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Tippin says goodbye to her first pastor post
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · June 29, 2012
Ruthie Tippin taught music to elementary school pupils for 15 years, then served as music minister for various denominations — Quaker, Methodist, Presbyterian and Disciple of Christ — but never served as a pastor.
Until she returned to West Branch 7 1/2 years ago.
Her jobs, as well as husband Jon’s, carried them to three different states — Washington, Oregon and Iowa.
Now it is time to move again.
Tippin, pastor at West Branch Friends Church, will leave June 30 for another state — Indiana — and her second pastoral job — at First Friends Meeting in Indianapolis.
“It is hard to leave this congregation,” she said. “It is our Iowa family.”
“Ruthie has many gifts,” said Ed English, Clerk of the Monthly Meeting. “It’s wonderful to see her land such a prestigious Friend’s Meeting.”
Pastor Sharon Treloar of Iowa City will serve in the interim starting July 1.
Tippin has been a member of the West Branch Friends Church since the early 1980s, when Jon, a neurologist, got his residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The two married in 1974 before Jon entered medical school. This is Ruthie’s third time attending the West Branch church, but first time as its minister.
Just like when she came to West Branch, the Indianapolis job first came to her.
In 2004, Jon and Ruthie were moving back to Iowa for Jon’s job, back at the UIHC. Members of the West Branch Friends learned of her return, and one of the former pastors, Deborah Suess, suggested someone contact Ruthie and ask her to apply.
“She will tell you she can’t do this, but she can,’” Tippin quoted Suess, as the story was told to her. Sure enough, Tippin told the church initially that she was not a pastor.
But she got the job, starting Jan. 17, 2005.
In the society of Friends, everyone is understood to be a minister, Tippin said, and it is not necessary to have a seminary degree.
“Some are called to be ‘released elders,’ who are recognized for special gifts in ministry,” she said. Still, Tippin soon enrolled at Earlham School of Religion in Indiana, the closest Quaker seminary.
Members admonished her: “Don’t let them ruin you,” she remembered. They were only half-joking, though. While they saw Tippin as gifted, the Quakers are more concerned that “Friends pastors follow the leading of God more than the teachings of human kind.”
The Quakers have long been wary of outside ministers, she said, dating back to when kings appointed them to churches, possibly as an extension of their authority.
In fact, Quakers prefer to raise up ministers from within, Tippin said. This reporter asked about where Jesus states that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown” (Luke 4:24), and she said the church’s ability to find ministers in its own congregation is “a testimony of the Friends.”
“They pay attention to talents within their midst,” she said.
So then came the Indianapolis job, which Tippin said seemed to be years in the making.
The time in seminary allowed her to make friends in Indiana several years ago. Last year, Tippin went on a two-month sabbatical — both to “rest” in God and learn more about him, especially through listening.
“God brought me a phrase, a theme: Here I am, Lord,” she said. “It just came to me.”
She took that to mean that she needed to be open to where God may lead her, but she thought it meant more of changing her, not relocating.
A couple months later, in July, Tippin attended a Friends United Meeting Triennial in ... Indiana. A friend from her seminary days approached her and struck up a conversation, and then surprised her by saying “You would be perfect” for a pastoral job opening in Indianapolis.
He encouraged her to apply, though Tippin initially declined.
Then the Indianapolis church contacted her; again she declined. This went on until November, and while she said no over and over again, she had also been praying about it.
Jon encouraged her to apply, as did her conscience. She was at the time teaching the West Branch congregation about listening for God’s direction.
So she did; and she got it. The Indianapolis church is three times the size of West Branch — about 125 in worship.
“I had not been looking at all,” she said, smiling. “I assumed I would die or retire out of this church.”
Tippin said that her time as a pastor has taught her “how much God matters to each person, and how closely God is woven into each person’s life.”
“It’s been an overwhelming blessing to watch people discover that,” she said.
Tippin said that people nowadays are used to doing things independently.
“We think we can accomplish quite a lot under our own power,” she said. “But there are times when we discover our limitations.”
Tippin said she will always have fond memories of West Branch, like when she was giving a sermon and referenced a verse about a tree falling — and right at that time the Christmas tree in the sanctuary tipped over.
“Everybody started laughing,” she said.
There was another time when the ushers “broke out in song” while bringing the offering forward. As President Hoover was a Quaker, Tippin was asked to perform a grave side service for one of his descendants, Margaret Coberly Hoover, which she called a “wonderful honor.”
In 2006, the pianist and singer founded the West Branch Community Choir, which as been “a big part of my life.” Jane Cadwaller-Howe will take over as director, and the group is looking for a new accompanist.
Tippin said she will remember all the people and events — working with the city and churches on events and community festivals.
Expect Tippin to return, though, at least for visits. Jon will remain at UIHC — for now.
“I don’t know how God will lead in our lives,” she said. “One step of faith at a time.”
The two have two sons — Matt (wife Natasa) and Seth (wife Bethany) — and grandchildren Eleanor and Benjamin.
Asked what she would say to everyone she would be leaving in West Branch, she took a long pause, then said:
“Live in faith, not in fear. If you open your life to God, expect changes God will bring and know that grace accompanies you on the journey. Go in peace, walk in love.”
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