Wheelers' faith: An Amarillo legacy
By Mike Haynes
You might
say that Roy Wheeler built Hillside Christian Church.
Of course,
he would say the Lord built it, and he’d be right. But consider this:
Many years
ago, Amarillo residents Jim and Laura Sims had visited Paramount Terrace
Christian Church, the forerunner of Hillside, a few times. While on vacation,
Jim was involved in a gas leak at the house where they were staying, and his hands
were burned badly. Jim was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where he was
treated and began recuperating.
Meanwhile,
Paramount Terrace Senior Minister Roy Wheeler was on a church trip. While at
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| Roy and Elnore Wheeler |
Roy skipped
his connecting flight and rushed to Parkland Hospital to see this man who had
been visiting the church. The relationship was strengthened, Jim recovered, and
before long, Jim and Laura Sims were members of PTCC.
Fast
forward to the mid-2000s. PTCC leaders had decided to leave the location on
Mays Avenue near Western Street for the corner of Hillside and Soncy and change
the church’s name to reflect the move. Architect Jim Sims was the primary
designer of the new building.
The
physical structure is one thing, but Roy’s visit to an injured man who wasn’t
even a member of the church is just one of a multitude of personal connections
he made that resulted in a small, independent Christian congregation growing
into a megachurch. The senior minister from 1966 to 1999, he remained active in
ministry until his health started declining. But during those 33 years, he was
a go-getter.
“I
would make two or three appointments three or four nights a week for him,”
Strickland recalled. “Roy would go to their homes and meet people, and many of
them joined the church. They felt the love he exuded from the pulpit, plus his
personal contact with them.”
Roy and Elnore
Wheeler, both turning 85 next month, quietly left Amarillo this summer almost
exactly 50 years after they arrived from Missouri. Because of health issues,
they moved close to their son, Rick Wheeler, who leads a church in Derby, Kan. Another
son, Randy, is a minister in Michigan. Oldest son Ron preached for a while but
would up doing work such as designing an operational system for Dallas Area
Rapid Transit.
Ironically,
what made the megachurch was the personal touch.
Longtime
Sunday school teacher Jim McKee said his wife, Lana, remembers she always got a
“Roy hug” every time he saw her. The McKees first visited PTCC in 1985, looking
for “a nondenominational church that was soundly Bible-based,” Jim McKee said.
“We immediately wanted to join, so Roy came to our home to speak with us and
answer questions. We joined the next Sunday.”
Another
former assistant, Diana Schmidtman, and her family preceded the Wheelers at
PTCC. She was a charter member in 1955. “The way he endeared himself to my
family was when my brother, a jet pilot, had his plane shot down in 1968,”
Schmidtman said. “Roy was just so wonderful to our family. If we didn’t like
him before, we loved him after that.”
“Roy’s idea
of the church was that it’s a hospital for the hurting,” Strickland said. “It
didn’t make a difference what your background was or where you came from. He
loved people and wanted to tell them about the Lord.
“If he was
in the pulpit and saw somebody in the audience he didn’t know, after church he
would go through the guest cards. If they didn’t fill out a card, he would tell
me to find out who they were the next time.
“He loved
to know everything about everybody that he dealt with.”
In some
ways, Elnore Wheeler was a typical minister’s wife, supporting her husband and
leading church activities. But she really wasn’t typical.
“She was
such a caring, people person,” Strickland said. “Her heart was in missions. If
she couldn’t go, she sent money. She taught in the women’s prison, and she went
to Russia several times with Roy. I think she helped in an orphanage at
Chernobyl.”
Anyone who
spent much time at the church between Sundays knew Elnore’s impact.
“We always knew
Elnore to be a quiet servant,” Jim McKee said, “reaching out and helping kids
and the downcast. She always worked behind the scenes. Things would get done
somehow, but if you backtracked to the source, very often you would find Elnore
Wheeler at the beginning.”
Roy Wheeler
has been well-known across the country, especially in independent Christian
circles. He was a frequent conference speaker and in his heyday, he preached at
two or three revivals a year in other churches. Strickland said he did mission
work in Belarus 17 times, often with Elnore by his side. He baptized the
parents of his Belarussian interpreter, Luda. He visited Jamaica many times to
help minister friend Vincent Graham.
Roy’s fluid, measured speaking style,
solidly scriptural but non-threatening, attracted thousands to the gospel – and
to PTCC – over three decades. He said he favored “a positive approach to
Christianity” but constantly challenged the congregation of his
“undenominational” church with the idea that “God calls us all to be ministers
if we’re Christians.”
A factor in
his 1999 retirement was his voice, which had begun fading with a rare vocal
cord condition. But when his preaching became rare, he kept his eyes and ears
open for people who were hurting.
“There’s no
one like him,” Schmidtman said. “If you were ever in trouble, he’s the one you
wanted. He was a great shepherd.”
“He was a
lover of people and wanted them to know the Lord,” Strickland said.
Roy and
Elnore, those of us whom you’ve touched thank you.
