Pastor Thomas Ferguson knew how to turn just about anything into a friendly competition.
He kept track of who won the most matches when he played tennis with his friend Stan Price. At the end of the year, the loser would buy the winner a hamburger.
He exhibited the same competitiveness whether he was playing card games, bocce ball, ping pong, golf — even fishing.
“We went fishing and it was who could catch the first fish, the biggest fish, the most fish,” Price said. “When we went golfing it was the same old who could hit the ball the straightest, the longest, the farthest. But it was fun.”
Thomas Stewart Ferguson died on May 20 after suffering a heart attack. He was 64.
Ferguson is survived by his wife, Ronda, his four grown children: Andrew, Amy, Joshua and Matthew and their spouses, and his eight grandchildren.
He was born on June 5, 1945, to William and Lucille Ferguson in Geneseo, Ill. He was part of the track team and set a pole vault record at Moline High School in Moline, Ill. He graduated from Life Bible College in Los Angeles in 1968 and was ordained in 1971.
He was attending Life Bible College when he met the love of his life at a church they both attended.
“We noticed each other right away,” Ronda Ferguson said. “It was love at first sight.”
They married on July 7, 1967, in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. After his graduation from Life Bible College, the couple established and ran a coffee house on Venice Beach. They spent a year traveling the country and Canada as youth evangelists in a Volkswagen camper.
“We described ourselves as the first Foursquare (Church) hippies,” Ronda Ferguson said.
Ferguson spent the next three years working as a youth pastor in Santa Maria, Calif. Although they were told in 1970 not to get their hopes up about having children, the Fergusons welcomed their son, Andrew, into the world in 1971.
A daughter and two more sons were born after the family moved to Everett in 1974. They came here so Ferguson could begin a role as pastor at New Life Center.
They moved “sight unseen” Ronda Ferguson said, getting out their encyclopedia to look up Washington state. At the time, the church was a partially finished building on Colby Avenue. The congregation consisted of 50 people but grew to 2,500 in the 20 years Ferguson served as pastor.
He was appointed the district supervisor of the Northwest District of The Foursquare Church from 1994 to 2002 and oversaw churches in eight states. In 2002, he became the senior pastor at Hope Foursquare Church in Snohomish.
Ferguson didn’t worry about how big or small the church was, Price said. He told members of the New Life Center congregation who lived in areas where five new Foursquare churches were planted to attend those churches while he was pastor at New Life Center.
“He wasn’t one who clung to or cared about how big New Life got,” Price said. “That’s pretty rare that someone would say take your tithe money and take your help somewhere else. It was never about Tom. It was about helping others.”
Ferguson was a pastor, a boss and a friend to Anna Andrews, who worked for him while he was the district supervisor of the Northwest District.
“I loved how he spoke so simply of God that my even teenage daughters preferred to be in the church service rather than youth group to learn from him,” she said.
Although his father was “consistently faithful to spending time with Jesus” he valued his family, Andrew Ferguson said.
“While my Dad was consistent in his character whether at church or at home, he didn’t bring ‘work’ to the dinner table each night,” he said. “When it was time for family, then that was his focus. We were all a priority to him and never felt like his ministry was more important than us.”
Ferguson enjoyed family vacations to Lake Chelan, celebrating birthdays and Christmas. He was also a romantic, his wife said.
“He loved to go to romance movies with me,” she said. “If I saw one thing I liked he told me to get more. That’s the way he was. He was always ready to take care of me.”
Ferguson was her mentor, wrote his cousin Renee Holm. He encouraged her to become a pastor and establish Living Hope Community Church in Davenport, Iowa.
“He encouraged me, as a female, to move past any barriers and follow God’s lead in pioneering a church,” she said.
Her father-in-law leaves behind a rich legacy, Michelle Ferguson said.
“Josh and I sat and watched our wedding video on our second anniversary in early May and I remember sitting there thinking how grateful I was that Tom did the ceremony,” she said. “He did such a beautiful job and I treasure it even more now.”
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491, adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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