You may reach us for further information via the following:
Scott.Royer@cogsr.org Doug.Royer@cogsr.org
Church of God Santa Rosa
4343 Wallace Rd.
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
(707) 478-6999
A Brief History of Our Religious Journey
Scott and Doug Royer are brothers, the sons of Paul and Blanche Royer, long-time members of the Church of God. Paul Royer, along with two of his brothers, Bill and Don, were introduced to the Radio Church of God in 1958. They all attended their first Feast of Tabernacles in Big Sandy, Texas, in 1959. In September of 1960, after a lost application, many phone calls and one trip to Pasadena, California, Paul Royer with his whole family moved to Pasadena . He had finally been accepted to attend Ambassador College at the age of 40 as an older married student. At this time, Scott and Doug along with their sister Sharon, started attending Imperial Schools.
Paul S. Royer Sr. graduated from Ambassador College in May of 1963. Shortly afterwards, he was given the head position of a fairly new personnel department for both Ambassador College and what became the Worldwide Church of God. He also began giving sermonettes and eventually sermons at the various churches in the Pasadena headquarters area. A few years later he was made pastor of the WCG church in Bakersfield, California, and subsequently raised to the ministerial rank of Pastor. Another responsibility given to him in conjunction with evangelist Albert J. Portune was the coordination and selection of new sites for observing the Feast of Tabernacles within the United States and Canada. Many will remember him for his sermons and articles in the "Good News" relating his WWII experiences to spiritual lessons that benefited all who heard or read them.
P. Scott Royer Jr., graduated from Imperial Schools in May of 1966 and entered Ambassador College in September of that same year. He graduated in May of 1970 with a Liberal Arts degree in theology with minors in speech / communications and secondary education. He then became a teacher of religion, math and journalism at Imperial Schools as well as giving sermonettes at the various churches in the headquarters area. On January 21, 1973 he married Teresa D. Bacheller, then in her junior year at Ambassador College.
When Imperial Schools were closed in June 1974, Scott was assigned to work as a ministerial assistant under Bryce G. Clark in Sacramento, California. A year later in May of 1975, Scott along with his father, brother and brother-in-law Terry Anderson were separated from the Worldwide Church of God due to disagreements regarding the then recent changes to the doctrines of Pentecost and Divorce & Remarriage.
Shortly thereafter Scott and family moved to Eugene, Oregon. They had been asked by Raymond C. Cole, evangelist in the WCG who had recently started the Church of God the Eternal, to come and work in the main office. Scott edited the church articles being written at that time in addition to giving sermonettes and sermons in Eugene and Portland. Scott was ordained a "minister" during the 1975 Feast of Tabernacles. Seven months later, different points of view regarding church government led to a separation between the Royers and Raymond Cole.
In May of 1976, Scott and his family moved to Santa Rosa, California. His father had been transferred there in May of 1974 to pastor the WCG Santa Rosa and Fairfield churches. Together they started the Church of God Sonoma. Sadly, a few years later, Scott lost his wife Terrie to leukemia on January 14, 1979.
In the fall of 1996 another disagreement over church government between the two brothers and their father lead to Scott and Doug founding the Church of God Santa Rosa. This was the third time Scott and Doug had been separated from larger church organizations wanting to follow a hierarchical form of church government. They take literally the statement Jesus made in Matthew 20:25-26: "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, 'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister [servant]'". They believe in a "spiritual consensus" form of unity within a collective of individual independent Church of God congregations.
About 19 years later, their father was too old at 94 to preach any more. After lengthy discussions with Scott, he asked him to take over all preaching. Also, as a result of these discussion, he apologized to both his sons for how he had treated them during past discussion about church government. Their mother and father listened to Scott preach the last two years of their lives. Their mother died May 29, 2016 at 92 ½ years of age. Six weeks later, their father died on July 12 after 96 ½ years of this physical life. For several reasons, one being legal since all the board members of the Church of God Sonoma were deceased, the two churches have now been combined into the single Church of God Santa Rosa.
Currently, Scott is semi-retired after working 25 years as a computer programmer for Hewlett Packard and one of its spin-off companies, Agilent Technologies. He is working on his own part-time Microsoft Access database programming and web design business. On a personal note, Scott has three sons: Scott III, Nathan and David. He enjoys visiting his brother, sister, sons and their families -- most of whom live nearby. Scott also enjoys the active life and loves to play tennis and take care of his parents' home and property where he now lives.