Staff | Livingston UMC

Get to know us.

With the prompting of a trusted friend, it’s a feeling you need to know something about the family living in the parsonage that the parishioners did much to make it cozy, comfortable, and beautiful. I understand and appreciate the need to examine character.

The better half of our marriage is Julie, who is three years less old than I am at 62. She takes the credit for the qualities my two grown sons acquired growing up in our home. They are in the heat of Texas and we are surrounded by serene fields of San Joaquin Valley. The rich and beautiful farming community has been a blessing to be a part of.

Born in Illinois, with primary school in South Korea, land of my ancestors, we moved after 4th grade, back to the Midwest. I grew up as a pastor’s kid and in high school recognized my need for Jesus as my lord and savior. The work began slowly as his disciple. After graduating from Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, CA, in preparation for local church ministry, 26 years have passed. Now there is more awareness of the need for lord’s guidance. Having been appointed pastor in the California-Nevada Conference, the United Methodist Church, since 1998, ordained 2005, there have been a number of churches I had the privilege to serve. Between 2005-7 in Seoul, Korea, serving a Methodist church challenged me spiritually as well as mind and body. We are in need of, I have learned ,careful examination of our wellbeing. John Wesley, the “father of Methodism”, would regularly inquire, “How is it with your soul?”

My soul admittedly began to find new sense of discipleship when I met Julie, in Seoul, Korea. How she has been engaged in our team ministry, I can't appreciate enough what that means.

The thrust of outreach, embracing the consequences of vulnerabilities in Jesus name, is what drives me. Each time my relationship with Jesus, the name we uphold in his holiness, so easily derided subtlety by the instinctive nature of humanity challenges my decision. His call to “make disciples” relentlessly rings and I must move on.

Given there are many ways to be encouraging , especially the local church family I serve, to experience the mystery in not only personal holiness but also reaching out in his name is the indispensable project we have until he returns. It would be a great pleasure to share a common space in his(Jesus) will, to be mutually inspiring as we strive to thrive.

Eric