Twenty-five years since his 1999 ordination into ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America found the Rev. Rob Argot, a Pleasant Valley High School Class of 1987 graduate, being recognized and honored by his current congregation at Renewed Spirit Lutheran Church in Reading.

Guests at the recent celebration included family and friends from as far as 200 miles away, as well as members of the congregation.

Those distant travelers had first met Pastor Rob and his wife at his first church of call, Faith United Lutheran in Houtzdale.

Though the trip to his church and his current family home in Berks County is now not far, the path to his ministry took some time, beginning after his graduation from Penn State in 1992 and Gettysburg Seminary in 1998.

During the service, many hymns that were important to the pastor were included. “Ubi Caritas” was sung because he would use that song while leading chapel services at Goose Pond Scout Reservation. “Into Life O Lord You Lead Us” contained lyrics written by Rob and his wife, Tina, while they lived in upstate New York for a year of internship and Rob’s last year of seminary.

While Rob has always been a Lutheran, his service of celebration included the Effort Benediction from Effort United Methodist Church, where Rob worshipped for a time with his family during his senior year of high school.

Although he never joined Effort Methodist like the rest of his family, he has always appreciated the outward looking and mission mindedness of Effort Methodist, which included giving him a high school present and a care box of cookies every semester at college.

Pastor Rob preached a message that included some of his struggles both in becoming a pastor and in serving as a pastor, but he then focused on the joy of knowing he is part of the God’s family, supported, strengthened and blessed by God and by the family and friends that surround him.

And on those days when our faith is shaky, he said, even to the point of not having faith in ourselves or God, that is OK, because God has faith in us.

A joyful dinner concluded the celebration in the church’s large social hall, with everyone getting one of Rob’s favorite snacks, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, at their place setting.

The Rev. Rob Argot is currently the pastor at Renewed Spirit Lutheran Church in Reading, where a celebration marking 25 years since his ordination was recently held.