Meet Pastor Carl
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It has been my privilege to serve as Pastor here at Central since fall of 2014. I grew up on a farm in Michigan, had a 27 year career in Higher Education, and founded a non-profit organization serving immigrants before accepting the invitation to join the good people here at Central. I don't have the typical background of most pastors, never having been to seminary. I earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and never envisioned being a pastor until God brought me through a career transition and opened up this wonderful opportunity. My passion in ministry is to equip people to be like Jesus and make the world more like Heaven.
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Jesus announced the gospel as good news to poor and oppressed people. In 2016, we as a church became concerned about the toll that payday lending was taking on working class families across the state of Ohio. Under Carl's leadership, Central Christian played a large role in enacting HB 123, a bill designed to prevent payday lenders from trapping people in an ever-deepening cycle of debt. Pastor Carl formed and led a coalition called the Faith Forum to advocate for reform. The bill was passed in 2018.
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My Family |
My wife Susie and I have been married for 30 years and have four beautiful daughters. Susie and I met in college, got married and headed off to Chicago for grad school. We've been back in the Springfield area for nearly three decades. We live on a small farm down near Clifton and Susie is the librarian for Miamiview Middle School in South Charleston. Susie's gift is quietly serving others and on a typical Sunday you'll find her in the church nursery, caring for children and telling young moms to "Hang in there."
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My Approach to Ministry |
I grew up in churches that tended to be pretty conservative. I met many beautiful people and learned lots about scripture, but I also encountered a tendency to neglect certain areas of the gospel such as our mandate to care for the poor and to commit our selves to issues of justice. I also experienced a church culture that added many rules and expectations that are not found in scripture. My philosophy of ministry is to stick to practical Bible-teaching, to articulate a vision of outward focused ministry, and work as hard as I can to keep Jesus and his grace at the center of all that we do as a church. As we relate to other churches, I prefer to focus on what unites us as Christians, rather than issues that divide us. My understanding of the gospel was transformed by Dallas Willard's book The Divine Conspiracy, which teaches that God didn't save us just so that we could go to heaven. He saved us so that we could go to work trying to help bits of heaven to break through into our world through the sacrificial service of the body of Christ.
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My Understanding of the Gospel |
I believe that we enter God's family when we put our trust in Jesus and turn from our sins. If our faith is genuine it will be manifest by good works dedicated to serving the needy and the vulnerable. Our salvation is based 100% on Jesus Christ and his willingness to take our sins to the cross. After we come to Christ, He expects us to be baptized and become a part of a local church.
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My Hobbies & Interests |
I enjoy the outdoors, landscaping,and doing thing with my family. I love to ski, hike and read. One of my primary interest is ministry and advocacy for Springfield's growing immigrant population. I also continue to serve as the Executive Director for Welcome Springfield, a nonprofit organization that works with immigrants.
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