Police champlain tells story of a life given to service

Published 4:01 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Dennis Box, The Courier-Herald

The calls come in the middle of the night, or the morning - anytime, anyplace. The voice will ask, "Are you available?" For the last 26 years, as a volunteer chaplain, Dr. Art Sphar has been available to police departments and fire departments, day and night, when the worst happens.

Sphar is a chaplain for the Bonney Lake and Sumner police departments, the Sumner School District and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chaplaincy. His time of service happens in the midst of a crisis - consoling a father whose 15-year-old son hanged himself, or a mother whose daughter drowned in Lake Tapps, or a police officer who just killed another man in the line of duty.

The 64-year-old Sphar smiles easily and speaks with a soft voice about how he came to this life. "I was raised in a religious home, but after my wife and I were married we didn't attend church for six years," he said. "It wasn't that I didn't believe in God. The problem was I did believe in God and what I was seeing wasn't cutting it for me."

He had a good job as a successful businessman working for Mobil Oil and Xerox, a good wife and a sailboat, but at 32 years old something was missing. Something he had learned from the Bible stories his mother read to him as a child.

"I had a profound sense of calling, and it was total commitment. It meant selling the sailboat and, I tell you, I loved that sailboat. I would have sold anything before letting that sailboat go. It was an obsession. When I was baptized it was a total surrender of my life, and that sailboat became a toy, which is what it was, and I sold it."

His road to the chaplaincy came late one night in Multnomah County, Ore. Sphar was a new pastor at Mountview Christian Church in Gresham and he went on a ride along with Sheriff L.P. Brown.

"I thought it would be fun and I was trying to win him to the church," Sphar said. "We were in no-man's land between Portland and Gresham and there was a call. It was a multi-fatality collision. Two couples were in the car, three were killed instantly and the fourth we thought sure would die. He lived by the skin of his teeth.

"The two couples were riding ahead and their teenage kids were in the car behind them. Those kids watched their parents get killed. I stayed with them. It was after the experience with those kids I made a proposal to the sheriff to be the first sheriff's chaplain in Multnomah County."

Sphar went on to earn a doctor of ministry from Fuller Seminary and ended up back in Washington as minister of the Lake Tapps Christian Church. He was pastor there for 20 years before retiring last March.

While working as a full-time pastor, he became the Bonney Lake Police Department's first chaplain. Pierce County Sheriff Department Chaplain Don Nolta convinced him to help in that department, and soon Sumner began using him.

"When I started at Multnomah County I had no idea what a chaplain did. I had a seminary degree and a B.A. in psychology and I thought I could figure out what to do. I wasn't a very professional chaplain. One of the great things about Dan Nolta is I began getting training in understanding a police officer's life."

Understanding the life of an officer and the dynamics of a crisis are the essential tools of a chaplain, and that education does not come from a book.

"Half the of the work a chaplain does is crises intervention. When there is a difficult situation in the community, maybe a death, a chaplain is called to provide grief counseling," Sphar said. "The other half is dealing with police officers and their families."

The stress and strain of an officer's life and the toll it exacts from his family is a daily puzzle that Sphar must work.

"An officer is twice as likely to die of suicide as assault. And the average age of death after retirement is 57, because of stress they carry. Policeman can end up living isolated lives where everyone is either a police officer or a suspect," Sphar said. "And if there's a shooting a cop goes through a very difficult process. Administrative leave, mandatory psychological visits, all this is dragging on while the cop is dealing with whether they will give him a medal or send him to jail. That is what a chaplain is for. Somebody has to go and stand by that officer."

Sphar stated that once his calling came he wanted to be where God was. Whether in a basement, a church, someone's front porch or the back of a squad car, Sphar found his ministry.

"It's been a great life," Sphar said. "If I die right this minute I will have gotten my money's worth."

The Tacoma Pierce County Chaplaincy is a nonprofit organization that accepts gifts, donations and grants. TPCC can be reached by mail at: Art Sphar TPCC, PO Box 65048,University Place, Wash. 98464.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald