In Praise of Faithfulness: A Tribute to Linda Heselton Upon Her Retirement After 25 Years As Our Children’s Pastor

August 26, 2014

One of the very first hires I made when I became Vineyard Columbus’ first senior pastor was to hire Linda Heselton to oversee our VineyardKids’ Ministry.  And for 25 years we’ve worked side-by-side in serving this wonderful church.

Linda is now retiring (not from Christian service, of course – one never retires from that) as our children’s pastor.  Why has Linda been such a gift to the Vineyard (and to me)?  Four things immediately come to mind:

  1. Linda’s faithfulness – The older I get the more I admire people who simply show up.  As pastor, I’ve met literally hundreds of people over the years who were super-excited, who seemed to be everywhere in the church for six months, and then who never showed up again.  The people I respect the most are folks who show up week after week and year after year – folks I know we can count on, as Paul says, “in season and out of season,” when it’s convenient and when it’s inconvenient.  Linda is certainly one of those people.

    As you can imagine, there have been lots of ups and downs in children’s ministry over the years. It is not easy to recruit hundreds of volunteers to serve kids week in and week out.  There have been times when it looked like we weren’t going to get the teachers we needed.  There have been times of anxiety and stress, times of frustration and weariness, as well as times of great joy and celebration.  In good times and bad, Linda showed up.  I have huge admiration for this one simple fact: for 25 years Linda rendered faithful service to the Lord, to the church and to generations of children.  Vineyard Columbus’ VineyardKids’ Ministry is now discipling the children of parents who were toddlers when Linda began her ministry.


  2. Linda’s passionate advocacy for children – It is not easy to do children’s ministry in any church. Kids are tucked away in another part of the building (in some churches, in the basement and in spaces that no adult would want to occupy).  Christians today are not very different from the disciples of Jesus, who pushed kids into the background, because children didn’t seem very important.  Linda has tirelessly advocated for the importance of children for a quarter of a century. Hundreds of times in the last 25 years I heard Linda underline the simple fact that kids are people, too, and that kids don’t have a different Holy Spirit than adults have.


  3. Linda broke stereotypes – When Linda was hired, our church did not believe in women pastors.  Coordinators, yes; Children’s Ministry Directors, fine.   But pastors? Not in the 1980s.  It was Linda and a few women like Linda, who became the vanguard for a generation of women who shattered the glass ceiling of gender discrimination at Vineyard Columbus.

    There is another stereotype that Linda has broken over the years.  That is the stereotype of what an “Upper Arlington girl” ought to be like. Those who don’t know Linda well think of her as the model of suburban propriety.  But I’ve watched Linda leap into a canoe on a tributary of the Amazon River in the evening and paddle off to a tiny native village where she could pray for the sick and show love to a stranger’s child.  If you want to see Linda in her element, just watch her stomp through the Amazon rain forest to pay a visit to one of our missionaries in Brazil.


  4. Linda is my friend – C.S. Lewis, my favorite Christian author, defined friendship, in part, as “two people seeing the same truth.”  Linda and I have seen the same truth, not only about kids, but about the kind of church Vineyard Columbus ought to be.  I’m profoundly grateful to the Lord for the privilege of serving alongside of Linda these past 25 years!

From Bill Christensen, International Ministries Pastor:

It has been my great pleasure to be a friend and fellow co-worker with Linda for over 17 years.  I recently read an autobiography of a well-known novelist who said that his life pursuit is to examine what makes certain people revolutionaries, world changers. He calls these people “the committed ones.”  That’s Linda.  And Linda has never been committed in an unfocused way. She has diligently stayed focused on what Jesus affirms as those most priceless in his eyes – children. In a culture that despises the vulnerable, Linda has faithfully for decades dedicated her life and energy to tending to those for whom Jesus interrupts everything else. Linda’s focus has kept our church focused on the importance of children.   Linda might be “retiring,” but nothing changes in her heart for those most important to the Lord.

It has been such a blessing to work alongside, pray together, address ministry problems and challenges and rejoice together over Kingdom-come moments with my dear friend, Linda.  Linda leaves a rich legacy of character and faithfulness and an outstanding children’s ministry. I love asking new families in our church what makes them join the fellowship. In so many cases they respond that their children ask to come back because they love children’s ministry. I thank God for Linda, her commitment, leadership and service and her love for the Lord that have influenced the development of both VineyardKids Ministry and Vineyard Columbus.  Well done, Linda!

From Mike Szlapak, Children’s Pastor

Oh where to begin?  Linda has been my supervisor for the past 15 years.  Over the years I have put her through a lot with my silly antics, growing up and seeing God’s abundant blessing on the ministry.  I know I contributed to giving her gray hair.

Linda has been like a mother to me who has been a pillar in times of stress and a beacon in times of confusion.  She has “held my feet to the fire” in ministry making sure that I was a man of my word, checking and double checking God’s work in me and my ministry.  God has used Linda to grow me as a pastor, as a leader and as a man of God.  She taught me to take criticism like “water off a duck’s back.” God has been good and I see how God has used Linda in my life.

We have worked together for so long that I draw strength from Linda.  Often God places others in our lives so we can draw strength from them, and now with Linda retiring I will have to draw my strength from the Lord in a new way.

I am so thankful for all Linda has been to me and am especially thankful for the good times and the learning times.    

From Pam White, Pastoral Coordinator for Preschool Children’s Ministry

I joined the staff 16 years ago and began to work alongside Linda in our VineyardKids ministry.  There were several things that immediately became apparent to me about Linda and VineyardKids.  She wanted them to be a priority here at Vineyard Columbus and has worked faithfully all these years to make sure that happened.  We can see the fruit of her hard work right before our eyes each weekend at our services.

When I think about Linda, there are two things that stand out in her physical appearance that correspond to who she has been as our VineyardKids Pastor for 25 years. The first thing is that I believe God made Linda to have beautiful white hair because he wanted her to stand out and be seen by our children and their parents.  Linda can be easily found even in a large crowded room!  One of our leaders described Linda this way to me,  “The tall willowy woman with the snowy white hair.”

The second thing is that I believe that God made Linda tall because he knew that she would stand up for children. Linda has been standing out and standing up for our children here for 25 years, by advocating for them and championing them as part of God’s Kingdom now!  A verse that she loves is Psalm 71:18, “Even when I am old and gray,do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.”

Although gray, Linda is not very old, but for 25 years she has declared the power of God that has impacted this generation and the next!  Congratulations Linda!