It was not long until the little sanctuary couldn’t accommodate the number of people that were attending. It was time to start looking for property outside of the downtown area. We purchased a property, and soon construction began of an edifice that would accommodate our large and growing Sunday services, Sunday school and weekday youth groups. While our new building was under construction we moved our services to a large Independent Order of Foresters (IOOF) hall. Dances were held there on Saturday evenings, so we had to have a large crew of volunteers turn up early on Sunday mornings to clean the place and set up 300 chairs. We then moved to an elementary school around the corner from our new location, which enabled us to use the classrooms for Sunday school classes.
The day we held dedication services in our beautiful new church building was one of the most exciting of my pastoral ministry, and what a joy to have my mom, brother and all eight sisters present for the grand opening!
During my nine-year ministry at what was now called Emmanuel Baptist, I had the joy of seeing the congregation grow exponentially from 40 to over 400. Much of the growth was due to my radio ministry on Wednesday mornings (Good News Broadcast) and our Sunday Evening Gospel Hour and maybe a little to my dynamic preaching style and also my appeal to youth. As occurred in my first parish in Hamilton, we witnessed amazing growth in that area of our church life. As I was still in my twenties in my early years at Emmanuel, I had the physical energy and stamina to be involved in all kinds of activities with the youth, including sports. What a joy to have many of our youth go into full-time Christian service and for many to go on serving our Lord in congregations wherever they settled!
While I was the pastor at Emmanuel, we were blessed with three boys coming into our lives: Barry, whom we adopted at six weeks of age, and Kevin and Bradley, sons that Marion gave birth to. Marion was a devoted mother to our three boys, taking an interest in every aspect of their lives and giving them the most important gifts a mother (or father) can give to their children: attention, acceptance, affirmation, appreciation and, above all, affection.
STORM CLOUDS APPEARING
While I was pastoring at Emmanuel, I began to notice radical changes in Marion’s health. She was showing signs of severe lethargy when trying to carry out her responsibilities as a homemaker and a pastor’s wife. We made a visit to our family doctor, which became the first of a long series of visits as he tried to diagnose what Marion’s health problem was. When he became stymied he sent us to an internist, who also was unable to ascertain the underlying cause of her continuous decline in energy.
Marion also had problems with breathing due to nasal polyps, and she had to go through eight miserable surgeries to remove them. It was yet another health challenge for her to deal with and dragged her down physically and emotionally.
Marion was seen by numerous specialists to try to diagnose her underlying medical problem, and she was prescribed many powerful medications to help lessen the pain she was constantly experiencing in many parts of her body. One drug she was prescribed was prednisone, which can have serious and deleterious side effects, including confusion, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia and mental depression.
When the doctors were unable to come up with a satisfactory diagnosis, one suggested that she must be suffering from neurosis. Only after her medical condition had resulted in constant migraines, the loss of most of her hearing and a kidney and finally liver disease was she diagnosed with an auto-immune disease known as lupus. However, in spite of all her health challenges, she courageously carried on her responsibilities as a loving mother and dedicated pastor’s wife.
MY THIRD and LAST PASTORATE
The pastor of Stanley Avenue Baptist Church in west Hamilton had recently resigned after a long and successful ministry, so the church was looking for his successor. The pulpit committee had heard of a pastor in Barrie whose ministry had been very much blessed of the Lord. So the committee visited Emmanuel Baptist for a Sunday morning worship service and heard me preach. A point of interest was that the committee arrived late, and because our sanctuary was always filled to capacity, except sometimes the front row, the men (all dressed in dark suits) had to be ushered to the front. That caused my congregants to wonder what might be going on. After the service, the group of seven men asked to meet with me in my study. There they explained that their pastor had resigned and they were looking for a younger man to become the new pastor. I listened with interest, and then the chairman of the committee asked me if I would consider a call to be their new minister. I said I would pray about it, and after we prayed together for God’s guidance they left to return to Hamilton.
I had been feeling for some time that perhaps I should be moving on to a new challenge in my ministry. Four weeks after the visit of the pulpit committee, I received a letter from the chair of the committee stating that at a recent meeting of the membership, they had voted 100 percent to have me preach at a Sunday service, with a view to inviting me to be their new pastor. Marion and I prayed about it for a week and concluded that I should accept the invitation to preach at the church, and if they issued a call following that, I would accept.
The membership met and voted 100 percent to invite me to be their new pastor. I commenced my ministry in November of 1962 and saw the blessing of our Lord upon the work for 10 years. During that time we made major renovations to the building (which was 73 years old). These included renovating the washrooms and dividing the lower auditorium into Sunday school departments and a bright new nursery. We also completed the under-construction Christian education wing. During my ministry, the Sunday school tripled from 100 to 300, the youth groups tripled, and Sunday congregations grew, with many new people attending and joining the church.
MARION’S HOSPITALIZATION
Marion’s health continued to decline, so much so that she experienced her second nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt. She was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital, where she was admitted to the psychiatric ward under the care of the director of the ward, Dr. Isaac Sakinofsky. We could not have asked for a more compassionate and competent psychiatrist. These were incredibly painful days for the boys and for me. Here I was with a very ill wife, three boys (ages 16, 13 and 10), and a growing parish. As I look back, I’m amazed that I didn’t experience a nervous breakdown. The Bible truths I leaned heavily upon were “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13, NKJV) and “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Marion was hospitalized for six weeks, and then came the painful transition for her to get back into homemaking and being a pastor’s wife. Before she was released from the hospital, the doctor requested that I meet with him. He made it clear that if I didn’t change my vocation as a pastor, Marion would be headed toward another nervous breakdown, and even worse. Of course the uppermost thoughts in my mind were What will I get into?, How does one make the transition from being a pastor to another kind of vocation? and Who would want to hire a former pastor?
I continued on as pastor of the church until I knew what God would lead me into. The elders of the church and the congregants were very understanding through all this challenging time. Once again it was a very painful time for our family. As I look back I thank God for the mature way my boys handled all this adversity in spite of their young age.
LOSS OF MY CHOSEN VOCATION
The decision I had to make to get out of pastoral ministry (which I loved so much, had been called to and trained for) brought indescribable emotional pain. Indeed it was one the most traumatic experiences of my life! It also caused considerable consternation among my former congregants, who didn’t know all the circumstances. Word even got around that “Pastor Nullmeyer had lost his faith.” In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. If ever I needed faith and to lean upon my Lord, it was now! Let me add here that this decision caused Marion very deep guilt feelings about being responsible