Silver Hills Community Church has welcomed its new pastor Ken Hansen and his wife Angela, back, and children, Bella, 14, front left, Titus, 5, and Mikayla, 10, from Sacramento. The church’s former pastor Ben Fleming, who founded the church with his wife Cheryl in 1996, has retired and held an installation service for Hansen on July 3.
Pastor Ken Hansen and his family have been on the move so much for more than 10 years, they’re hopeful their home in Carson City will be permanent.
Hansen takes up his calling as Silver Hills Community Church’s second pastor as Pastor Ben Fleming retired after 26 years, a rare accomplishment.
Hansen has served as a youth pastor, Bible teacher, worship pastor, senior pastor and church planter, working as an associate pastor at Fourteenth Avenue Baptist Church and Victory Christian School in Sacramento, his hometown, from 2017 to this year. Prior to that, he worked in Kentucky at Jericho Tree Church and Burks Branch Baptist Church.
“I was feeling convinced God wanted me to seek out a church where I could shepherd the flock and preach regularly and be responsible for just really leading the church,” he said. “I began putting some feelers out there. I had never been to Carson before. I had been to Reno and Tahoe, and the first thing when we started having conversations with the search team at Silver Hills was they asked us, ‘How about you come to Carson City and make sure this is a place you could see yourself and raising your family?’”
Hansen, 39, formally was installed at Silver Hills on July 3, with Fleming performing a “passing of the torch,” Hansen said, asking him to commit to performing the pastoral responsibilities as a minister.
“It was like he sworn me in … asking, ‘Will you commit to honoring the bride of Christ (the church), not for financial gain, and will you do this, will do you that, and to each one I responded, ‘I will,’” he said.
Hansen said Fleming made sure the members understood and accepted their new pastor’s leadership since there can be a tendency for some to fall back to the former pastor for guidance.
“He made it very clear and intentional that as of this day ‘Ken Hansen is my pastor’ because he’s staying in the church since he’s now the retiring pastor,” he said. “He started the church. He’s the only church pastor they’ve ever had in 26 or 27 years, and so this is his baby. He started it from the ground up from nothing. … Certainly, Ben had a culture within the church, and in most ways that’s overwhelmingly positive.”
Fleming and his wife Cheryl first came to Carson in August 1995, with religious organization Next Generation Churches asking the couple to start a church in the area after reading in the Reno Gazette-Journal that less than 1% of people in Nevada were attending services on Sunday. The Flemings established a Bible study in October that year, eventually meeting in Grandma Hattie’s restaurant in January 1996 and moving to Seeliger Elementary School on April 1. Silver Hills would remain meeting in the school until moving into a warehouse at 1066 Mallory Way until November 1997. In April 2018, the church would move again after purchasing its current property at 4555 S. Edmonds Drive. The members celebrated their 25th anniversary as a body last year.
“We’ve had people go to short-term missions to Mexico, we’ve had people on short-term mission trips to Africa and to Southern Spain and to Japan,” Fleming said of some of the growth and achievements from his congregation in the church’s 26-year history.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth and do a lot of different spiritual outreaches in Carson City,” he said. “We’ve seen changes in people’s lives and get turned around because of their encounter with God. People who were alcoholics became sober, people who were drug addicts became clean, people would get healed. Those would be the biggest changes.”
But Fleming said with Hansen leading as pastor, he is the “exact choice” as a young man to take it to the next level. Fleming added his decision to retire this year was “his age” and to help bring in a “unique, new spirit” with his own focus shifting more toward chaplain ministry. Fleming said would help keep the church stable and had no doubt that the hiring decision was the correct one.
“He’s 20 years retired from the Air Force,” Fleming said of Hansen. “He’s a gifted speaker, a gifted musician as a guitarist and a keyboard player. He writes his own music. He took a big risk moving a family of three form Sacramento and left his hometown.”
Hansen said whether he’s aware of certain traditions that have been in place during Fleming’s ministry, change inevitably will happen at Silver Hills.
Without wanting to feel too daunting by what’s expected all at once, Hansen said he understands there will be struggles to assist with and counseling to offer and already has observed Silver Hills might be one of the “stronger churches” he has known.
“Some things I will change subconsciously,” he said. “It’s just constantly serving in that we are always surrendering to the Word of God, and anything that pops up, we’ll seek to address and make sure we’re still following it.”
Hansen said he looks forward to exploring the Carson City community and Northern Nevada’s offerings, saying his family had purchased a kayak and was excited to get out to enjoy Lake Tahoe, where he and his wife Angela honeymooned and have enjoyed the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in recent years. The couple, along with their children, Bella, 14, Mikayla, 10, and Titus, 5, are looking forward to a fresh start as he finishes escrow in Sacramento and now in Carson City, he said, and as he makes plans for the church itself through its online and social media outreach.
Hansen shared one of his favorite passages of Scripture, which was Psalm 16:11, quoting it from the English Standard Version: “You make known to me the path of your life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
He said some have referred to him as the next “25-year pastor” and while the national average for most pastors is about three or four years, he does hope to achieve some longevity at Silver Hills.
“Pastoring is a lot of responsibility, and there’s a big target on pastors’ backs,” he said. “The job itself invites criticism. I’ve had some brutal critics come out of left field. You’re helping marital conflicts and people with thoughts of suicide and at the same time you’re helping people. … It’s emotionally grueling. I’m praying for God to give me strength, and I’m hoping people respond well. I don’t think some preachers can just go anywhere and be well received.”
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