"A lot of faith," is how Pastor Bob Kersten, the
new Liberty United Methodist Church (UMC) pastor answered the question on how
one pastor serves two churches in neighboring communities.
Pastor Bob, as he likes to be called, was assigned in May to
serve both the Liberty and Monticello United Methodist Churches.
This is nothing new to Pastor Kersten as he just completed
serving both the Grahamsville and Sundown United Methodist
Churches.
Comparing present church attendance he compared Liberty to
Sundown and Monticello to Grahamsville.
The Churches New York Annual Conference assigns pastors to
churches according to church budgets with Monticello assigned 70% of his
ministry and Liberty 30%.
At Grahamsville Pastor Bob and his wife, Paster Sue, became
well known for their "Journey For The Needy" distribution of bread in several
communities.
He is also well known for playing the wash-tub
base.
Prior to serving Grahamsville and Sundown he was pastor at
the Stamford and Harpersfield UMC, also served as pastor at the Otego UMC and
during seminary was pastor of the Pine Plains UMC.
He became a licensed local pastor in July of 1999 and served
the UMCs of Stuart, Menlo and Jefferson Center, Iowa.
The new sixty-one year-old Liberty UMC pastor's education
history includes a B.S. from Dakota State University in 1975 and he enrolled in
a course of study at St. Paul's School of Theology at Kansas City, Mo. in 2000.
He received his Masters in Divinity from Drew Theological School in
2007.
Other professional experiences include being an elementary
school teacher and wrestling coach, insurance executive with Farm Bureau
Companies and Houseparent at Henderson Settlement, Red Bird Missionary
Conference.
"I am a true Iowa farm boy with a deep love for the land and
all of God's creation," Pastor Bob noted.
His leadership experience includes being Chairman of the New
York Annual Conference Commission on Christian Unity
and Inter-religious Concerns and has helped lead the New York Conference
volunteers in mission trips to Ecuador in 2012 and 2013.
Pastor Bob first met his wife Sue while both were serving as
missionaries in Kentucky in 1979 and together, "we enjoy cooking good food,
feeding people, making good music, engaging in mission, national and
international traveling and spending time at our cabin on Burr Pond in Vermont
where we cook all of our meals over the campfire."
Pastor Sue is a licensed local pastor serving the UMC
churches in Hurleyville and Woodridge.
Pastor Bob noted that on August 18 the UMC of Monticello
has invited Liberty, Hurleyville and Woodridge to worship together at 11 a.m. at
DeHoyos Park and to share a meal that follows.
"This is the first time Sue and I have ever had the
opportunity to lead worship together for this kind of a gathering," Pastor Bob
said.
The Liberty UMC church celebrates its Sunday morning service
at 9 a.m. and the pastor can be reached at 845-292-6243 or on his cell at
845-798-7781.
PHOTO IDENTIFICATION
Liberty United Methodist Church Pastor Bob Kersten standing
next to a recently installed new church sign.
1 comment:
Ladies, you need to get as far away from this guy as you can. Pastor Bob was fired from the Stuart Iowa church for cheating on his wife. And his wife was not the Sue who he is married to now. In fact he was married to the wife that he cheated on when he met Sue back in the 70's. Bob made many advances to women in the Stuart Church. I imagine that is why he has moved around so much from church to church. This man should not be serving in the pastorate!
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