This post was originally written as a press release by St. John Lutheran Church & Early Learning Center It was published June 27, 2018 here.
Rev. David M. Bottorff has retired from active pastoral ministry after 39 years as an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). He devotedly served at St. John Lutheran Church and Early Learning Center (ELC) at 7214 South Cass Avenue in Darien, IL since 1987, 26 years as Senior Pastor and the last 4 years as Associate Pastor. Prior to that, Rev. Bottorff was Associate Pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kankakee, IL from 1979 to 1987.
Rev. Bottorff preached his farewell sermon on Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. A Program of Thanksgiving was held immediately after the Rite of Farewell & Godspeed Worship Service to mark the milestone occasion, to reflect on how God used Pastor Dave to impact the congregation’s 158-year history, and to express the church’s appreciation for the blessing he has been to the St. John congregation. A Celebration Luncheon followed.
A native of Indiana, born in South Bend and raised in Mishawaka, Rev. Bottorff began his training for the pastoral ministry at Concordia Junior College in Ann Arbor, MI where he was awarded an Associate of Arts degree in 1973. He then enrolled at Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, IN, where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1975.
He immediately entered Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO. From 1977 to 1978, Rev. Bottorff was a vicar at Trinity Lutheran Church in Clinton, IA. During this period, tremendous growth in Christ occurred under the leadership of Rev. Elder W. Richter. Rev. Bottorff completed his training for the pastoral ministry when he received a Master of Divinity Degree in May 1979 and was ordained the next month at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Mishawaka, IN.
Many individuals were instrumental in Rev. Bottorff’s call to ministry. During his preschool years, his great-grandmother and great-aunt would sit in a rocking chair while supervising him. There they would daily pray for him to become a pastor. This fact was not shared with him until he graduated from seminary. The rocking chair sits in his home today.
At the age of eight, Rev. Bottorff remembers listening to a presentation at his church by missionaries who served in Africa. He began to ask God if it was His plan for him to be a missionary. The Lord answered David’s prayer by directing him into activities related to his future vocation.
Mr. Bob Fuchs, Rev. Bottorff’s church youth counselor and mentor, provided guidance and opportunities through which God planted the seed for pastoral ministry. Mr. Fuchs asked young David to lead prayers in Sunday School and youth Bible class beginning in fifth grade and continuing through high school. In ninth grade, the responsibility of leading monthly youth group devotions was added. During this period, David also joined choir and went on member house calls with the Elders. On David’s first call, the door was slammed in their faces. Fortunately, David was not discouraged and persevered.
Rev. Bottorff has been a faithful and dedicated servant of the Lord in his role as pastor. Steadfast in prayer; true to God’s Word; a heart for the homebound and hospitalized; and a commitment to share the Gospel at every opportunity are all traits that have blessed his St. John church family.
Cindy Baumann, the church secretary, notes: “Pastor Dave and I have served God together at St. John for over 30 years. During that time, when I was struggling for various reasons, he always assured me that he was praying for me and my family. I know that he prayed for many others too. It’s comforting to know that you have a prayer warrior going to God on your behalf.”
During his tenure, Rev. Bottorff initiated a monthly Scripture-based prayer meeting. Lauri Luessow, a member of the group, shared: “Pastor Dave has helped all of the participants to enhance their prayer life. There are many other points I could touch on, but he is just an all-around great pastor, and we will sincerely miss him.”
God used Rev. Bottorff’s boyhood enthusiasm for missionaries in his pastoral ministry to heighten the congregation’s mission consciousness in terms of encouraging personal witness and supporting Gospel outreach and human care ministries both near and far. As a result, financial aid was given to Indian Lutheran church planters through Mission India and to a church member who serves university students through Cru in France.
The summers of 2013, 2014, and 2015 saw Rev. Bottorff and several church members participate in short-term mission trips to Nicaragua. The trips’ goals were to build simple, effective water filter purification systems for individual households and to share hygiene information and the Gospel with families. Rev. Bottorff’s assignment was to conduct health assessments. He broadened the scope of the task by actively praying for and with families using a jar filled with Scripture verses called “spiritual vitamins.”
Over the years, those not associated with St. John Lutheran Church & ELC may have encountered Rev. Bottorff in the community during one of his the-church-has-left-the-building activities undertaken in the hope of moving people God places in his path into a greater relationship with Jesus Christ.
One of these events involved an outdoor Candlelight Remembrance Ceremony after the attack on 9/11. Many people walking or driving down Cass Avenue stopped to participate until the front lawn was filled.
Rev. Bottorff often took Shami, the church’s K-9 Comfort Dog, to the local Panera Bread to interact with patrons. He also conducted a monthly worship service at Cordia Senior Residence in Westmont and Sunrise Senior Living in Willowbrook so that those in residential care facilities would have the opportunity to reconnect with the body of Christ through corporate worship.
A prayer-walker throughout the Darien Farmingdale subdivision, Rev. Bottorff regularly offered to pray with and for those he encountered and lifted up in prayer the unseen who resided in the homes he passed.
In addition to serving his parish and the neighborhood, Rev. Bottorff has been involved in various positions at the district level of the synod. From 1986 to 1989, he served as the Northern Illinois District (NID) Pastoral Advisor to the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML), the official women’s auxiliary of the LCMS. In 2006, he became the NID Circuit Visitor for a local grouping of congregations. In this role, he was a peer advisor to the pastors of these churches. He served in this capacity until 2015.
From 2015 to 2018, Rev. Bottorff helped establish the NID Life Task Force, an ongoing ministry with the dual focus of providing education and outreach opportunities about the reverence of life from conception through natural death. Through his coordination, pro-life seminars on suicide, end of life, and adoption were offered; local and national Marches for Life attended; crisis pregnancy centers supported; and 40 Days for Life prayer campaigns publicized.
Reflecting on his ministry, you might say that Rev. Bottorff has come full circle. At this year’s Good Friday service, he jointly offered prayers with a young man who received God’s call to the pastoral ministry when attending St. John Lutheran Church and who now attends Concordia Seminary in St. Louis just as his pastor did. Over the years, Mr. Fuchs’ mentee became a mentor.
In retirement, Rev. Bottorff hopes to travel and see more of God’s awesome creation, including the Holy Land. He looks forward to having more time to pursue his life-long hobby of fishing. Finally, and most importantly, he plans to continue to use the simple, powerful, and applicable insights of Joining Jesus on His Mission by Greg Finke to be an everyday missionary wherever the future takes him and to do so with gladness.
In this new season of life, his St. John family knows that Rev. Bottorff will, in his favorite words to others, “walk with God, talk with God, and listen to God asking Him in prayer to speak to you through the reading and study of His Word.”