Since early June, Pastor Dennis Gugger has been the new minister at the Alliance Church on Napoleon Road.
His vision is for the Christian and Missionary Alliance congregation to continue growing as both a
multi-generational and multi-cultural church.
"Those are two keys to the family of God," he stated. Gugger welcomes both keys at the Alliance
Church because of being an admitted "people pastor."
"Ministry is based on relationships with people," he explained. "I’m a relational pastor.
If there’s anything I bring to (my work), I guess that’s it. I love people. I love to be a part of their
lives."
In wanting the congregation to become multi-generational, Gugger said, "We want four generations at
one time to be in the church." To accomplish that, "we’re a family-friendly church that has a
blend of music that reaches different age groups and is centered on the Word of God."
In addition, "we want to become a multi-cultural church. It’s great to have the tie-ins with Global
Connections and the university. … We have developed partnerships with some of the groups at
BGSU."
Not only does the church partner with Global Connections, which offers Christian friendship in a variety
of ways to international students at BGSU, but Active Christians Today for off-campus students and the
campus church, h2o.
Gugger is pleased his congregation is one that "serves very well. It’s a serving church. We want to
continue with that. Billy Graham said the church has a twofold call: to show the love of Jesus Christ
and to tell the love of Jesus Christ. I think that’s what the church is. We have to touch our community
and to tell them about Jesus Christ."
This is the fourth church which Gugger, whose name rhymes with cougar, has pastored since entering Bible
college at age 30. He has returned to his roots in Northwest Ohio, having been born and raised in
Toledo, the son of Roman Catholic parents.
It was while he was married, raising three sons and successful in his career in retail management, that
he began a spiritual search along with his wife, Nancy. "There was an emptiness in the heart,"
he described of their search, finding it resonated with Carly Simon’s song, "Is That all There
Is?".
That search came to an end in 1975. "(We) came to know Christ … . We were both 25."
The family settled into Westgate Chapel as their home church for five years before Gugger sensed a call
into the ministry. They moved to Georgia and four years later he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in
pastoral ministries.
His first church was a "plant" in Pennsylvania which had grown to 120 when he left in 1991
after seven years. He then received a call from a church in north metro Detroit, which soon changed its
name to Crossroads Alliance Church.
"The people had gone through a very difficult time. We came there with a healing ministry," and
stayed 17 years.
Interestingly, towards the end of 2007, Gugger approached the pastor of a nearby Alliance church, Pastor
Randy Vinson, about the idea of merging. We "created a new church, Bridge Community Church, which
was to become a multi-ethnical congregation." He noted the area was heavily populated with Asians,
persons from India and Hispanics. In addition, Crossroads had helped to plant a Vietnamese church with
assistance from Leroy and Nancy Josephensen of Bowling Green, former Alliance missionaries to Southeast
Asia.
When Bridge Community was formed, Vinson served as lead pastor with Gugger as associate pastor. The
church did well, and Gugger planned to stay, but he was asked instead to pastor Bowling Green’s Alliance
Church.
The church offers Sunday School for all ages at 9 a.m. on Sundays, followed by worship at 10:15 a.m.
Awana children’s ministry is Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. Its annual mission conference is Nov. 1 through 8,
with a missionary speaker from Ecuador and another from Mongolia. And Gugger expects one of the
highlights of the year to be its annual "Come to the Stable" Christmas Nativity display.
"The church is a very friendly church, very accepting of people; a lot of good people here. I’m glad
to be a part of it and looking forward to what God has for us."