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| Pastor | John Auer |
| Student Associate Pastor | George Bennett |
| Director of Youth Ministries | Catie and Dan Harrison |
| Director of Children's Ministries | Flo Tinsley |
| Young Adult Ministries | Marie and Jamie Trammel |
| Director of Music / Organist | Cheryl Shingler |
| Chancel Choir Director | Andy Sonnemaker |
| Children's Choir Director | |
| Handbell Choir Directors | Linda and Ben Brown |
| Pastor Emeritus | John Emerson |
| Administrative Assistant | Noel Argall |
| Business Administrator | Shirley McKim |
| Office Coordinator | Richard Drath |
| Wedding Coordinator | Sue Roberts |
| Custodians | Jim Gerbel and Jose Franco |
John grew up in the Methodist Church; his parents were Mennonite-Methodist but John was baptized in the Congregational Church and raised in the Unitarian-Universalist Church. He has served churches in Marin County and was the pastor of The First UMC of San Rafael before coming to Reno.
John and his wife Julie married in 1965. Together they taught English as a Second
Language for the Peace Corps in
Diyarbakir, Turkey from 1965-67. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
John's response was to enter seminary. He served as Pastor in several United Methodist
churches in Chicago.
For reasons of health, he and Julie moved to the California/Nevada Conference in
1992. They have two sons and a daughter: Jeffery (31), Jacob (25) and Jane (28).
John has chaired the Golden Gate District Committee on Ordained Ministry and
the California-Nevada chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. John
favors theological writers Matthew Fox, Jose Miranda, Dorothee Soelle, William Stringfellow,
and Walter Wink. He is passionately committed to issues of social justice and the
church's role in systemic change; in John's own words, "I am, before all, a lover
of congregations."
Contact John by calling the office at (775) 322-4564.
Greetings and blessings to all at the First United Methodist
Church of Reno, I am George Bennett your student associate pastor (SAP). I
am currently enrolled at the Pacific School of Religion's Master of Divinity
program and I am expected to graduate in May of 2009. In addition, I am a
certified candidate for ordination in the Nevada-Sierra District,
California- Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, but
enough with all of the capital letters.
It is a great blessing to be given the opportunity to serve this
congregation. I have lived in Reno since 1998 with my spouse Leann and our
two daughters Kaela and Emily. Our home church is the Sparks UMC. I commute
weekly to Berkeley for seminary and serving this church is giving me much
more time at home than I would otherwise have. I am also excited about this
churches commitment to social justice and its dedication to downtown
ministry. I look forward to growing together with you in Christ in the year
to come and I pray that our journey together will be a nurturing and joy
filled adventure.
Dan and Catie are a husband and wife team. Dan is a native of Reno, and Catie was born and raised in Las Vegas and moved to Reno in 1999 to go to UNR. They were married at FUMC in June 2004 and have been living in Sparks since then. Dan is a draftsman/estimator in town and Catie is a civil designer for a local civil engineering firm. They have been volunteering with the youth ministry since 2003, and were very excited to become the youth directors in fall of 2006.
I am already encouraged and excited to be on staff at this wonderful church and fulfilling a dream of working more directly with younger children. I moved to Reno a few months ago to take a part time position with Young Lives Teen Parent Ministry. I can see how my life experiences - being a parent, grandparent, educator, youth minister - God has woven together to uniquely qualify me and make me passionate for teen parenting and childrens ministry.
I am looking forward to getting to know my new church family. Feel free to email me and watch for me on Sunday mornings at Church, I want to meet all of you!
Flo Tinsley email: flotinsley@sbcglobal.net or phone (775) 626 1218
Young
Adult MinistriesJamie and Marie are a husband and wife team. They are both students at the University of Nevada and work at the Desert Research Institute. Jamie is working towards his PhD in the Conservation Biology program. He has his MS in Geography from UNR, and his BA in Environmental Biology from Western State College in Colorado. Marie is finishing up her Masters degree in Geography and has her BS in Geography from UNR. Jamie grew up in Littleton Colorado and moved out to Reno in 2003. Marie has been in the Northern Nevada area and at First Church since 1986. Jamie and Marie are the directors of Young Adult Ministries and enjoy discipleship and fellowship with young adults.
Position will be filled after the first of the year
Handbell Choir DirectorsLinda and her son Ben are a mother and son team. Linda, born in Kansas, is a music teacher in the Washoe County School District, moving to Reno from South Carolina twenty years ago. Ben is a student at Sparks High School. He has been playing bells for six years as a member of "Opus 1" and "Tintabulations." Ben also plays the cello.
John shares invaluable skills from a lifetime of ministry. He is actively practicing the Methodist version of retirement, and as such may assist with weddings, teach adult classes, lead workshops, and assist with Worship.
John has been known to say . . .
The United Methodist Church may have retired me, but God isn't ready to put me out to pasture! I still have a "fire in my bones" for pastoral ministry, a continuing sense of call.
John has been in ministry for over 49 years with special training in marriage and family counseling. In addition he has had clinical training in geriatric mental health at Boston State Hospital, and has studied the spiritual journeying of senior adults, who he likes to call "Keen-agers" and "Prime-Timers." He has also had experience in grief counseling, crisis-intervention and post-traumatic stress counseling.
John and Janice were married in 1955 and have three married daughters, 9 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandsons.
Among his active interests are writing prose and poetry,
composing music, and writing hymns. He is the past president of the
Retired Clergy Assoc. of the
Calif.-Nev. Annual Conference, and is the United Methodist representative on
the board of the Religious Alliance in Nevada ("RAIN"),
a consortium of five major Christian denominations advocating on behalf of social
justice concerns in the Nevada State Legislature.
Noel is a
Reno native and lives with her husband, Claud and son, Patrick, who is attending
TMCC and is working at Home Depot. Her daughter, Megan, was just recently married
and is now employed in El Paso, Texas, as a Middle School band teacher. Noel
was recently commissioned as a Stephen Minister at South Reno UMC and is a violinist
with the Reno Philharmonic.
You can reach Noel by calling the church office at (775) 322-4564 or FAX at
(775) 322-0285.
Shirley is a native Californian, coming to Reno from San Diego in 1995. Before coming to Reno, she served the First United Methodist Church of San Diego in a variety of positions over the course of 17 years: office secretary to the Education Department, office manager, editor of the newsletter and secretary to the Senior Minister. Shirley has two sons in San Diego and a daughter and son-in-law in Reno, and three grandchildren.
Richard is a native Californian, moving to the Reno/Sparks area in 2003 following his retirement after 25 years of service with the American Cancer Society. He is a church member, co-chair of the newly developed Food Distribution Program of the Church, a member of the First Ringers Bell Choir and assists with the Family Promise program. He has previously been a volunteer in the Church office and is currently active as a volunteer with the Northern Nevada Cancer Institute and The American Cancer Society.
Wedding CoordinatorSue is a lifelong Methodist who grew up in Pennsylvania and received a BA from DePauw University. She moved to Reno in 1975. She has a MS from the University of Nevada, Reno and is a SHARE teacher for the Washoe County School District. Sue's job is to coordinate weddings, from the couple's first contact with the Church through the wedding day. She has a son and daughter, both married with a total of five grandsons
CustodiansJim is a full-time custodian for the Washoe County School District. He is a silent servant, an angel in our midst, who keeps the church sparkling. Jim is a single dad, the father of Haley and Taylor.
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209 West First Street
Reno, Nevada 89501 |
