As a pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Bill Nixon finds a lot of his work is about hope.

“To be able to point someone to the Lord and see the light bulb go on, it’s great,” said Nixon. “People take hope again.”

Hope, he said, “is one of the great essentials for life. The Scriptures are chocked-full of hope.”

Nixon started as the pastor for the Albert Lea Seventh-day Adventist Church in July. He also serves three other churches in Faribault, Owatonna and LeCenter.

Before that, he served two churches, one in Warroad and one in Karlstad. Before that assignment, he served a church in Fergus Falls and was a Bible instructor in Dodge Center prior to that.

Nixon was born in Kentucky and his family moved to San Diego when he was young.

“Out of high school, I started to read the Bible on my own, and I decided to take the Bible as it was read,” he said. That, he said, made it clear to him that Saturday was the seventh day and should be observed as the Sabbath.

His father owned a shop, and he asked him why he never closed on the Sabbath. Together, they read the Bible to make sure they had the right day.

“I thought I would be worshipping alone,” Nixon said of observing the Sabbath on Saturday. “Then I found out there was a whole denomination that worshipped on Saturday.

“For me, it was one of the best things that ever happened,” he said of becoming a member of the church. “I was welcomed very warmly.”

Nixon said Seventh-day Adventists, like most denominations, hold the Bible as the final authority. “We worship on Saturday, the day Jesus worshipped on. We don’t see a command to do otherwise,” he said.

Seventh-day Adventists are, in a sense, carrying on the Protestant Reformation, Nixon said. “We believe in righteousness by faith, and go back to the word for all that we do,” he added.
Age: 41

Address:

Faribault

Livelihood:

pastor of Albert Lea Seventh-day

Adventist Church

Family: wife, Wendy; son Caleb, 13

Interesting fact: Before becoming a pastor, he worked as a locksmith.

Members of the denomination don’t feel that they have to keep the day holy or they won’t go to heaven, he said.

“But God made an appointment with us,” he said. “Why wouldn’t we want to keep it?”

Through his life experiences and the urging of his ownpastor, he felt a higher calling. “It was one step after another,” he said of the road to becoming a pastor. An opening in Minnesota as a Bible instructor brought him from California to Minnesota.

The Albert Lea Seventh-day Church has about 30 members. He spends Thursdays in Albert Lea and speaks at Saturday services here twice a month.

He said the local church has a successful health program, the Coronary Health Improvement Project, and may possibly start a depression recovery seminary, introducing the God factor.

Of the local church, Nixon said, “It’s one of the best-kept secrets in town,” he said. “Everyone’s welcome.” For more information on the church, located at 1400 Highway 69 S., call 373-0622.

As part of his work with the church in Faribault, Nixon teaches a Bible class at Parkside Christian School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, three days a week, as well as physical education.