After spending 43 years in the ministry, Pastor Harvey Anderson of the Preston Meadow Lutheran Church is retiring.

A group of about 650 friends gathered Sunday evening at the Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center to celebrate his 11 years as pastor at that church.

They sipped wine, ate dinner and talked about how they'll miss Anderson, 69.

Anderson said he doesn't know what he's going to do during his retirement, but inaction seems unlikely.

"I'm not a sedentary person," he said.

He is used to answering the telephone, not knowing if he will be invited to go out to lunch or to help someone through a marriage, death or car wreck.

He said he'll miss "taking care of the people and their hurts," and he said that it has been special for him to help congregation members move through their crises and to work with talented people.

Anderson and his wife, Ruth, have three children: Joel, 39; Matthew, 37; and Nicole, 30. They also have eight grandchildren: Ellie, Noah, Olivia, Oskar, Sophia, Sawyer, Bjorn and Issac.

Bill Lindquist, one of the organizers of the retirement party, said that after Anderson took over as pastor at Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, he not only boosted morale and attendance, but also helped to improve the church's financial situation.

Anderson got the congregation to contribute and to believe in the mission of the church, Lindquist said.

Anderson preached at King of Glory in Fountain Valley, Calif., for many years before he moved to Texas to preach at Preston Meadow Lutheran Church.

While in California he won a national stewardship award from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Lindquist recalled how Anderson wound up preaching at Preston Meadow Lutheran Church: A church member was the daughter of one of Anderson's California congregants, and when she called her father with Thanksgiving greetings, she also told him that the Preston Meadow Lutheran Church was struggling financially.

About two months later Anderson was in Plano and ready to work. During his stay at Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, Anderson has helped raise the money to build a sanctuary that now holds about 900 people.

Also, the church has boosted attendance from about 275 to about 700 people each week, with 980 members, Lindquist said.

That's the highest percentage of church attendance in the national organization, Lindquist said.

"That's also because of Pastor Anderson," he said.

Lindquist said the church's budget has increased from about $250,000 to $1.7 million under Anderson's stay.

In addition, Anderson encourages congregants to come to church regularly, get involved and to contribute their talents, Lindquist said.

Steve Larson, who has been a church member since 1988, said Anderson came to Preston Meadow Lutheran Church at the right time.

Since Larson's family likes Anderson so much, Larson's daughter Sarah made sure that Anderson performed her wedding ceremony before he retired. She married Paul Grimsrud on Jan. 2.

Chris Banakis, the first congregation president under Anderson at Preston Meadow Lutheran Church who later took a job in Chicago, flew back to Plano for Anderson's retirement party.

Banakis said that one realizes, after moving away, that it's hard to find a person as special as Anderson. "I think this congregation will miss him a lot," he said. "He knows how to energize a congregation."

Jan Anderson and Gene Anderson have been church members only about a year, but they said they hate to see Anderson go.

"He had a way of making us feel very welcome" immediately, Jan Anderson said.

Also, she said she likes his dry sense of humor. Gene Anderson said he likes that Anderson is a University of Nebraska fan, and he is one, too.

"We're relatively new at the church, and I like the way he runs the church like it's a business, and he likes orderliness," Gene Anderson said.

Peggy Larson said she'll miss Anderson's sense of humor, and she said Anderson was like a father figure because he helped to guide her and her family spiritually.

She said that when she and her family moved here about 10 years ago, her children, Becca and David, were in first and second grade, and now they are a junior and senior in high school.

Anderson was their pastor all through confirmation, and Larson said, "He's very special to us."

Cindy Forsythe, who grew up in California and moved to Plano in the mid-90s, has been going to Preston Meadow Lutheran Church for about a dozen years, and before that, she had heard Anderson preach in Fountain Valley, Calif.

Anderson has baptized and performed a wedding ceremony for her, and he also has baptized her three children, Duncan, Meredith and Samuel.

Forsythe said Anderson has been there for her through good, bad and in-between times. "He's been like a father to me," she said, "and I'll miss him dearly."