More than 30 years ago, Doug Birky was finishing his degree at Dallas Theological Seminary when he was contacted about a church in Sidney.

He was contacted after the midwest district of the Evangelical Free Church received his resume. He calls the delivery of his resume “another story.” What is real, he says, is he and his wife Carolyn and their family, have been blessed to be part of the Sidney community since 1986.

“We had never imagined we'd be here this many years,” Birky said recently.

He said many churches rotate their pastors on two- to four-year cycles. E-Free Sidney church...