Proudly Presenting Carl Cecil Buckle
Retired Church of God Pastor
1976 WPU Graduate

Carl Buckle, Class of 1976, spent 45 years as an ordained minister of the Church of God, serving several congregations in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon from 1963 until his retirement in 2008.

Carl married his bride, Bernadine, in 1958 at the age of 18. The following year, he enrolled in Warner Pacific College, originally planning on studying education, but later switching to psychology. In December 1962, the couple’s first child, Bernie, Class of 1985, was born and Carl left school early.

In 1963 Carl served as an interim pastor in California until receiving a call as a senior pastor at First Church of God, in Center, Colorado. Carl was a bi-vocational minister who also taught math at Center High School along with working in the Title 1 Program. In 1966, the family’s second child, Rhonda (Buckle) Stecker, Class of 1989, arrived. After his first senior pastorate, Carl went on to lead churches in Delta, Colorado; Hanford and Yuba City, California; Reno, Nevada; and Atwater, California.

In 2001, Carl accepted an associate pastor position at New Hope Community Church, in Portland, where he helped launch the School of Ministry and started the “Second Wind” ministry to senior citizens. He also filled the pulpit when senior pastor Ray Cotton, Class of 1973, was away.

Carl was always active in the communities in which he served. He was on Christian radio in Nevada and Colorado. He worked with African-American leaders in Hanford and Yuba City to conduct united ministry to the poor and underprivileged. He managed Camp Joy in Colorado, and he also served an internship at Kings County Mental Health in Hanford, working with hyperkinetic children.

Carl was faithful to finish his degree at Warner Pacific by earning transferrable credits at Fresno State University and completing correspondence courses with Warner Pacific faculty. He graduated in 1976, seventeen years after he first stepped foot on campus. Carl also holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from California Graduate School of Theology.

Carl’s family legacy to Warner Pacific is profound. He counts sixteen Warner Pacific alumni or current students in his extended family.