Henderson retires after 5 decades pastoring Carson City

Pastor Bruce Henderson of the Airport Road Church of Christ never failed to care for the whole person in his ministries.

Retirement after 56 years of full-time ministry, with 51 in Carson City, will be a chapter of closure and rest, he said. Henderson finished as pastor at Airport Road on Sept. 22 on his 78th birthday.

“I guess the chapter I’m in now is just closing things and it’s a lot of things to be done,” Henderson said.

As a pastor, he challenged his followers in their spiritual walk at Airport Road in their “growing family years,” he called them. As a chaplain, he comforted and prayed over patients on a hospital bed and their families at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center or gave guidance to inmates in the state prison system.

He grew up in Albuquerque. His father, who had served in the military, had tried to expose him to woodwork and mechanics, but the only skill that really sank in was public speaking, he said.

“I get resentful of local friends who are pastors who can add a room on to their house or repair their engine, and you know, I’m like Popeye — ‘I yam what I yam,’” he said.

But if the invitation comes to speak on the National Day of Prayer, he would never hesitate and always comes up with a humorous icebreaker, he said.

His love for speaking developed early at 9 and he began participating in youth oratorical contests and continued to grow his skills.

“It took me years before I realized that ministry is a one-on-one, person-to-person thing, and I had these ideas that that I was going to be a public preacher of huge audiences because I began public speaking when I was 9 years old,” Henderson said. “I was 14 and decided I that was the one thing I could do and I would do that … and I am thankful, the truth is, I became a minister.”

When he and his wife Wanette moved from Vermont, he began serving as a chaplain at then-Carson-Tahoe Hospital. There was no chaplain system at the time, but with the help of a retired nun and volunteer, he would visit with patients.

“I tried to do everything completely just caring, not any denominational stuff or anything, just meeting people and trying to share in their needs,” he said.

But in offering prayer and having conversation, he hoped to guide people in a loving way, and that also meant being willing to serve in public meetings.

As a member of the Carson City Christian Ministerial Fellowship, which has helped to produce the weekly Faith and Insight column in the Appeal, he has provided invocation for the Carson City Board of Supervisors meetings and prayer for other governing bodies in session.

Airport Road officially honored Henderson on Sept. 22, and he still had some work to finish up and was preparing his final message at the time of this interview, he said.

“I’m not going to get everything done before I’m completely done, but I’ve started trying to get rid of my library,” he said. “I had a local pastor come in the other day and he took 70 books.”

Airport Road celebrated its 50th anniversary last October, and Henderson said he will reflect on many positive memories, although he adds one of his failings as pastor was not helping to train someone to take on the work as shepherd of the church. Even recruiting volunteers for simple tasks became a common burden in his mind, he said.

“I should have been a delegator,” he said. “I should have trained people along the way. There were times when I’ve tried to delegate things and in my mind, it wasn’t done right … and this sounds very selfish or egotistical, and I don't mean it to be, but I have a lot of things that have to be done. And somebody asked me two weeks ago, ‘You're still going to publish a church bulletin, right?’ No.

“And that shouldn’t be the mentality of the church,” he said. “Everybody should be helping somewhere.”

Henderson focused his final sermon on Paul’s final words from the New Testament, hoping to encourage his church the way the apostle did.

“I appreciate everybody who has been so supportive through these years and encourage people to tap into the innermost being and realize that without the divine presence, there’s something missing and there are individuals and churches in the area that would love to help individuals,” he said.