Chris Kokkola has been pastor of the West Paris Baptist Church for about two months, and apart from a short time in Florida, he and his family got here via Finland.

“My wife (Heidi) is from Finland and we met here in university,” Kokkola said.

Kokkola decided to take his wife’s last name in marriage, but he was born Chris Tikkanen and grew up in Hudson, N.H. He was a frequent visitor to Harrison and Norway as a youth, and his grandparents are buried in West Paris.

He was an unpaid church pastor in Finland while employed as a nurse, and previously as an English teacher.

Before the Finland stay, Kokkola had an English teaching assignment in South Korea, where he fell into his first church pastorship by chance. A Korean invited him to attend a Presbyterian church that held services in English and he quickly developed a friendship with the church’s pastor.

“We just started talking about theology and (he asked,) ‘How would you like to be the pastor of the church,'” Kokkola recalls. “I asked if I could think about it. He said, ‘Sure, but you’ve got until tomorrow morning to tell me.’ I prayed about it and next morning I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.'”

Later the same day Kokkola met with the elders and was hired after a three-hour interview.

The hiring at West Paris Baptist Church was much more deliberate, coming after he found the announcement online and applied for the post.

“They told me their situation about the church having a younger population that was decreasing, which is basically everywhere,” Kokkola said. “‘I had (written) a study of Nehemiah, which is about rebuilding Jerusalem, and there are principles in there that apply to rebuilding a church as well. So I sent that, and they were like, ‘We’ve never seen something like that before.'”

The congregation has about 50 members, Kokkola said.

Kokkola was asked to preach an audition sermon across the street at the Mission Congregational Church, where, coincidentally, services were conducted in Finnish years ago.

Name: Chris Kokkola

Age: 45

What person most influenced you, and why? I would say that my dad influenced me the most, besides Jesus. My dad showed me what it really means to be a person of good character.

What will you miss about Finland? I will miss my friends.

Do you speak Finnish? Totta kai (of course). As a nurse it was necessary to know.

What will be your challenges? Like all new assignments it is really building the trust of the people.

Why is participation in church relevant today? God is always relevant. Our time in church is, according to scripture, to encourage us and to help each other through life. This life is tough if you try it on your own.

How do you attract young people to church? This is the challenge. We attract young people by being doctrinally sound and live the life we are supposed to.

How can a church best serve the surrounding community? Each community has different needs. It’s up to us to find those needs and to reach out. In West Paris we do have the (food) pantry, but at the moment I am really assessing what the needs are for the community.

What was the biggest change when you moved to Finland? Getting connected to people and the church.

What was the biggest change in moving back to the U.S.? The biggest change is talking to people you do not know. In Finland people rarely talk to strangers, and at times even family and friends.