Jacksonville hospital senior chaplain Jim Harper recognized for decades of serving God
By Jessica Brown
Longtime cleric, Pastor James “Jim” Harper, was surprised when he was recognized in July during a church service at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. It didn’t take him long to find out what was behind it. “Someone did the homework and I ended up getting presented with certificate,” he shares.
That certificate was to recognize Harper’s service in the Baptist tradition for five decades. After serving at First Baptist over 20 years, he retired in 2014 to give more time to a chaplain’s role at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital. Harper became assistant chaplain there in 2014, and when the senior chaplain retired three years ago, Harper moved into the role. He wasn’t even thinking of the position but on the last day of interviews for a replacement pastor, he found out that there still might be a spot for him. “I was chosen over 18 other candidates, and I just felt like God must have really wanted me here,” he reflects.
Harper says the first church he pastored was in 1976 in Paris, Illinois. “That seems like five lifetimes ago,” he says fondly. Now at 75 years old, he has spent most of his ministerial career in the Midwest. Harper grew up in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco. “I grew up there, but I was born in North Carolina.”
He surprisingly didn’t grow up going to church. “You know, people see a chaplain and pastor and think they must have grown up in the church,” he shares.
In fact, Harper jokes, he may never have gone to church at all if it weren’t for the influence of his friends. “When I was 14, I got a call one day from some of my buddies,” he recalls.
“One of them said his grandma had taken him to church on Sunday and there were tons of good-looking girls there,” Harper jokes. “My buddy told me I should join him and I asked what time he would pick me up!”
Citing God’s apparent sense of humor, Harper’s love of the church was piqued. Later that summer, he solidified his faith at a church camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains. “I gave my life to God,” he shares.
He joined a Pentecostal church and soon began to attend a Baptist congregation along with friends, where his involvement with that denomination began. “When it came to schooling, I chose a Baptist college,” he says. Harper was still attending a Baptist church while going to junior college and was unsure how he wanted to finish his college career. He says that his pastor at that time was coincidently a trustee at Judson College in Elgin, and encouraged him to go there.
Harper did just that and sees it as an important steppingstone in his path to the ministry. “It really helped me move forward,” he says.
He emphasizes empathy when it comes to his role as a hospital chaplain. “I’m very flexible,” he shares. “I have to be able to relate to everyone here, including Muslim, Hindu, an atheist … and I have to be able to bring them love and comfort no matter who they are.”
Filling an important role for people at the most vulnerable time of their lives, Harper recognizes the need. “They’re in pain, they’re scared, they need hope and I know how to bring that comfort they need,” he says seriously. He adds that some days he can’t believe he gets paid for the job.
His work could be considered never done, too. Although he scaled back on hours after taking on the position, Harper performs a variety of other roles. He presides over memorial dedications in the hospital’s gardens, and Good Friday and Lenten services, for example. Harper says he makes use of his time, visiting all new patients and ICU patients every day. “I go to the cancer infusion clinic two to three times a week,” he shares.
Along with his duties at Memorial, Harper presides over services of a different sort and wishes for one over the other. “I wish I did more weddings but since I’m with people at the end of life and so many may not have a church, I’m asked to do a lot of funerals.”
He doesn’t stop there, either. “I get asked to preach at Baptist churches all the time on Sundays because a church may not have a pastor at their church,” he explains. “I’ll just help them until they get a new one.” Traveling to Quincy, Galesburg, Decatur or Greenfield, Harper’s determined to stay connected.
The pastor says his first wife unfortunately passed away several years ago, but he found happiness a few years ago and has been married to his wife, Becky, for three years now. “I proposed to her at a professional baseball game,” he remembers with a laugh. “She was so shocked she almost forgot to say yes!”
It’s their relationship, Harper says, that makes him able to fulfill all the expectations his life’s work brings, adding that his friends have also been supportive. “Becky and they have been my fortress.”
While Harper loves his chaplaincy role, he knows he’ll have to be done with it at some point. First, he wants to find the best replacement candidate. “I want to make sure than I’m able to hand the baton off to someone who realizes how important the role of chaplain is and wants to do the job well.”
