West Milton Church of The Brethren

Ministerial Musings for June 2012

Welcome, to my brothers and sisters in Christ of the West Milton Congregation. By now you have heard that I have been asked to serve as Interim Pastor for your congregation. As a way to introduce myself, let me tell you a bit about my background and theological view.

First a brief bio: I was born in New York, moved around a bunch as a kid, and graduated from Wayne High School (now in Huber Heights). I went away to college and did poorly (ask me about my first try sometime); so, I did a tour in the Army and then another attempt at college (not much better than the first). During college, I began working retail. I spent most of the late 80’s and early 90’s at various levels of management for a number of retail companies. After going through back to back buyouts, I went back to college and finished a financial management degree at Sinclair. I used that training to build a private tax prep business and spent several years running the HR and accounting departments for a financial company. In God’s service, I have worked with a number of denominations and ministries. For the last 4 ½ years, I have been the pastor at Union City Church of the Brethren.

While in the army, I married my wife, Kari; and, we have been together nearly 28 years. We are blessed with a daughter, Sophia, who will be a sophomore in the fall at Bradford High School. We look forward to getting to know all of you, and joining you in worship, ministry, and fellowship.

A bit of theology: WE (my family and hopefully yours) are members of the Church of the Brethren which has a 300+ year tradition of peace, fellowship, and Biblical study. The Brethren oppose war and all levels of violence against God's creation. This means we preach the Love of Christ, love for our fellow man, and smart stewardship of the resources that God has blessed us with. As Christians, we are called to welcome all children of God to our house of prayer and our table. It does not mean that we condone or encourage sinful behavior - as taught in scripture. As Brethren, since we have no formal creed other than the New Testament, we are called to be serious students of the Word of God.

My pledge to you is to teach you as much about being Brethren and about studying scripture as I can; to do my best to equip each of you to minister to those around you; to pray for each and every one of you so that you may find a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and, to work with your leadership team to build a plan for growth and development of this congregation.

Your servant in Christ,



Robert C. MacClennan

posted 06-06-2012