Excerpts from recent letters of recommendations. Complete letters are available upon request.
1. “She attracted new people, including young people, to the church. She opened her arms to children, parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, and elders. ……During her tenure, Bonnie revitalized the children’s program, and many new children visited the church with their parents. We can say form experience that her approach to our daughter Hazel was deeply kind, spiritual and nurturing. We value beyond anything else about our time at the church Hazel’s early exposure to a strong, intelligent, compassionate female leader who loved her unconditionally and abundantly. It is no mystery to us that Bonnie was able to draw children and young people to the church—she connects to youth immediately and authentically with both respect and compassion, In her short time on the board at the Neskowin Valley School she has rekindled the boards belief that they are “doing Gods; work” as Bonnie puts it, by providing children, individualized education through a nonprofit school…………..her meetings were punctuated by laughter, affection, understanding and serious care for each other—Bonnies’ loving regard for others was contagious. As creative ourselves, we are awed by Bonnies’ ability to make works of art. Her collaborative spirit and trust in spontaneous partnerships plus her lively presence made services exciting and unpredictable in the best possible way. ….We feel we are much better people having had her as our minister. We encourage you to get to know her and would be glad to speak to her on behalf by telephone. “ 2.“Bonnie has a warm and exuberant personality that draws people in. In the time that she served this church she has brought in 28 new members, many of them in the 30-50 age range which was specifically requested by our Church Profile. She is creative and artistic in creating worship services, workshops, and study groups. The sick and shut–in members of our congregation have praised her care and concern to the highest. She is also very good with children and has become something of a second mother to one young girl whose mother is serving with the military in Iraq. She has worked with our Board of Christian Education to implement the Our Whole Lives (OWL) program for our youth. We have two trained leaders who are actually running the program, and Bonnie is the backup trained person for the program.
Bonnie has also implemented week day morning mediation and a study group that works through their dreams to understand their own inner nature. It is the intent of this later group to find improved spiritual depth in their lives.
Our minister has also connected with the larger community. She serves on the Board of the Neskowin Valley School (A private school), and has joined with the group of local ministers in organizing a Community Thanksgiving Service. This had not happened in this community for many years.
Bonnie has developed all these excellent programs and she has good qualities that I value. While I am greatly saddened by her decision to leave us, I do recommend her for any Ministry position that she is seeking.”
(Moderator, Congregational Church of Lincoln City, UCC)
3. “….As the recent former minister of that congregation and a continued resident of Lincoln City, I came to know Bonnie as friend, colleague, and minister.
Bonnie is a person of deep faith, sincerity, integrity, incisive intellect, warmth, humor, robust curiosity, indefatigable energy and tireless work, creativity, courage, and heartfelt compassion. She also has a lovely singing voice!
During her ministry in Lincoln City, Bonnie attracted many new members. They are of diverse background and age and are a substantial addition to the life of the church. She was also active in our community making friends, and serving as pastor to people beyond our congregation.
I especially appreciate the depth and flare of the worship services Bonnie led, her knowledge and articulation of scripture, and ecumenical scope. She also has particular talent for connecting with children and teens.
I am grateful to Bonnie for her thoughtful, unflagging care of the homebound in our church, many of whom are long-time friends of mine and who thoroughly appreciated Bonnies’s regular visits and her ability to listen, care, and pray with them.
In her time with us, Bonnie not only supported existing programs in the church, including Peace Village, ElderSpirit and an outstanding Choir, but found ways to make each of them better then they have ever been. Bonnie also created new programs which added depth and interest to our ministry, including an early morning contemplative group, Dream Class (best attended class we have ever held), and O.W.L. sexuality program for youth.
It is important to mention that Bonnie has back bone and convictions to match her compassion. She wasn’t so “nice” that she missed out on the compliment of having detractors.
I am grateful to know Bonnie. Our congregation is better for having lived in relationship with her. She is and will be a gift to any congregation which calls her to minister in their midst.”
4. “I have had the pleasure of knowing the Reverend Bonnie Tarwater for the last two years, first, as part of the Search Committee that called her and later through working with her as part of my participation in the Property and Finance Board, the Pastoral Relations Committee and the Church Council. I write this letter of recommendation with great sadness that she is leaving us.
Reverend Tarwater brought to our congregation a spirit and energy that is both beautiful and inspiriting. Her energy, intelligence, imagination, presence, talents and love for her flock have been a gift she has given us during the time she has been with us here in Lincoln City.
Bonnie’s pastoral skills are excellent. I suffered a major, life threatening illness and was transferred to a hospital in Portland Oregon, about 100 miles from Lincoln City. Bonnie and her husband Walt Rutherford drove my husband from Lincoln City to Portland so he could be with me during that uncertain time. Bonnie called on me and ministered to me, even though it meant a round trip for her of 200 miles. I have heard many similar stories from others in the congregation, those who have had grave illness, injuries or have lost a loved one are very grateful for her ministering.
Bonnie is innovative. She brought new programs to the church. She set aside time each week for silent mediation.
For some, this was new and for others it was a welcome return to practices they had enjoyed in other churches. When she realized there were no Al-Anon meetings in Lincoln City, she facilitated the formation of a group at our church. She started a Dream Group; she brought the Nechung Oracle of the Dalai Lama to speak to us.
Bonnie artistic talents are incredible. She can virtually put together a musical on short notice and present it with little help, as she demonstrated recently. She sings, plays the guitar, and acts like a professional. She is a joy to watch.
Bonnie’s skills with children are exemplary. She has brought into the church several young families with children. The children’s love for her is apparent during the church service and coffee hour afterwards. She is patient and loving toward them and they will miss her terribly. Bonnie and Walt started the OWL program for teenagers.
I also had the privilege of spending time with Bonnie outside the church. She is really fun to be with! She is vibrant, vivacious, generous, and always reaching out to others. I will miss her friendship, as well as her pastoral care.
If you are considering Reverend Tarwater for a position that requires strong skills in pastoral care, work with children, and dynamic, cutting edge services, I believe you may have found what you are looking for.”
5. “I came to know Rev. Bonnie Tarwater in 2010 during the several months that I worked as a consultant for he Congregational Church of Lincoln City, UCC where Bonnie was the minister. The church had been experiencing some difficult times, and they hired me to work with them on issues of conflicts and change, and some of that conflict over differences between some of the members and the minister.
Bonnie had been the minister for more that a year by the time I met her. The church had been looking for a pastor that would not only help them continue their ministries, but bring them change and innovation, and they thought Bonnie with her energy and creativity seemed a wonderful fit. She too was exited and hopeful about the possibilities for working together.
I came to know of Bonnie’s strengths and gifts through my weekly meetings, either by phone or in person, through observing her in a variety of church settings and hearing people tell me what her ministry meant to them.
From the beginning Bonnie welcomed my work with the church. She was eager to do whatever she could to address the issues that had arisen. Though eventually, the church and Bonnie parted ways, she was willing over and over again to create and try out new approaches and fully put her energies into making things work both with individual and groups.
Bonnie reaches out to people warmly and has a real gift for hospitality. I saw this in many settings, from her casual contacts, to the warmth with which she leads Sunday worship, and in the way she designed and artistically decorated her office that made it an inviting an comfortable place for people to gather.
Both newer and long term members told me how much they appreciated her pastoral ministry to them during difficult periods in their lives. And how she went beyond the usual expectations, helping them out in significant ways.
Bonnie has remarkable ability to bring new and diverse people into the church. I was impressed with the significant number of people who joined the church during her tenure. I met and spoke with a number of them who told me they had either never been church attenders or had been outside the church for some time. They said Bonnie’s innovative approach to ministry and worship had made Christianity fresh and interesting to them so they were drawn in and decided to become active in the life of the church. At he time when many congregations are seeking church growth. This is a particularly sought after ability.
Bonnie has many strengths and talents which she brings to her work, including gifts like drama direction which I heard great things about but did not get to observe. I’m happy to recommend Rev. Bonnie Tarwater for ministry.”
6. “….At the time of her arrival I was chairman of the outreach board and on the church council. I soon became a member of the pastoral relations committee. I have considerable knowledge of her stay here. I highly recommend her as parish minister.
Bonnie is a leader of many talents who infused our community with enormous Spirit and attracted many new members. She has a special gift for reaching out to children and greatly enlarged the number of children participating in our church activities through her deft recruitment of educators and the presentation of the OWL ( Our Whole Lives) program for teens.
She modeled unconditional love and her compassion toward the sick and dying and her ability to empathize with and bring hope to the sad and downtrodden, “the least among us,” are truly admirable. She conscientiously made house and hospital visits to those in pain. I know firsthand because I got sick during her stay here, and she visited me in the hospital and at home. She even came to share Holy Communion at home with my wife and me after Sunday service—even though we lived 10 or 15 miles away.
Her sermons are original and uplifting often entertaining , and she courageously brought many relevant issues to our congregation suitable to the UCC ministry, such as gender equality, peace-making, social justice, care for the poor, immigrant issues, and the need for diversity and the universal validity of all faiths in God. She at times portrayed Jesus as a social reformer and modeled her view that to serve God we need to better examine our own minds and souls to address often overlooked personal issues. She conducted a dream group and brought nationally and internationally renowned spiritual figures to address our congregation.
She is hard working, reliable and enthusiastic. She reached out into the surrounding community and assiduously promoted interfaith harmony, shelter for the homeless and many other worthwhile causes. Because of my own connection with Oregon Peace Works and Peace Village, I particularly admire her public support for the peace movement.
In short I have a great deal of respect for her as an individual, spiritual counselor and minister and know she will be a great benefit to any congregation that is fortunate enough to call on her.”
7. “Although her sermons are obviously well prepared in advance, she often seems to speak extemporaneously and from the heart. Her music/drama background adds a dimension that none of our other ministers possesses. At the same time she presents a joi-de-vivre that nothings on earth can quell thought I saw it tempered, first by the loss of her beloved dog, Shadow, and then my her mother’s death during this past Advent season. She is so strong in spirit that nothing keeps her down.
At the time that Bonnie arrived and was getting settled in the Lincoln City church I underwent not one, but two major surgeries and Bonnie was anything one could wish for in a pastor during difficult times. Many other people have had similar experiences and share theirs with me”
8.“…..Progressive, articulate, original…………she organized a Dream Group, which attracted not only our members, but outsider people too. She is skilled in this field, and I took pleasure in watching how competently she dealt with the subject. She gave sermons dealing with the dreamers of The Bible: i.e. Joseph, Pharaoh, the Wise men, Pilate’s wife- are but a few. Bonnie’s sermons sometimes, even probe the mystical. There’s none of the dry orthodoxy of We-Know-It-All. She is always challenging. This could explain why she attracted younger people into membership………..What’s more, she sings on pitch.”
9.“Rev. Tarwater’s many creative ideas were blended with those of a more traditional nature aid the church members to discover an evolving, enlightening and a more personalized manner of opening to the expressing and living of our Christian faith. So many acts of kindness, nurturing, support and true spiritual leadership were offered by Rev. Tarwater that she was a truly inspiration as a church minister.”