Pastor Morgan's Information

S John's U. C. C.

Pastor Donald W Morgan

Reverend Morgan was born April 5, 1952 in Zebulon, NC the youngest of nine children 2 girls and 7 boys born to the late Dock Washington Morgan and the late Maddie Mozell Mitchell Morgan. He has 2 brothers and a sister who are deceased. Three of his brothers are ministers; one is moderator of the U. C. C. general synod. One is a pastor for the Christian church of the south and one is a bishop in the Pentecostal church. Most of his family including another brother and his oldest sister live in North Carolina and he has one brother in Atlanta, GA. His son, Kelvin Dewayne Morgan is 26 years old and in the US coast guard stationed in San Diego, CA.

He is a 1970 graduate of the James E. Sheppard high school a 1980 graduate of the Shaw divinity school, Raleigh, N.C., and a 1993 graduate of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA.

He joined the Beaver’s chapel U.C.C., in Zebulon, NC at the age of 9. at the age of 15 he became affiliated with a non-denomination church called The Miracle Center House of Revival. He accepted the call to the ministry at the age of 16, becoming pastor of The Miracle Center House of Revival. In 1980 he felt a leading of the spirit to reconnect with the U.C.C. entering seminary and serving his first U.C.C. congregation New Bethel in Raleigh, NC. Upon graduating from seminary in 1983 he served as director for the Franklinton Center United Church Inc a camp site and retreat center of the U.C.C. in Enfield, NC at the same time accepting a call to be the part time pastor of the Elam's Chapel U.C.C. in Lillington, NC.

in 1986 he accepted a call to Pleasant Union U.C.C. in Raleigh, NC and in 1990 moved to New Iberia, LA. to become the pastor of the Tech area ministries U.C.C. serving for 6 years before accepting his present position at Back Bay mission in Biloxi, MS a social services ministry of the United Church of Christ. Check out this wonderful Mission of the United Church of Christ www.backbaymission.com.

Reverend Morgan's Statement On Ministry:

My hope here is to offer you a window into who I am by providing some insight into my beliefs and vision for the church I want to serve and to build. I understand myself to be called by God as a pastor and teacher. I am an idealist; however, my head is neither in the sand nor in the clouds. I do not know of any church that embodies all that I believe. I do believe, however, that God has created, called, and gifted the church to embody the ministry/vision pioneered and perfected by Jesus Christ. I am an imperfect pastor seeking an imperfect church that grace may abound.

My faith, learning and experience have taught me that God and the things of God are mysterious and beyond human knowing, yet at the same time God is self-revealing and seeking to be in relationship with us. That self-revelation and desire is best known in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Through the Holy Spirit, the ministry inaugurated by Christ is represented to the world by the gathered Church. The "business" of the church is making Christian disciples, hearers of God's Word and followers of Jesus Christ; it is nothing more, and it is nothing less.

Each Christian is ordained at baptism into Christ's ministry. Each is graced and gifted by God in unique ways and is invited to respond to God's call. God's call to the laity is not to serve the Church, but to serve Christ in the world. God's call to the clergy is for the purpose of up building the church. My ministry as pastor and teacher is not better than, higher than, or more important than the ministry of the laity, rather it complements and supports our mutual ministry. As a steward of the sacraments and God's Word, I regularly as these questions: Who are we? Whose are we? Where have we been? Where are we going? How will we get there? In answering these questions I sometimes function as director, sometimes as delegator, sometimes as coach, sometimes as supporter.

The church I want to serve wants to relate to the world near and far acknowledging that just as faith without action is dead, action with faith is fainting. It is a church set within the world, a part of it, yet apart from it. It is a church living out its call, standing with the poor and oppressed, the needy and those whose hope has gone, not simply speaking to or about them. It is a church welcoming the stranger and all of God's children.

The people I want to serve with are people who want to grow in their faith, practice, and commitment; who recognize discipleship is more than a life-style choice; who are willing to account for their various ministries; who wrestle with their faith.

In that church people live and worship, serve and grow together grounded in trust; where pastor and people risk openness and know the difference between confidentiality and secrecy; where conflict is not feared but is dealt with above board; where pastor and people can agree to disagree: where oneness of mind is not evidence of faith but where the capacity to love is.

The church I want to serve wants the spiritually immature to have opportunities to be nurtured and where the spiritually mature set the tone for our common life; where children are blessed and adults learn; where each one's faith is ever personal but is never private; where people understand their story to be a part of God's story and that our shared stories bind us in history; where stewardship is not fund-raising but how we "possess" the gifts of God; where money is talked about openly; and where time is truly seen as God's gift.

The church I want to serve wants to live in tension with the paradoxes of faith; that understands that death is required for resurrection; that believes true leadership comes from faithful following; that recognizes faith and doubt often exist hand in hand; that knows we are made captive as we test the limits of our divinity; and that we are set free in recognizing the limits of our humanity.

The church I want to serve and build wants to worship heartily and with passion; where worship is formed by the Holy Spirit's leading and inspired by the life of the congregation not only the life of the pastor; where the worship is reverent and respectful, joyous and joyful; where souls are fed, minds are stretched, bodies are accepted, emotions are expressed; where praise and confession, thanksgiving and assurance, chide and challenge are offered in love and received in grace; where old wine is served from old wineskins and new wine is served in new wineskins and it is all a taste and foretaste of God's Sovereign Reign.

Last update 06/12/2008

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