Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ,
as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed,
I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge,
exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly,
as God would have you do it, not for sordid gain but eagerly. 

~ 1 Peter 5:1-2

For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves
and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

~ 1 Timothy 3:13

Questions About Pastors

Happy Epiphany, dear church!

This month we are answering your questions as a part of our January worship series, SJXplained. The phone line was open in December, and staff reporters are digging in to your queries now. Thank you for your submissions.

We received several questions about pastors and our congregation. Sallie Sassano asked how many retired pastors are at Saint John’s, Angela Wallace asked how many female deacons have served here, and Lynn Barton asked how many pastors served as both associate pastors and then senior pastors at Saint John’s.

Let’s get answering!

A curious thing about Saint John's is that we have more retired pastors per capita than any other church I know. Last January I had the retired pastors and their spouses over for a soup dinner at my house and we just about didn't fit.

Three former Saint John’s pastors, Lynn Barton, David Gilliam, and Bobbi Kaye Jones, are back at the church after retirement and worship with us. We have 12 retired pastors in our charge including Victoria Bailey, Georjean Blanton, Jerry Jay Smith, Andy Smith, Ralph Underwood, and Ed Wilder.

Three retired pastors in our charge, Judy Baskin, Paul Escamilla, and Steve Purdy, worship at congregations outside our annual conference because they live elsewhere.

Two retired pastors, Annette Jones and Bob Walker, worship with us but are not on our charge’s retired list because they retired from other annual conferences. Betty Armstrong and Martha Milk are retired local pastors who worship with us.

I know. This is confusing.

In the letters of 1 Timothy and 1 Peter, there are plenty of verses about how deacons and elders are expected to act. There's nothing in in the Bible about United Methodist charge conference reporting and guidelines, but the instruction for elders and deacons to be in “good standing” and "confident in faith" is as much about the health of the pastor as it is about the health of the community. Connectionalism is important to United Methodists. As an annual conference and general conference, we equip, assess, and ordain pastors, and we discern resolutions and polity, respectively. 

While most of your gifts and tithes stay locally to keep our church healthy, about 10% go to the larger church and help to pay for church leadership such as the dynamic and inspiring Bishop Fierro Harvey, and also for the ordination process which all ordained pastors go through. I am grateful that we can support the type of ordination process that prepared me and Randy and is currently preparing Shelley and Izzy.

Now the question about women deacons is a great one. We have one deaconess in our congregation, Julie Smith. Catherine Foster was a deaconess here at Saint John's specializing in Christian Education. She passed away in November 2020 and is truly missed. As for ordained deacons, we had two women serve previously, Suzann Wade and Pamela Knapp. Izzy and Shelley are each exploring the possibility of becoming deacons in their own ordination processes. (And, although it's not an explicit answer to Angela's question about women deacons, we should note that Pastor Randy currently serves in the role of deacon at Saint John's.) Deacons are called to word, service, compassion, and justice. Thanks be to God.

Lynn Barton asked the question of how many associate pastors became senior pastors at Saint John's and which one was the first. Lynn Barton knows this answer well – he was our first associate pastor to become senior pastor, and -- fun fact – I believe he also was our youngest senior pastor. Wynn Alley, David Gilliam, and I were all pastors here on staff before we became the senior pastor.

1 Peter 5 describes how elders are called to be servant leaders. 1 Timothy 3 explains that deacons are of the utmost character. I certainly hope that you have seen that in the many pastors with whom you have sat in our pews. We pastors are so grateful to serve among you.

Thanks for your questions, Angela, Lynn, and Sallie. Stay tuned in worship, on social media, and through your inbox to learn more from SJXplained.