The parking lot at the Church of a Thousand Logs in Palmer was full last Saturday. So were the pews. A cello group played. Tables were decorated like a wedding reception. The crowd included people who have never attended the church. It was all for Co-Pastors Tim and Leisa Carrick. They are retiring.
Pastor Tim Carrick says it was like attending his own funeral.
For 35 years, Tim and Leisa Carrick have pastored the United Protestant Presbyterian Church. On Sunday they will preach their last sermon. They leave behind a church the whole town treats as its own.
Ninety years ago, Colony planners hoped one church would be enough. It was not. The Catholics and Lutherans each built their own church. Everyone else went to the United Protestant Church. It was called the Church of a Thousand Logs.
Thirteen denominations worshipped together there. They included Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Tim says they had to get along.
Tim is the son of missionaries. He grew up in Japan. Leisa grew up in Palmer. Her father, Edward Haynes, managed the Mat-Maid Dairy. The two met at Whitworth College in Spokane. They served eight years in Central California. Then Tim spotted a job opening in Leisa’s hometown. They headed north. They started preaching in Palmer in 1991.
The Carricks wanted the church to be a safe place for every person to explore their own spiritual journey. They wanted the pastors and the congregation to be real with each other. Leisa loves how the most conservative and most liberal members can share the same pew and care for one another.
Something happens in the church building every day of the week. A small Catholic group meets there. So do the Mat-Su Orchestra and a dulcimer group. Palmer High School Life Skills students work as the church custodians. Tim jokes that maybe they all come because the church doesn’t charge.
Kate Lawton was 13 when the Carricks arrived in Palmer. She joined the first youth group Leisa started. Tim’s first funeral was for her grandfather. Years later, both Carricks officiated at her wedding. Lawton says they showed the whole church that God loves humanity and wants humanity to love God back as she wiped away tears.
Tim officiated a wedding for a young couple in his early years. They told him they were homeless. This summer, he officiated their daughter’s wedding.
The Carricks share that they almost left in 2002 for the Iona Community. It’s a peace-and-justice group in Scotland. Iona’s leader told them that Iona could be anywhere. He sent them home to Palmer. They now think that if they couldn’t be pastors in Palmer, they might not have wanted to be pastors at all.
Retirement means leaving the log house where Tim and Leisa raised their three children. The crowd at the celebration surprised them with a gift. They gave the Carricks just over $14,000 toward a house. It shocked them.
Then it was Tim’s turn to speak. He had planned to play Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” on his cello. It’s a song about leaving out of love, not because love has ended. He knew he would not be able to get through it. He spoke the words. Three cellists finished the song for him.
This Sunday is World Communion Sunday. Tim’s first Sunday in Palmer in 1991 was also World Communion Sunday. He says that makes it feel complete. Then they step away. Presbyterian custom keeps them apart from the church for about three years.
Tim talks about an image of Japan’s trains from his boyhood. He imagines every year as a station. People step off, and others climb on. In 1991, the Carricks climbed aboard. Now they’re stepping off and waving, as the train pulls away to pick up more people.
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That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Friday October 2, 2026.
Photo courtesy of United Protestant Presbyterian Church