The Rev. Bill Friederich seeks to continue Longboat Island Chapel's success

It was Christmas Eve about four years ago when Bill Friederich and his wife, Bah Hero, first visited Longboat Island Chapel to sing carols.

On Jan. 8, the church’s board of directors elected Friederich, 66, the  new senior minister.

Friederich has been the chapel’s interim minister for the past six months following the Rev. Vincent Carroll’s early retirement. Before that, he was the minister of music.

Friederich has been an ordained minister for more than 30 years within the International Council of Community Churches. He has been a pastor in Maine, Illinois and various United Church of Christ congregations. After earning a master’s degree in divinity, he was the director of admissions at the Bangor Theological Seminary for four years. While in Maine, he served as the campus chaplain at the University of Maine and was an interim pastor in Bar Harbor, Maine, for smaller churches.

When Friederich and Hero sat in a back pew at the chapel that Christmas Eve, Friederich saw the chapel as a place the two could grow to love and support. Hero, who is now involved in the chapel’s choir, said she felt the warmth of the congregation. The church has helped their marriage bloom, and for them, Friederich’s new position is about teamwork.

“Our vision is to just grow this church and make it shine, and we’re both very excited about it,” Hero said.

Friederich credits timing for this new position.

“I trust and believe, and I think the people do, too, that providentially, God had us in the right place at the right time. For both of us, this is not just all about me and what I get out of this. This is about what the congregation gets out of this, too, because I can’t do this without them,” he said.

For Friederich, he needs the congregation as much it needs him. To fulfill the visions and aspirations they all have for the chapel, Friederich said the congregation is going to have to be responsible in sharing their gifts and burdens of the ministry.

“I think the minister needs to be the person who’s the bridge and the encourager,” he said, “the person who tries to help create those places where people and their gifts can be expressed.”

In his new position, Friederich wants to keep doing the things the chapel does well — continuing the strong music and worship on Sundays, supporting the pastoral care and outreach to retirement communities and hospitals, promoting the Lord’s Warehouse and continuing to support Aging in Paradise Resource Center, which shares a building with the chapel. The church will also launch an initiative to grow its membership, which Friederich is hoping will expand the chapel’s event schedule to year-round instead of just four months.

“I think with this growing the church campaign, there’s going to be some new ideas that come out of that as to events, dinners, teas, luncheons, concerts, poetry readings, you know, there could be any range of events,” he said.

Being the senior pastor will open new doors for Friederich and his relationship to congregation members. He wants the congregation to know he is there for them beyond his role as minister.

“And to be able to be present with people when they need a pastor, a shepherd, a friend, we all have struggles, we all have difficult times in our lives, be it illnesses, financial, loss of a job, loss of a relationship, we all face tough times, but what is really beautiful is when you have a friend, a group of people, a congregation of people who stand with you through those difficult times,” he said.