Coming full circle, Rev. Castetter gets to give back to his hometown

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

1978 Noblesville High School graduate Rev. Jeff Castetter has not only moved back home, but back to the very house he was raised in. He is also serving as the interim minister for First Christian Church of Noblesville, 16377 Herriman Blvd.

The Reporter spoke to Castetter about his journey to this role and about the changes he can see in Hamilton County as a native (dare we say “prodigal”) son returning to the community.

Castetter was caught in road construction-related traffic during our phone interview.

“I’m just now learning where things are at and getting around pretty good, but it took a while to kind of acclimate myself to all the changes,” Castetter said. “It’s like mushrooms. You’ve got whole housing additions that have just popped up like mushrooms, you know? To me, it seems like it was overnight. I’m sure it took longer than that, but I’m driving around the country road enjoying myself and it’s like, ‘where did that come from? My gosh, how many houses are in that addition?’ And then you got apartment complexes and it’s just it’s really amazing. And then you hear there’s a housing shortage. It’s like, huh? It looks like there’s plenty of houses for what I can see!”

Castetter told The Reporter when he was a young boy, the local phone book had only around 6,000 names in it, and that covered more than just one town. The 2020 census listed Noblesville at a population of over 65,000, with a current estimate exceeding 75,000.

Castetter, who was born at Riverview Hospital, attended Christian Theological Seminary adjacent to Butler University in Indianapolis, which was the largest seminary in the Midwest at that time.

Castetter said he is enjoying being an interim pastor in his home town.

“All my churches have been considered long-term,” Castetter said. “Anything over six years is considered a long-term pastorate. This is a beautiful church. I’ve had some nice churches in my career, but I think this might be the prettiest one I’ve ever really served. It’s got a beautiful facility and we’ve got a lot of stuff going on here. The building is used almost every day. I think it’s at least six out of seven days we got stuff going on.”

In the interest of clarity, Castetter did not move back to Noblesville specifically to take care of the First Christian congregation.

“I’ve accomplished a lot more in ministry than I ever dreamed I would when I got out of seminary,” Castetter said. “God’s been really good to me and the denomination’s been good to me. Now that I’m retired and doing interim work, I just want to give back a little bit too. That’s sort of my goal.”

In a strange moment of synchronicity, during the conversation with Castetter, The Reporter received a press release claiming Indiana is the eighth most religious state in the country based on 13 metrics as compiled by SmileHub. It should be noted that the statistic is about all religions practiced in the Hoosier state. You can read a summary of that study online at smilehub.org/blog/most-religious-states/142.

You can learn about First Christian and its various programs online at fccnoblesville.org. You could also stop in for the 10 a.m. Sunday service and welcome Castetter back to Noblesville.

Photo provided