St. John's United Methodist Church

3001 Lincoln Highway East

Paradise, PA 17562

717-687-6711

Sunday Services Schedule

Summer:

ONLY ONE SERVICE - 9:30 am
No Sunday School
From Memorial Day to Labor Day

Winter:

8:00-8:40 am Early Service
8:45-9:45 am Sunday School
10:00-11:00 am Worship Service

Greetings From Our New Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

May Jesus Christ be praised, now and forever Amen.

Let me introduce myself. For the next nine months I will be serving as your Interim Pastor on a part time basis. I was ordained a Catholic priest 42 years ago and functioned in that capacity for 11 years in various parochial assignments in three large Catholic churches in New Jersey. At this point in my life I felt strongly that God was asking me to enter a counseling ministry. For the next 24 years I was employed in several institutions and facilities both in clinical and administrative capacity. My area of counseling expertise is with persons who have serious and chronic mental illness diagnoses and also with persons who have alcohol or other drug abuse diagnoses. In addition I have counseled with family members of these persons. Approximately seven years ago I was called by God and my Methodist Bishop to minister again as a pastor in two different churches in New Jersey.

In June of 2010 my wife, Gail, and I relocated to Lancaster County. Since then I have been in counseling practice at the Naaman Center, a facility that specializes in the treatment of persons with alcohol and other drug abuse diagnoses. My wife works in a social work capacity for Friendship Community. Shortly after arriving here we began visiting different churches seeking one to join and earlier this year asked to become members of St. John’s.

This past summer Pastor Sandy gave out a form asking where we could use our talents and gifts at St. John’s. This began some soul searching on my part to see where I could best serve here. In that process one Sunday Wanda Gregg spoke about forming a prayer ministry in our parish but it needed a leader. After prayer about this I was about to talk to Wanda and Pastor Sandy more to see if that were an area in which  I could serve when I received a call from our District Superintendent, Rev. Jim Todd. He informed me that Pastor Sandy had resigned and he asked me to become interim pastor. Well, be careful what you pray for. I was praying to find God’s role for me at St. John’s never expecting that this would be it. But here we are.

I will continue to counsel for the Naaman Center three days weekly and will minister here with you on the other days of the week. This is new for St. John’s not having a fulltime pastor and I will rely on your help to serve you to the best of my ability. I trust God will see us through this time together and continue to love and bless us.

In my first sermon I promised to love you with all my heart, to do my best to address your spiritual needs, and to storm heaven daily in my prayers for you. I ask only that you pray for my wife and me that we will minister faithfully with you.

Let me also take this opportunity to wish each of you a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.

Love in Christ,
Pastor Gene