A 60-year-old who has led Suncoast Christian Church for three years can now remove "interim" from his title.
By JEAN JOHNSON
Published October 11, 2003
SPRING HILL - Although the Rev. Daniel L. Turner co-founded Suncoast Christian Church more than three years ago and has preached to the Disciples of Christ congregation ever since, he always served merely as interim pastor/developer.
That changed Sunday as Turner, 60, was officially installed as head of the growing congregation. The ceremony was more than symbolic.
"An installation means that you have the call from God, and that kind of makes it official that the congregation has voted and called you because they have confidence and they feel you've been called (by God), too," said Turner, who was installed by the Rev. William C. Morrison Jr., regional minister of the Christian Church in Florida (Disciples of Christ).
Half of the audience members were congregants, and the remainder were visitors and dignitaries, including a representative of the state organization, several ministers who served on the steering committee that approved the funding of the new mission, and ministers and pastors from Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Zephyrhills, Palm Lake and St. Petersburg.
In addition to a newly installed church leader, the congregation also has a new church home: Worship services are now held each week in the Spring Hill United Church of Christ fellowship hall.
A father of four and grandfather of 10, Turner has been a licensed pastor/developer since 1974. In addition to serving as interim pastor at several churches, he has been responsible for finding new buildings for worship and helping to plant new congregations.
Originally from Burlington, Ky., Turner retired after 37 years with Cinergy Electric of Cincinnati. With Roberta, his wife of 41 years, he moved to Hudson in 2000 to be near his father-in-law, who was ill.
The Turners and Derral and Emily Sloan founded Suncoast Christian in the fall of 2000 and took turns offering worship services in their homes before moving to Turner Funeral Home.
"When we moved to Turner's we had about 10 in the congregation, but it's tough to get people to come to a funeral home for worship services, especially those with children," he said.
So in July 2001 the congregation rented the vacant Post Office storefront at Kass Circle and remodeled it. Membership rose to an average of 50 to 60 each week.
When the cost of renting at Kass Circle became unmanageable, Turner looked around and was offered a worship area at the Church of Christ, led by pastor Dwight Wolter.
"We lost a few people when we moved here because of the distance, and we changed the worship schedule to accommodate the Church of Christ," said Turner, "but we didn't lose a lot, and the snowbirds are coming back and every week we seem to have a handful of new visitors."
Co-founder Emily Sloan said Turner had to wait for the congregation to reach a certain number before Suncoast Christian could be recognized as a full-fledged church and not a mission.
The denomination takes a fairly pragmatic approach when it comes to matters of faith, Turner said.
"Disciples of Christ look at the Bible as an opportunity that God gives us. It is a book that tells us the lessons and patterns for life, especially the gospel.
"But we also understand that God didn't make us all alike and we look at Scriptures in different ways but still come to the understanding of what's good for us," he continued. "We're very ecumenical, and the United Church of Christ is very similar in that way. We both welcome activities with churches of other denominations."
Turner said his wife is his right arm at the church.
"We work well together," he said. "We might fuss a little bit, but we get the job done."
When asked about future plans for the church, Turner mentioned the upcoming stewardship week outreach, which he hopes will increase membership.
"I feel we're unique in many ways, because we have women who are very active in the leadership of the church - women pastors, deacons and elders."
The Disciples of Christ have grown 15 percent in the last couple of years, he said.
"Many of the churches are Hispanic, spawned by Anglo churches because of the need," Turner said.
The congregation's participation in the SHARE discount food distribution program has helped the church to be recognized in the community, Turner added.
"I don't have ambitions to be a megachurch," he said, "but (I) would like a good size of 500, more or less. When we get to a certain point I would like to help spawn another church, which is part of our mission statement."
Services
SUNDAY WORSHIP: 9:30 a.m.
KIDS FOR CHRIST: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. the second and fourth Sundays of each month.
