The Rev. Bruce H. Snyder

1937 - 2024

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

The Rev. Bruce H. Snyder, who served churches in four states yet returned to Toledo and Emmanuel Baptist Church, where he was associate pastor for stints spanning five decades, died at his West Toledo home Wednesday, the day before his 87th birthday.

He'd undergone multiple organ failure and the last six months was under the care of Heartland Hospice of northwest Ohio, his daughter Brenda Shawver said.

After retiring in 2003 from First Baptist Church in Horseheads, N.Y., where he'd been pastor for eight years, he made his last return to Toledo and Emmanuel Baptist.

"It was home," Mrs. Shawver said. "They loved him, and he loved them."

In 2014 he was named pastor emeritus of Emmanuel Baptist, where he remained involved for much of his retirement. He most recently was an adult Bible fellowship teacher, son Bruce Snyder said.

The Rev. Duke Crawford, Emmanuel Baptist pastor since May, 2009, said: "He just forever has been known as Pastor Snyder here.

"Talking to some to some of the people who have known him going back to the '60s," Pastor Crawford said, "they have known him as Pastor Snyder. Everyone had trouble calling him Bruce.

"He was very faithful and steady and joyful. That's the thing people will remember most about Pastor Snyder. He was a very joyful person."

He also led the church's senior ministry and, with his history at Emmanuel Baptist, he officiated at dozens of church members' funerals. He offered, Pastor Crawford said, "the comfort of the Gospel and the Lord, Jesus Christ, that God's people were safe in the arms of Jesus, That's part of what made his ministry significant as well."

Even his Sunday sermons were akin to a fatherly conversation, Mrs. Shawver said.

"You would walk away and say, 'I can apply this to my life this week,'" she said.

He often closed his sermons with the phrase, "If you miss heaven, you've missed it all."

"He firmly believed that," Mrs. Shawver said. "The man you saw in the pulpit was the man we ate dinner with."

Pastor Snyder first arrived at Emmanuel Baptist, The Blade reported in January, 1965, to be the assistant to the Rev. Donald Sewell, the church's pastor.

He had a leading role two years later on the steering committee that developed a school as a ministry of the church, what is now Emmanuel Christian School, with students in kindergarten through 12th grade. He was principal when the school welcomed kindergartners in 1967 as its first and, then, only students.

"He had children, and he loved children," Mrs. Shawver said. "He wanted us as children to be trained in the Lord and to learn from a biblical standpoint. He felt creating Emmanuel Baptist School was very important."

In 1966, when Ray Turkington and Lowell Yoder helped start a Christian radio station, WPOS-FM, Pastor Snyder's was among the first voices heard on its airwaves. He was host of the Midday Manna and Echoes of Emmanuel programs. Once a shopper recognized his voice as he and his daughter conversed in the grocery store.

"'Pastor Snyder, Pastor Snyder! I listen to you on the radio all the time,'" the shopper said, Mrs. Shawver recalled. "He had the public presence. I remember as a child listening to my father on the radio. He was sharing the love of God with thousands and thousands of people."

He became pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, in Churubusco, Ind., in 1968 and afterward was founding pastor of Faith Baptist in Elida, Ohio. He returned to Emmanuel Baptist in 1975 as administrative pastor and to lead an internship program for seminary graduates.

After the previous pastor departed, he became Emmanuel Baptist interim pastor in 1977 and, after a senior pastor began in 1978, remained as associate pastor until 1984, when he became pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Columbus. He was pastor of Montana Avenue Baptist Church in Caldwell, Idaho, from 1988-95, and then was called to the church in Horseheads, N.Y.

He also served as Emmanuel Baptist interim pastor for more than a year before Pastor Crawford's arrival.

"The thing that endeared him to the people of Emmanuel was he was there to take over and lead the church through the losing of pastors," son Bruce said.

But once a new pastor was called to Emmanuel Baptist, he found his support role satisfying and did not aspire to be other than associate pastor. He even contributed a section on being an associate pastor to a book about pastoral ministry, The Pastor: A Guide for God's Faithful Servant.

He was born Jan. 25, 1937, in Mishawaka, Ind., to Hattie and Bruce Snyder, who was a pastor. He attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Bob Jones University. Afterward, he was superintendent of City Rescue Mission in South Bend, Ind., and pastor of Bible Baptist Church, Auburn, Ind.

Surviving are his wife, the former Ellen Read, whom he married Aug. 29, 1958; daughters Brenda Shawver and Beth White; sons Bruce Snyder, Brent Snyder, and Brian Snyder; 16 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life service will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday at Emmanuel Baptist Church. Arrangements are by Ansberg-West Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to Emmanuel Baptist for the radio ministry being formed.