By Mike Harris
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer
More than 160 friends, family and members of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Lake Arrowhead gathered at the Tudor House on May 4 to laugh, cry and say goodbye to the church’s pastor of 28 years, the Rev. Randy Buecheler.
“When I learned why you wanted a guest pastor for the next two Sundays, I was shocked,” said Pastor Scott Ganas of Azusa during Mt. Calvary’s services on May 11. “Many churches see four, five or six pastors over 28 years. You’ve only had one.”
Buecheler has retired as Mt. Calvary’s pastor, but he’s not leaving Lake Arrowhead, where he and his wife, Nancy, have lived for all those years. Basically, the couple’s immediate plans are to travel the world. Their itinerary includes visiting countries in Asia, Europe, then back home.
After that, plans include hiking and bicycling with Buecheler’s older brother in Colorado.
“We love hiking and bicycling, so we plan to do a lot of that,” Buecheler added.
Future adventures may include returning to the Colorado River where Randy’s brother, Rondo Buecheler, is co-owner of Palisade Cycle and Shuttle, Palisade’s local bike and river rental shop.
Buecheler spent some of his youth growing up around Lake Arrowhead, then attending Christ College, Irvine (now called Concordia University, Irvine), then studied becoming a Lutheran minister at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind.
In February 1997, Mt. Calvary called Buecheler to become its pastor. He had been serving as minister of a Lutheran Church in a rough part of Philadelphia, Penn.
“I can remember being in Philadelphia in January watching the Rose Parade on television,” he recalled. “It was cold and snowing outside. Pasadena looked awfully good.”
Buecheler’s congregation in Philadelphia was located in one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, and it was home to less than 70 members. Buecheler began a series of outreach programs to the community and, within a year, membership had grown to 100 persons.
When he first got the news that Mt. Calvary wanted to call him as its pastor, Buecheler at first was reluctant.
“The programs he started there were helping the church to grow, so he was torn,” his wife, Nancy, remembers.
But his parents, Ron and Ruth Buecheler, were long-time Lake Arrowhead residents and they wanted their son to come home. Between encouragement from his wife and his parents, Randy accepted the call to Mt. Calvary.
Once back in Lake Arrowhead, Buecheler began using some of the same ideas and programs he used in Philadelphia to start growing Mt. Calvary.
“It was a blessing to come back home again,” he told the Alpine Mountaineer. “What I wanted to do was reach out to our mountain communities, from Crestline to Running Springs, and encourage them to visit, check us out.”
The improvements were simple at first, such as adding a cry room for new moms who attended with a baby. The area gave mother and child a room for the baby to fuss, but still allowed Mom to hear the Sunday service, without disturbing the service.
Other growth steps included increasing the number of children in the church’s preschool, adding the first daytime vacation bible school during the summer, purchasing a failing preschool in Running Springs and bringing in new Mt. Calvary preschool leadership, adding a memorial garden on the side of the church, adding a Grief Share program for those who had lost loved ones, beginning Broadway shows performed by church members and guests from the communities, starting a mission work program in Guatemala, expanding parking, growing to five services (three on Sunday, one service on Saturday and a YouTube service) and several other improvements over his 28 years of service.
During his years at Mt. Calvary, membership grew to around 500 persons.
“His philosophy for reaching out was, throw the idea on the wall and see if it sticks,” one long-term member said. “He’d try just about anything to show the mountain communities that we were here for them.”
Buecheler also joined the Rotary Club of Lake Arrowhead in 2002 and, in 2004, began serving as a volunteer chaplain at Mountains Community Hospital.
Often described as having a personality that was quiet, shy and willing to listen, Buecheler made long-lasting friends throughout the mountain communities.
One of his favorite fundraiser programs was the PolaRotary Bear Plunge, hosted by the Lake Arrowhead Rotary Club. Through the infamous jump in the lake – usually held in February – Buecheler raised thousands of dollars over the years for some of Mt. Calvary’s outreach programs.
Buecheler’s philosophy for Mt. Calvary was to always understand that it wasn’t just the members who would attend Sunday services, but owners of second homes who would come up for the weekend and attend a service while they were visiting, and also people who would come up for a vacation in the mountains and might be looking for a church to visit and worship on a Sunday.
“We had to have the attitude of welcoming them and be a friendly house of worship for them,” he added. “I think we here at Mt. Calvary do that.”
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