“Pray for me for a wife.”
The prayer request hung in the air during one of Faith’s prayer days in the late 1970s. Dennis Sanders sat with his prayer group, sharing what was on his heart. “I know I’m going into ministry, and I think it would be important to have a wife,” he explained to the group of students gathered around him.
Among those listening was Sheryl, who had arrived at Faith in 1977 with a desire to deepen her faith as a new believer. She and the others exchanged side glances. “Okay, we’ll pray for you for a wife,” they promised.
Little did anyone know that the answer to Dennis’s prayer was sitting right there in that circle.
Finding Their Way to Faith
Dennis enrolled at Faith in 1976 and graduated in 1981 with a degree in pastoral studies. Growing up in the West, his first thought was Denver Baptist Bible College (before the merger with Faith). His dad, however, had attended Omaha Baptist Bible College before the school moved to Iowa and became Faith Baptist Bible College, so Dennis decided to take a look at Faith.
After they visited Faith during Youth Days, he and his family decided Ankeny would be the right spot.
Sheryl heard about the college at her church and also attended Youth Days with her youth group. “My church encouraged me to go, and they helped a little bit with the finances,” she recalls. “My pastor and wife even took me shopping for clothes so I could have the dresses.”
Both arrived at Faith with hearts already surrendered to ministry. Dennis had made his decision to dedicate his life to God as a junior in high school, feeling called to ministry but uncertain of the specifics. “I was looking at maybe a missionary, but stronger in the area of maybe pastoral ministry, if God wanted that,” he remembers.
Sheryl’s calling had a different flavor. Growing up in a difficult home situation, she found herself drawn to the idea of being a pastor’s wife. “I always thought, oh, it would be cool to be a pastor’s wife because I admired my pastor and his wife, and tried to be involved in our church as much as I could.”
When Prayer Becomes Reality
The friendship between Dennis and Sheryl grew naturally during their time at Faith. They were good friends first, which made Dennis’s prayer request for a wife both memorable and slightly awkward.
Sheryl recalls the group’s reaction to Dennis’s unusual prayer request: “We’re all like, oh, okay.”
But God had been orchestrating something beautiful. “Sure enough, we began dating and knew right away that we were to be together,” Dennis shares. The young man who had boldly asked his classmates to pray for a wife found his answer sitting right there with him.
They married in 1979, while Dennis was still finishing his degree.
Lessons Beyond the Classroom
The Sanders greatly appreciate their Faith experience, though they acknowledge it couldn’t prepare them for everything ministry would bring. “I always talk about how excellent my professors were,” Dennis reflects. “They were very good at what they did, obviously, but [they gave] very practical learning experience as well.”
For Sheryl, Faith was an eye-opening experience. Having had a challenging childhood at home, she had romanticized ministry life. “I thought [that] going into the ministry… [was] going to be so great because it’s going to be normal compared to my abnormal childhood.”
While Faith didn’t shield them from ministry’s challenges, it did give them crucial life skills. “What I did learn from Faith were people skills,” Sheryl explains. “Learning how to you get along with your roommates, learning how to adjust, and just being out there in the world as opposed to staying home in your local town.”
A Ministry Marathon
After Dennis graduated in 1981, their ministry journey began in earnest. He spent about a year doing pulpit supply around Iowa before accepting his first pastorate at Murray Baptist Church in 1982. That small church in southern Iowa became their training ground.
“They were so sweet and so encouraging,” Sheryl remembers. “The church knew they couldn’t support you full time, so they were so patient and offered so much grace.”
The Sanders would go on to serve churches in Shell Rock and Dike, both in Iowa, before making a significant move to Colorado ten years ago to pastor in Aurora. “I wasn’t really sure if God was done with us at our age,” Dennis admits. “But He made a very strong call for us. And we felt very strongly about coming out here.”
The Reality of Ministry Life
Their decades in ministry have taught them that the challenges are real but so are the joys. Early on, Dennis faced the exhaustion of bi-vocational ministry, working 10-hour days in Des Moines while pastoring. “Coming home at night and trying to wrap your brain around studies, and at that time, you’re in charge of everything,” he recalls.
For Sheryl, one of the biggest challenges was learning to ignore unbiblical expectations. “As a pastor’s wife, there are expectations of you that are not scriptural. People put you in a box and expect you to look a certain way, sound a certain way, do certain things.”
The solution came through understanding her identity. “Learning to be okay with what God has gifted me with and where my strengths and weaknesses are, and that my identity isn’t in piano or in pastor’s wife. It’s in my relationship with the Lord.”
Perhaps the hardest challenge has been distance from family. With five grandchildren back in Iowa, Sheryl admits, “That’s the biggest challenge in ministry for me. But I’m so thankful for technology and FaceTime.”
Current Joys and Future Dreams
Today, the Sanders are thriving in their Aurora ministry. They are involved in men’s and ladies’ Bible studies, working with people who are using a John study to understand salvation, and mentoring a young man who is considering ministry. Dennis meets with him every Friday, and the young man preached his first sermon in March.
“We’re just having a really fun time ministering here,” Sheryl shares. Their city of about 400,000 residents presents unique challenges, but also opportunities. “We probably have a new visitor every Sunday,” she notes.
What makes their current ministry special is the genuine love of their congregation. “This is the most loving church we’ve ever walked into, and you can’t fake that,” Sheryl says. “They make sure they greet people and they make sure they get to know people.”
After more than 40 years in ministry, Dennis echoes that sentiment: “We can really sincerely say this is a very loving place to be.”
Looking Ahead
As the years go by, the Sanders have had to learn how to balance their ministry with the pull of family back in Iowa. “Our family is back in Iowa. We’d love to be able to go there and enjoy a little bit of twilight life with our grandkids and our kids.”
But they’re not ready to retire yet. “We feel we’ve got enough in the tank to go a little bit longer,” Dennis says. “In the meantime, we’re praying that the Lord will give us the energy and the good health to last however He wants to use us.”
Full Circle
Looking back to that prayer group at Faith all those years ago, it’s clear that God answered Dennis’s request in ways that exceeded his expectations. He didn’t just get a wife—he got a ministry partner who has walked beside him through four decades of pastoral work, sharing both the challenges and the joys.
Their love story began with a simple, honest prayer request. While that moment might have seemed awkward to the college students gathered in that prayer circle, it was actually the beginning of a beautiful partnership that has blessed countless lives across Iowa and Colorado.
