Pastor Leaves N. Dakota for Cape Island

CAPE MAY — “Just a little bit different” is how the new pastor of Cape Island Baptist Church describes Cape May, when comparing it to his former hometown in North Dakota.
“My wife and I both grew up in small farming towns of about 2,500 people,” Rev. Michael Goldade said, “but what we aren’t used to is the town growing to 25,000 during the summer. We’re used to the town getting smaller in the summer because everyone goes to the lakes and water. Here we have the water.
“I think there’s a saying that once you live by the ocean, it gets into your blood,” he added. “I agree with that. My first pastoral position was in Oregon in a community similar to Cape May. When we left there, we found that we really missed the ocean. We’ve never lived on the East Coast and there is so much of our country’s history here, and so much to see and do, which makes this so completely new and exciting for us.”
Goldade and his wife, Shari, took four days to drive about 1,600 miles, taking the pulpit at the Cape Island Baptist Church for the first time Aug. 9.
“I met people who live here in Cape May and some who have been visiting for 20 or 30 years,” he said. “We have about 130-140 on a Sunday during the summer season, about 100 in the off season so the congregation is just the perfect size. I may know many of the people, but not necessarily all of them.”
Goldade’s first visit to Cape May took place in March, when the church’s selection committee first invited him as part of the interview process.
A second visit took place in May, after the Memorial Day Weekend. “It was quite a bit quieter in March,” he noted, “and then a lot busier in May so I’ve gotten to see the contrasts. So far we are trying to get to know the area, and getting used to things, such as toll roads. We don’t have toll roads in North Dakota.”
Getting to know a new area is what Goldade finds “challenging and fun” when he takes on a new pastoral position. “I want to get to know the community, the congregation and get involved in their lives and vice versa,” the pastor said. “I want to become involved and help Cape May become a better community in whatever way I can.”
The ministry is a second career for Goldade, who was a deputy sheriff in North Dakota’s corrections system for 10 years.
“When you work in a jail, you see people at the lowest point in their lives, because usually it is not their choice to be in jail. I would tell them that I was not there to judge them, but I was limited in what I could do in terms of religious help.
“About 2000-2001, my son had a reoccurrence of a cancerous brain tumor,” he continued, explaining that his son was first diagnosed with the tumor when he was 5. “It was during that time when he was going through treatment that I felt the call to become a pastor. We moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., for my training. My first pastoral assignment was in Oregon.”
Goldade’s son, now 27, will be joining his parents in Cape May this fall. They also have a married daughter who lives in Portland, Ore.
It was during his tenure as a pastor in Iowa that Goldade realized how much he missed the ocean. He and his wife moved back to North Dakota in 2012 to be closer to family when he was contacted by the local selection committee as a candidate for the pastoral position in Cape May.
According to Norma Shropshire of Court House, a member of the selection committee, it had been 29 months since the congregation had a permanently assigned pastor. “Our previous pastor passed away unexpectedly and we’ve had an interim pastor since. We took time to grieve, and spent over a year and a half going through the search and interview process.”
After receiving about 10 profiles from their district coordinator, the five-person selection committee conducted a number of Internet chats with candidates, listened to sermons online, and saw Goldade give a sermon in person at a neutral church in New Jersey.
“There were five of us on the selection committee,” added Shropshire, “and I think different things about Pastor Mike appealed to each of us. What I do know is that we were all in agreement that this was the one God chose for us.”
As the pastor and his wife settle down in the parsonage provided in Cape Woods, Goldade is looking forward to figuring out a way to combine his passions.
“I love to fish and eat seafood, and listen to the ocean,” he said. “I also love to cook. I’m trying to figure out a way to bring my love for cooking and preaching together on a Sunday,” he concluded.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.