Captiva chapel set to welcome new leadership
The Captiva Chapel by the Sea will have a new pastor when it kicks off its season in November.
The Rev. Dr. Jim Miller will lead the congregation for the next three years, replacing the previous Rev. Dr. Doug Dortch and his wife, Judy. Miller and his wife, Diane, will arrive on the island on Nov. 1.
He is a retired senior pastor from the First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“She is retired from IBM,” Miller said of his wife, who was a systems analyst for about 20 years.
Married in 1983, the couple have three adult children — two sons and one daughter. David Miller works for a financial services firm in Fort Worth, Texas. Courtaney Miller Stember and her husband, Austin Stember, are in Frisco, Texas, and they have two kids, 20-month-old Alice and 3-month-old Liam. She is a former children’s ministry director, and he is an account manager with an insurance company. The Miller’s youngest child, Jonathan Miller, is a business jet pilot out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Miller grew up in Wilmington, Delaware.
“My dad was a Baptist pastor in downtown Wilmington,” he said.
Miller attended a Quaker high school, which was followed by Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He graduated in 1974 with a major in history. Miller went on to attend the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. His focus was on the New Testament, and he graduated in 1977.
Miller reported that when he was a senior interviewing for local churches, he received a letter from Wheaton asking if he would be interested in being a men’s residence hall director and teaching in the Greek Department. During his five years of teaching, Miller also taught for the Second Presbyterian Church in Glen Ellyn, where he got to know the pastor. When the pastor relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, he contacted Miller and asked if he would be interested in serving on his staff at the church.
“For a number of reasons, it just seemed like the right time to do that,” he said.
Miller explained that he wanted to make an impact in people’s lives over a longer period of time, not just a couple of school semesters, so he accepted the position. He served for four years — meeting Diane in the new member class and later marrying — then was accepted into a Ph.D. program at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The couple relocated, and Miller attended from 1985-89.
With a call from the Indianapolis church, the couple moved back and he served for another four years.
“Then I was called to First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, where we were for 31 years,” Miller said.
He was senior pastor from 1992-2023. During his tenure, Miller also served on the University of Tulsa’s board, as well as the boards for the Austin and Pittsburgh seminaries. Diagnosed with prostate cancer, which required both radiation and hormone therapy, he decided to step down to focus on his health. Now a few years away from it, Miller is teaching at the DuBuque seminary in Iowa and others.
“I prayed that the Lord would reassign me to do something meaningful,” he said.
Miller reported that he actually heard about the Captiva chapel and its model of rotating retired pastors from a friend while he was still serving as senior pastor. However, he was not interested in retiring at that time and continued to work for another six or seven years, before his diagnosis and stepping down.
Last year, a couple at his church returned from an island visit and shared about the position to open.
“Diane and I talked it over, we thought on it,” Miller said.
“I think it was a sense of call for both Diane and me,” he added.
Asked about his calling to the ministry, Miller explained that he had the concern while in seminary school that he was following the path because it would please his father and mother. When he received the offer to teach at Wheaton, Miller questioned if that was his calling and what he should be doing.
“What I learned in those five years was that my heart was really in the church,” he said.
Miller explained that teaching is a noble undertaking and he enjoys it, but he wanted to be a part of people’s lives for all stages — from birth and baptism, to marriage and children, to their last day.
“I really felt that I felt a distinct call,” Miller said.
He spoke about his priorities and what he would like to accomplish over his three years.
“I would love to build on what has already been established,” Miller said.
He reported that one of the most remarkable things for him about the Captiva chapel community is it thinks and believes that it is important to invest time, energy and funds into the community and it does.
“It is sort of an organic, from the ground up, gathering place where Christ is exalted, people are cared for, questions can be answered,” Miller said. “I want to make sure we maintain that. It’s a blessing.”
He hopes to keep the worship alive, plus encourage and cultivate it with island visitors.
“I look forward to engaging in sort of an informal teaching opportunity,” Miller said. “I love to teach.”
He is excited about the one-on-one, noting that the church in Tulsa had 2,500 members.
“I’m very privileged to have the discretionary time to walk with people and learn from them in a personal way,” Miller said, adding that he can dedicate more time to finding out what is going on in their world, whether it be the good, the bad or the indifferent. “That is a huge pastoral privilege.”
The Captiva Chapel by the Sea is at 11580 Chapin Lane, Captiva.