Levi Pennington grew up and started a career as a teacher and a reporter. Eventually, he was called to Indiana to pastor. From there he became the President of Pacific College, not far from Portland, Oregon. Pacific College eventually became George Fox University, one of the most respected Evangelical schools on the West Coast.
140th Anniversary series
- Snapshot of Our Heritage CLICK HERE
- Greetings from Former Pastors CLICK HERE
- Rev. Doug Shoemaker, IYM General Superintendent CLICK HERE
- Pastor Jared Exploring Our History
140th Anniversary
Pastor Jared
Exploring Our History
This is a brief snippet of some of our history, including a couple connections to George Fox University.
From Long Lake to George Fox University
A family of loggers moved here in 1883. The Penningtons were from Amo, Indiana. They had 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls. Their 6th child was Levi T. Pennington. He grew up in our schools, started a career in the area as a teacher, and also worked as a reporter in Traverse City.
Eventually, Levi was called to Indiana as a Pastor. From there he became the President of Pacific College, not far from Portland, Oregon. I was born just down the road 4 hours in Medford. Pacific College eventually became George Fox University. I can tell you from living out there that it is one of the most respected Evangelical schools on the West Coast, so Long Lake Friends Church is part of the Christian development of one of the Presidents.
Gervas Carey, our 10th Pastor (1908-11), was one of the 4 founding pastors of the Long Lake Quarterly Meeting. This was our regional group of meetings. It included Long Lake, Manton, Maple City, and Traverse City. These pastors were like all-stars, doing amazing things in our region.
Gervas later became a Professor at Friends University in Kansas. Richard Foster, who wrote Celebration of Discipline, was eventually a Professor there as well.
Later Gervas went on to Pacific College in Oregon. He was a Professor there, and then he became the President. So we have two Presidents of Pacific College from this church. During his time as President, the name of the school was changed to George Fox University.
Then after all that, if that wasn’t enough, Gervas came back and pastored here for awhile (1925-27).
I hope you like this brief snippet from the history, showing the commitment of the Friends to higher education, and our interesting connections to George Fox University.
Enjoy the rest of your week,
Pastor Jared
Long Lake Friends Church
4172 Church Rd.
Traverse City, Michigan 49685
Facebook @longlakefriends
Sunday Worship Service | 10 am
Wednesday Bible Study | 7 pm
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