Pastor Dave Stambaugh of the First Congregational Church in Essex jokes that he figured out a way to add time to his life. It is a hairy story, and that’s not an overstatement.

It is a story about the cascading curly blonde locks that were his trademark as a child and teenage actor.

“It was a lot to take care of, a lot of work to keep it in shape,” he says. After college, he cut the hair off. “I must have added a year and a half to my life by not taking care of that hair.”

Now, all that hair is a fond memory, but once in a while, Dave puts on a hat with a fake wig that reminds him of the way things used to be.

Dave came to the First Congregational Church in Essex in July of last year from the Congregational Church of Green’s Farms in Westport, where he was minister of faith formation. He describes himself as continually impressed by the First Congregational Church in Essex’s commitment to justice and to community outreach working, among other activities, with different social agencies, The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries, and the Backpack Program that provides weekend meals for students and their families.

Churches, like everything else, he points out, suffered during COVID. He says estimates are that some congregations lost as many as 30 to 40 percent of their pre-COVID membership. At the same time, churches have had to learn how to use the tools of social media to reach members.

“Facebook, YouTube, those used to be something to do as an extra. Now they are things you need to do,” he says.

People, Dave says, often will check out a church online before they decide whether they are interested in attending. But more is often necessary to encourage church membership.

“Simple attraction does not work; invitation works,” he says. “And when people are invited, the first time they might not come. You have to keep inviting,” he says. Dave, a communications major in college, says that is a lesson he learned in Communications 101.

“You have to see a commercial five times to remember it. It’s the same with invitations.”

Dave says the guidance and support of a youth minister at the time he lost his father when he was in eighth grade got him interested in the ministry. He attended his church youth group in high school and, after that, Messiah College, now Messiah University, a Christian liberal arts institution in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He earned a master of divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary and a master of sacred theology from Drew University.

Dave’s film career began in Dallas when he was a five-year-old with long blonde curly hair. He was walking down a street with his mother when somebody remarked that he was a very cute kid. That led to modeling jobs and work in commercials.

The work grew when the family moved to New Jersey, and Dave was represented by a New York talent agency. He played Hank, the young son of the Latimer family, in Love of Life, for 10 years. The series itself ran for 29 years on CBS.

“The part was no Shakespeare. Things like ‘Hi Mom’, ‘Hi Dad,’” Dave recalls. “School was very understanding as long as I kept up my work.”

Dave appeared in several made-for-television movies, one with Henry Fonda and another with Lee Remick, but the big films in his movie career were the three Bad News Bears films about an unlikely but ultimately victorious youth baseball team. The first of the movies starred Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal. Dave played infielder Toby Whitewood who he described as the conciliator on the team.

“They sent out a call to agents for an eight-year-old blonde kid, and every agent sent every kid they had between 8 and 12.

There were auditions in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas,” Dave recalls. He kept getting callbacks, through the winnowing-down process from 1,000 to 500 to 100 to the final selections.

Dave thinks he had a special advantage. He was one of the few kids selected who had actually played Little League. In fact, he couldn’t go to one tryout because his own Little League team was in the playoffs.

By the time he was entering high school, Dave says his acting career was coming to an end.

“My body was changing, there were fewer roles, I knew I wanted to go to college, and by that time, I looked different,” he says.

Occasionally, someone will remark that he looks familiar, and if people search him on the computer, they find his acting history.

“You can’t keep a secret with Google,” he says.

Dave and his wife Becky live in Guilford. They met in New Jersey as a result of a monthly contemporary worship service that included music. Dave is a drummer, and Becky sings. She is the Christian Education Director at the First Congregational Church of Westbrook.

Dave started serious cycling 10 years ago when he was serving at a church in Burbank, California, and in 2014, he participated in a charity ride of 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles for which he raised $23,000 to benefit the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. He has also done charity rides in Connecticut.

In addition, Dave is a pickleball enthusiast. He learned about the game from a 90-year-old parishioner at his church in Green’s Farms who played twice a week.

“I’m pretty good, but there are a lot of folks who are better,” he says. “I’m always looking for new people to play with, so if anybody wants to play, they should let me know.”

Still, Dave, as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Essex, has an invitation that is even more important to extend.

“If folks are looking for a place to explore faith, to get a sense of service, explore community, stop by and check us out,” he says.