No one’s job is easy today, but do you work 50 to 70 hours a week as a public figure? Do you keep up with constant technological advances, deadlines to meet, people to accommodate, licenses to be renewed and yet create work that’s fresh, innovative, interesting and applicable to a large variety of people?

A church pastor must do all of this and more. Senior Pastor of TC3 (Treasure Coast Community Church) in Jensen Beach, Gordon Mularski, laid it all out across his desk. He states, “A pastor must be proficient at many things.” Currently, Pastor Mularski is working on implementing a discipleship program, attending to church building plans, keeping up with the church’s financial responsibilities, connecting his congregation to the community through the Double Dog Dare “Pay It Forward” initiative. He must also walk his own personal spiritual journey, oversee his staff’s spiritual needs, look over last year’s victories, and prepare a sermon each week that has enough depth for a seasoned believer yet is simple enough for a new listener.

Whew!

He's also planning a church trip to the Holy Land, recording videos for social media, choosing music to correlate with his message and has implemented a financial help program.

A pastor’s work involves a very public life, not just for himself, but also his family. They are in the limelight, receiving phone calls at all hours and receiving criticism and threats. They deal with society’s breakdown and cultural shifts toward the occult and crime. However, a pastor and his family are also normally highly regarded, honored, loved, prayed for, and supported by the church.

When I was a child, my local pastor was a part-time reverend. He worked another job. Today’s culture has altered a pastor’s work, making more demands upon him. Approximately 54 percent work more than 55 hours a week, and 18 percent work more than 70 hours a week, causing stress. Many pastors are depressed, fatigued, and short on money for bills. (Church Leadership)

Yet these men are not quitting in high numbers.

Most pastors are committed people who have learned how to handle the necessary role of servant-leader. Pastor Gordon Mularski calls it, “The Art of Pastoring.” He admits that at times he must disappoint people “at a level they can tolerate.” He has not and will not sacrifice his family for his work. Fruit of these comments are his two grown children who do not have issues with the church.

The role of a pastor is not a job, it is a calling; it’s not easy. Pastors need rest, time away to refresh and renew. They need vacations with their kids and quiet dinners with their wives. They need less criticism and more prayer.

Gordon Mularski has pastored Treasure Coast Community Church for 15 years. His greatest blessing has been seeing the life-changing work through the power of Jesus in a very real way. His Atlantic Ocean baptisms often include entire families. Generational and cultural barriers have been broken too—a former prostitute and a man with a $100,000 Mercedes were baptized the same day.

Not long ago, the congregation was challenged to pray for three people every day for a specific time period. Shortly afterward Treasure Coast Community Church held a baptism. A woman told Pastor Mularski, “These three women you baptized are the three names I prayed for daily. They are my sisters!”

Pastor Mularski emphasizes the need for church leaders to ask God’s favor in everything they do, and to help a congregation understand that they themselves are the church, not a building. He adds, “Wherever you go, look for opportunities to be used by God, even in bars. Walk with a sense of mission.”

Pastoral support is necessary. The church itself is necessary. The two come together. To pull a vibrant church and its leadership out of a community would leave a gaping hole of loss—food pantries, kids’ clubs, teen youth groups and a host of other programs. Each year, 4,000 churches close their doors. Those communities become dimmer. Darker.

Keep the lights on in your community. Support your pastor as he stays and keeps a commitment to his calling as Gordon Mularski has. As you do, you support your church. Its presence is significant.

If you’d like to reach Gordon Mularski or for more information about Treasure Coast Community Church, contact: 772.334.3999; email: info@tc3.org

Contact Kelly Jadon: kfjadon@gmail.com

“Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.” ~Soupy Sales

Our teeth are often taken for granted, until there’s an ache, a cavity, or an infection. However, oral care is necessary, no matter the country. The World Health Organization reports that worldwide 60 to 90 percent of school children and almost 100 percent of adults have dental cavities which eat away at the teeth.

San Rafael is a beautiful mountain village in central Honduras. Fed by streams, its primary industry is coffee plantations. The people of San Rafael eat corn, rice and beans; they drink Coke, coffee, or the waters of descending mountain streams.

Good medical and dental care though are distant. Once a year, dentists come to the village to fix what teeth can be saved and educate patients about how to take care of their teeth.

Dr. Andrew Turke, a Palm City dentist, travels to San Rafael yearly to work in his field as a volunteer.

Dr Turke states, “San Rafael has a high rate of dental disease due to lack of dental care and education. Many children have lost their molars, whereas the adults have previously lost their molars and are in the process of losing their front teeth. Complete loss of natural teeth is a real danger; fewer foods can be consumed, leading to nutritional deficiency and bodily disease.”

Andrew Turke DMD is part of a dental mission team from Treasure Coast Community Church, TC3 in Jensen Beach. Traveling with him are fellow dentists: Dr. Jose Sarasola, Dr. Timothy Salib, Dr. Thomas Galinis. The team also includes dental assistant Andrea Turke, three other dental assistants, and dental hygienist Sonta Delabarrera.

In February 2017, the TC3 dental mission team went to San Rafael. Together with a Honduran dental mission team, a temporary dental clinic was set up in a church sanctuary. Using camping headlights over their foreheads, a pressure cooker for sterilization, and church translators—the two teams saw 715 adults. The teams restored holes in front teeth when possible with a resin composite material, pulling teeth, and filling remaining cavities.

During a previous trip in 2015, Dr. Turke’s team saw 320 children, extracting rotted molars, cleaning cavities and placing fillings.

The problem in San Rafael is three-fold.

First, there are no wells nor a treatment plant for clean water. Residents get sick from drinking mountain stream water from a two-foot wide ditch, resulting in sickness—gastro-intestinal problems, bacterial infections and even parasite infestations. Coke is cleaner to drink and is readily available at markets, but it is not good for the teeth.

Second, residents of San Rafael can afford little. They work as laborers on the coffee and sugar plantations beginning at about age 12 or 13. Houses outside the village are constructed from sticks, clay and sheet metal.

Third, no permanent dental clinic is in place.

Dr. Turke has a vision. He would like to fund a permanent dental clinic in San Rafael to provide continuing health care and education. To do this, a piece of property must be purchased and a dentist installed.

Why is this so necessary? When the teeth and gums are unclean, bacteria is invited into the body, setting people up for disease. Disease leads to death. Dr. Turke states that this is on his heart. “These people are good, hardworking people who need my help,” he adds.

Andrew Turke DMD is a native Floridian, born and raised in Plantation. He moved to Jensen Beach in 2009 and is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University. His local practice is Turke Advanced Dental Arts, in Palm City. Dr. Turke relates, “I became a dentist because I enjoy working with my hands on teeth and seeing the smile of a happy patient.” The smiles of those he has helped in San Rafael are priceless.

You can reach Dr. Turke at aturke@icloud.com or at 772-919-7444.

Hometown Heroes