STEUBEN – They’re partners. They’re colleagues. They’re an unofficial ministry team.

And they begin retirement this weekend the same way they’ve done everything else for 44 years – hand in hand.

Officially, it is the pastor of the Unionville Church of God, the Rev. Lewis Cushman, 64, who is retiring. Unofficially, his wife, Ellouise Cushman, also 64, is leaving the ministry at the church Down East, too.

They spoke openly about their lives and work during a recent interview in their home, often finishing each other’s sentences, while a granddaughter played on the living room floor.

“I think a minister and his wife have to be a team,” said Lewis Cushman. “We’ve worked side by side ever since we were married.”

“It’s worked because we have the same vision,” added his wife. “I’ve always been the Christian education director.”

“Then, when we worked at youth camps in the summer, she was the cook,” countered the pastor. “As far as I’m concerned she’s always been a big help.”

“It’s never been a problem for me to share him with people because I know they need him,” she said. “But we are looking forward to doing things on our time without a regular schedule. We’d go on vacation always wondering what was happening at home. Then we’d make the mistake of calling home. I won’t miss that sense of leaving a lot hanging when we go away somewhere.”

He was the son of a Port Clyde lobsterman who had planned to take up his father’s trade when he heard the call to the ministry. She grew up in Hodgdon and attended the Houlton Full Gospel Church.

The two met at Zion Bible College in East Providence, R.I., in 1955. They got engaged the next year and were married in 1957.

“I think it was just chemistry,” Ellouise Cushman said. “The school was real strict. There was one meal a week where we could sit together in the dining hall. It was pretty much look and wish.”

The young minister’s first job was as associate pastor at a church in Camden. In 1960, he became pastor of Faith Temple Church of God in Belfast, which had 35 members. Under his ministry, the church grew to 225, started a school and moved several times until a new building, including a 300-seat sanctuary, was constructed on Lincolnville Avenue in the late 1970s.

Lewis Cushman said a minister’s job hasn’t really changed a lot over the years.

But what the people in the congregation expect of their minister has.

In addition to leading worship, baptizing, marrying and burying, pastors are expected to be counselors, too. There also are fewer people able to commit time to church activities than there were 40 years ago, he said.

The number of marriages ending in divorce has increased during the Cushmans’ ministry. He said that he couldn’t remember any divorces at the Belfast church, but that there had been about half a dozen at the Unionville church during his nine years there. He and his wife often counseled couples in an effort to help the relationship grow stronger.

“The most hurtful thing has been seeing families dissolve,” said Ellouise Cushman. “One of the couples always leaves the church, so we try to minister to and help heal those who are left and hurting. It’s especially hard when the families have been together a long time – to see what’s left behind is heart-wrenching.”

The pastor said he takes pride in the fact that every church he has led grew under his leadership. On the other hand, the most difficult part of his ministry has been losing people to death, many of whom had become close friends.

Lewis Cushman started a trend in his family. His two brothers became ministers and his sister married a preacher. His son Tim is now the youth pastor and Christian education director of a church in West Virginia. The Cushmans’ three other children live in Maine, and they have 13 grandchildren.

Lewis Cushman said he plans to do some lobstering, spend time with his children and grandchildren and “just be a good church member.”

Ellouise added, “We always said during our ministry that when we were just church members again, we’d be the best. Now’s our chance to be the kind of church members we always said we wanted to minister to.”