FARMINGTON – John Tolman is the marrying kind.

As a Baptist pastor, he’s married 391 couples. The first couple was David Strickland and Dawn Davis, who wed on May 29, 1958.

On Sunday, Tolman officiated as the Stricklands – and dozens of other couples married by Tolman through the years – renewed their wedding vows at the Farmington Falls Union Baptist Church.

Tolman, 79, started his ministry as a student pastor 52 years ago at the same church, where he married the Stricklands. He decided to celebrate his years as pastor by asking the Stricklands, who live in Embden, to renew their vows as part of the Sunday service.

“It’s not every day that couples are able to return to the place of their wedding and reaffirm their vows to each other with the original clergy officiating,” Tolman said.

Fred and Ruby Hardy of New Sharon, who Tolman married on Aug. 4, 2007, also will renew their vows. Tolman thought it would be special to have the first couple he married and the last, Ruby said Friday.

Tolman knows a lot about weddings and marriage. He and his wife, Jane, have been married for more than 50 years. It’s important to be faithful and supportive, he said.

“I married well,” he said. “My wife, Jane, has always been there. Jane’s been a rock,” he said. They have four children, six grandsons and several great-grandchildren.

In 2002, she swapped the life she knew to go with him to Venezuela where he served in the only English-speaking Protestant church. At that time, it was a scary, dangerous place to live, Tolman said.

“People there lived behind barbed wire,” Tolman said. “The church I was serving would not allow us off the compound. People are kidnapped and held for ransom.”

Not all of his marriages have lasted. And some ceremonies have come with surprises.

Once, the groom collapsed during the ceremony. It was a home wedding, so the groom was taken upstairs to lie down for a while. After he recovered, the ceremony continued and the couple was pronounced husband and wife.

A few weddings have been special, including his own family members. He’s officiated for three of his four children, and for one grandson.

His daughter wed in a large, special Pentecostal Church in Illinois. “I was able to walk her up the aisle,” Tolman said. Then he helped officiate.

Tolman began ministering at age 27, a year before his own wedding. He retired as pastor of Shorey Chapel in 2001 after serving 31 years. Five years ago, he was asked to return to Farmington Falls as interim pastor. He has also served in Rockwood, Franklin, Weld, Carthage, Jackman, New Sharon and Oxford.

Tolman said he hesitates to do much counseling with the couples he marries. “Most couples are not open to suggestions,” he said. “They’re just ready to get married.”

But to those who are open, he has a few words. “I tell them I made it 53 years. You can make it, too.”

There are no secrets to a healthy marriage, he said.

“It’s about hanging in there,” Tolman said. “But it does help to get the right one.”

Tolman ended his sermon Sunday with this: “So much of life begins with the simple statement, ‘I do.'”