WESTERLO — The First Baptist Church in Westerlo, which is over 200 years old, selected a new pastor in July. R. Scott Boger, a pastor for 27 years, said he sought a rural community like Westerlo, where he finds a source of neighborly compassion.

Boger lived in a suburban area of Philadelphia until the age of 10, after which his parents, both missionaries, took him and his siblings to live at a Bible camp in Nova Scotia in Canada, as a “missionary kid.”

“You had a hundred new friends showing up every week,” he said, describing the 400 acres of land with cabins, waterfalls, horses, and sports fields.

During the school year, when they weren’t hosting summer camp, Boger’s parents hosted Bible clubs and other events.

During his time at the Bible camp, Boger said he found it fascinating to work with and interact with people.

“Just to see people change, and to see God change people,” he said. “That’s just utterly fascinating to me.”

Boger lived in Nova Scotia for about 30 years, leaving to attend Washington Bible College in Maryland, where he met his wife, Susie, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies.

Boger then returned to Nova Scotia to serve as an associate pastor in Halifax and then as a pastor in the Shubenacadie River Valley.

He said he first realized he wanted to be a pastor in his early teens, despite having difficulty speaking in public, and preached his first sermon at age 16.

“I felt that God was sort of moving me towards pastoral ministry,” he said. “When God calls, you he also equips you to do that.”

After serving in Nova Scotia, Boger served for 11 years at a church in New Jersey. After that, he and his wife took time off to care for her father, and “walked through the valley of the shadow” of death with him, before seeking a new post.

Boger applied to serve at the First Baptist Church in Westerlo, and began communicating with its members this past winter.

“The two things that we were looking for,” he said, of he and his wife, “was a church that was rural...and a church that’s multi-generational.”

In the Baptist community, churches are autonomous and led by their members. Boger was voted in by the 130 members of the church in Westerlo.

“In Baptist churches you’re not moved around by a hierarchy, it’s actually the churches are autonomous,  and so they selected me, they invited me to come and candidate...” Boger said of the congregants. “It was a unanimous call to bring me here.”

He enjoys the community surrounding the church, saying he finds a “can-do spirit” and an affection for neighbors in a rural area like Westerlo.

“They’re very much into interaction with one another,” he said. “It’s not like the garage door goes up and there’s a moat.”

He also was attracted to the many generations in the church, because he sees it as a way for things to be passed down or taught to the next generation

“The Book of Titus talks about older man teaches the younger man and older woman teaches the younger woman.”

Such inter-generational interactions at the Westerlo Baptist Church include vacation Bible school, sports events, Pioneer Club activities, and Christian leadership activities for boys.

Boger has promoted other forms of community outreach. Shortly after he began in July, the church held a “Community Day,” with food served and police and firefighters partaking. The event included the pastor blessing a new fire truck.

“This is not just a ‘holy huddle,’” he said. “This is an opportunity to engage with our neighbors.”

Boger said that Westerlo’s community is very friendly and interactive with others.

Missionary work

The First Baptist Church of Westerlo is involved with missionary work, sending members all over the globe, as well as being involved with local groups such as the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany and Christian camps like Camp Pinnacle in New Scotland.

The church has also conducted “planting,” in which Christian organizations are started, first by doing something such as conducting Bible studies and eventually forming a church community. In the town of Westerlo, two locations have been “planted,” Cornerstone and King’s Chapel, after it was realized how difficult it was for some church members to travel to the hamlet of Westerlo where the church is.

Westerlo has hosted a family from Tajikistan. Other church members have traveled the world to foster small businesses, work in hospitals, and plant churches.

Boger himself has traveled to Kosovo and Haiti to conduct missionary work. In Haiti, he assisted a church pastor who ran a bakery that employed people in an area devastated by a hurricane; the bakery raised funds for a local church. In Kosovo, the area was recovering from war, and Boger helped with projects such as a vacation Bible school. In both places, he preached through a translator.

“Every time I’ve been on a mission trip, I’ve been impressed by how much we take for granted in North America,” said Boger.

But Boger also credits Westerlo Baptists’ activities in which they help their neighbors: collecting food for people in need or building a ramp for a church member who has Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“Not just platitudes and stuff, but hands on — blood, sweat, and tears.,” he said.

Boger’s family is also involved with the church. His brother is a pastor, one sister serves at a Christian college, and his other sister is married to a pastor. His son and his son’s wife live in Hungary and are hoping to plant a church there, one of his daughters teaches at a Christian school in Brazil and another daughter is studying at the Moody Bible Institute and preparing to conduct missionary work, and his son-in-law and daughter are preparing for ministry.

For Boger, his calling involves helping people answer questions about life that cannot be answered on a physical level, but on a spiritual one.

“To see churches formed and fostered around God’s word and the gospel is really to see people who have a complete, fuller life,” said Boger. “We believe God’s word holds answers to the fullness of life.”

He noted that that is one of the reasons local churches are so important.

He said of being a pastor, “It’s just to me the greatest job that somebody could have.”