Huddling With His Congregation

Sunday morning, the Rev. Paul Bergmann will preach his weekly sermon at Ojai Valley Community Church.

Sunday afternoon, former Kansas City Chiefs and UCLA tight end Paul Bergmann will host a Super Bowl bash in the same sanctuary.

You will recognize Bergmann--he will be the big guy in front of the church’s big-screen TV, cheering on old high school buddy John Elway to lead the Denver Broncos to another Super Bowl victory.

Bergmann first recognized Elway’s potential more than two decades ago, when, as a high school sophomore, he was working out with Coach Jack Neumeier on his way to becoming Granada Hills High School’s next starting quarterback.

Then a funny thing happened. A new kid showed up on the field to try out for the team. The new kid’s name was John Elway.

So much for the quarterback slot. However, Bergmann’s coach immediately saw another role for him--on the receiving end of Elway’s throws.

Turned out they were made for each other. For three years, Elway threw and Bergmann caught.

They topped off their senior year in a 1979 high school all-star game in the Rose Bowl, when Elway passed a 50-yard bomb to Bergmann, which he caught one-handed.

“I was running flat out,” Bergmann remembered this week as he sat in his church office. “It was probably the catch of a lifetime.”

Today, the 38-year-old Bergmann thinks that losing the quarterback job to Elway was to his advantage.

“It gave me exposure on the receiving end, and it helped develop me to start off catching Elway’s bombs.”

*

Out of high school, the two were both recruited, Elway to Stanford and Bergmann to UCLA.

At college, Bergmann says, “I found the Lord.”

The acceptance came after a miserable start to his athletic career.

“I didn’t have a single catch my first three years,” Bergmann said. “I was at the end of my rope. I’d always drawn my strength from my ability as an athlete.”

Already down, Bergmann thought he was also out after learning that his sister was in intensive care after an auto accident. He thought she wouldn’t live.

In a little chapel, “I literally fell to my knees and gave myself to Christ,” Bergmann recollected. “ ‘Let this cup pass from me’ was all I could think of. Up to then, I’d always struck deals with God--’Get me out of this jam and I’ll . . . ‘ “

He simply gave himself over in trust, he said. “And my sister began to improve.”

In his final two years at UCLA, Bergmann shot from the bottom to the top. UCLA won the Rose Bowl twice and Bergmann, then team captain, also made All-American. It was at UCLA that he met his wife, Kathy, who was introduced to him by teammate Rick Neuheisel.

After a stint with the now-extinct USFL, Bergmann played for the Kansas City Chiefs for three years before a shoulder dislocation in 1988 “made me decide to hang it up.”

*

His religious faith guided him to a new career: spokesman for NFL Sportsworld.

“It’s a ministry,” Bergmann said. “They called me to use my sports background in speaking to young people about life issues.”

For 10 years, he crossed the country, speaking to high school students and those in prison about life issues. “I talked to over a million young people in those years,” he said.

A speaking engagement at a rally after a Nordhoff High School football game in Ojai a year ago brought him to Ventura County.

“Then I spoke to a ‘Men for Christ’ breakfast in Ojai,” he said. “Ojai Valley Community Church was looking for a new pastor and they asked me. I almost laughed it off, thinking about me as a pastor,” said the Levis-clad, bearded rookie preacher.

But Bergmann went ahead and filled in one Sunday morning as a guest pastor.

Today, he leads a 600-member congregation of all ages, from children to what he calls seasoned veterans rather than seniors. The nondenominational, evangelical church, Bergmann said, “is first--biblical, second--enjoyable and third--practical.”

Sunday afternoon, he, Kathy and their three children, Nicole, Joshua and Jared, will watch the game with their new friends and his new congregation. He will watch his old friend Elway, who he saw last summer, a little tensely, because, “after so many surgeries . . . I thought maybe he should retire after last year.”

After all, he said, they aren’t 18 any more.

“I played soccer with my kids last week--that night, I had ice bags on both shoulders.”

Grinning, he guessed that most of his church’s members are Bronco fans, but he allowed that “Falcons fans will feel safe here Sunday afternoon.”

*

And Bergmann, who has been known to show highlights from football games during sermons, reasons that it’s not unthinkable to get together for fellowship and football.

“Actually, the Bible is full of athletic contests and connotations,” Bergmann said. “The apostle Paul was a huge fan of athletic contests.”

Ojai Valley Community Church’s Super Bowl bash is open to all. Beginning at 1 p.m., pregame festivities in the youth center will include basketball, Ping-Pong, table games, drinks and snacks. At 3 p.m., the game will be shown on two large screens in the sanctuary.

During halftime, the audience will hear video messages from members of the international sports ministry Athletes in Action, including quarterbacks Randall Cunningham of the Minnesota Vikings and Mark Brunell of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ojai Valley Community Church is at 907 El Centro St. For more information, call the church at 646-4324.

Times Community News reporter Jeffrey Jen contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FYI

Ojai Valley Community Church won’t be the only congregation in the county screening the big game. In Camarillo, the First Baptist Church will open its doors at 3 p.m. to those who would like to watch on its 12- by 12-foot screen. Snacks and drinks will be available, and a conversation and crafts room will be open for those who don’t want to watch the whole game. The church is at 1601 Temple Ave. For more information, call 484-2879.