WELCOME TO OUR NEW PASTORS
Revs David and Elizabeth Brown will be
the new Co-Pastors of Normandy
UMC effective November 1,2007. They
have moved to
Dayton
from Chillicothe,
Ohio
where the Browns have been working as a team.
David has most recently served as District Superintendent of the
Shawnee Valley District and Elizabeth
has been Assistant to the Superintendent.
Earlier in their careers they were both appointed to Amelia UMC (’88-’94) and then appointed as Co-Pastors of
Chillicothe Trinity UMC (’94-’03).
At Trinity, they completed a $1.5 million building campaign debt
free, established the Greater Scioto Valley Walk to
Emmaus to hold weekend walks, expanded to a staff with a student
associate, and enjoyed the witness of many transformed lives in
Christ.
David and Elizabeth are both graduates of Methodist
Theological
School
and ordained elders in the UMC. They
were married during their seminary years and are the parents of three
sons. Ben (20) is a Combat
Engineer with his Army Reserve
Unit in Iraq
. Will (18) lives in Chillicothe
and is working in retail marketing after
high school graduation. Lucas
(15) is a freshman at Centerville
High School.
David grew up in
Portsmouth,
Ohio
and graduated from Ohio
University
(’82) with a BA in Business Administration and Psychology.
He began to answer a call to ordained ministry at the age of
nineteen. While in college, he
was pastor of an African-American
congregation at Findlay Street
in Portsmouth,
Ohio
. His first full-time
appointment was to McGonigle-Millville
UMC (’85-’88) near Hamilton,
Ohio. David has been a District
Superintendent since 2003 and has been on the cabinet throughout the
restructuring of the West Ohio Conference over the last 4 years.
David has participated in numerous work
camps with Jackson Area Ministries and traveled to
New Orleans
in 2006 to help in the recovery effort.
He’s an avid handyman, enjoying home renovation projects and
woodworking. He likes everyday cooking and coached his children's sport teams.
David’s a fan of Garrison Keillor and the stories of Lake
Wobegon. He enjoys football, college
basketball, and casual bicycling.
Elizabeth
grew up in Longmont,
Colorado, within a culturally rich Hispanic environment, and developed a heart for multi-cultural ministries. She
was part of the delegation that traveled to
Mexico
to form the partnership between the West Ohio Conference and the Oriental
Conference of Mexico. She’s
a graduate of Westminster College
(’82) in New Wilmington, PA where she was Student Director of
Established Service Teams.
Elizabeth
has served numerous student pastorates in both Western Pennsylvania
Conference and West Ohio Conference. In
addition to the team ministries with David,
Elizabeth
briefly served as the Pastoral Care Director at
Hill
View
Retirement
Center
in
Portsmouth,
Ohio.
Elizabeth
brings a diverse set of skills and interests to her ministry.
She has worked with developmentally challenged adults and has a
heart for “other abilities” ministries.
She’s an experienced counselor with a spirit of encouragement to
discover the strength of each person she encounters.
She has provided community workshops on spiritual gifts and personality-temperament awareness.
Elizabeth
has training and experience in conflict resolution and crisis intervention
…. terms she would prefer to replace with “coaching for success”.
She served on the Coalition Against Domestic Violence Board of Ross
County and was a victim advocate and interpreter for the deaf.
Also, she has served on the Commission on the Status and Role of
Women of the UMC. Her personal
interests include reading, Victorian history and travel.
She’s an avid archaeology buff.
We welcome Pastors David and Elizabeth Brown to Normandy UMC!!!
A DAY OF NEW BEGINNINGS
The Hymn “This is
a Day of New Beginnings” prays, ‘Then let us with the Spirit’s
daring step from the past and leave behind our disappointment, guilt, and
grieving, seeking new paths and sure to find...Christ is alive, and goes
before us, to show and share what love can do. This is a day of new
beginnings; our God is making all things new!”
The start of
something new is always filled with excitement, expectation, and a little
fear. Persons will be
challenged to discover new ways of relating to one another, yet our
primary purpose remains the same—making disciples for Jesus Christ. We
are honored to continue to build upon the outstanding legacy of pastoral
leadership that Tom and Jan Harry have shared at
Normandy
Church
. Equally blessed are we as
new pastors to be woven with you into the fabric of God’s tapestry of
life that unites all of us together into a rich array of diversity and
generations of servants down through the ages. God is the Master-Weaver
and unites us in this moment for God’s rich purpose and plan.
We might remember
with fondness the days of the past but let us not fall into the trap that
the early Israelites experienced. When
the challenges of a new day hit, they remembered their times of slavery in
Egypt
, begging to return, because the days of journey in the wilderness were
too unsettling. Whenever you
are walking with God in a new day, it will demand complete reliance upon
God. We trust that God has led us to this point, and will continue to move
ahead. God is able to provide all we need.
Followers of Christ
cannot continue to do the same old things, expecting something different
to happen. Many mainline protestant denominations have seen years of
continued decline and periods of selective vitality. God intends that all
churches should be healthy and vital centers, making disciples for Jesus
Christ. What do we need to do to reflect this day of new beginnings? Where
will we witness that Christ is alive!? How will we show and share what
love can do?
May we be a people
for Christ in
Normandy
Church
willing to trust the Spirit’s leading, confident in God’s control, and
fixed on the redemptive act of Jesus as being the only message our
collective lives share.
Praying for you
daily,
David & Elizabeth Brown
