broad smile. “It became a part of Sunday service back in Canton, and now since I’ve been here in Merrill. After every Sunday service, the children would be lined up waiting for me outside my office. They eventually started to call me “Pastor Sucker.”
“One thing I will miss the most is seeing the generations grow up and new generations beginning over the years. Some of the young boys and girls who came to church with their families 15-20 years ago, are now mothers and fathers themselves and having families of their own. As a matter of fact, I recently administered a baby dedication for a young couple, of which the young man and his family have been members of the congregation since my first day here. A few years back, I officiated their wedding service. Its memories like that I’ll never forget”