Meet Our Pastor
Rev. Jeffrey B. Childs
Pastor Jeff was born on September 20, 1952 in Titusville, PA. In 1970, he graduated from Titusville High School and in 1974, he graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in Medical Technology. For one year, he worked as a Laboratory Technician at the Central Blood Bank in Pittsburgh, PA. To broaden his horizons and see the world, Jeff joined the US Army (Military Intelligence) and trained as a Russian linguist in Monterey, CA. He was then stationed in Augsburg, Germany for three years.
After the military service ended, Jeff attended seminary at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, MN from 1980-1983 on the GI Bill. He was ordained a Deacon in the United Methodist Church in 1982 and an Elder in 1985.
In his first 19 years of ministry, Jeff was blessed to have experienced pastoring three small churches, one large church in the lake country of northern MN and a mid-sized suburban church in Hopkins, just west of Minneapolis.
In 2002, Jeff relocated back East as his father was dying of cancer. In the past nine years, he has had the opportunity to serve churches in the North Central New York Conference, the Western New York Conference and now, the Upper New York Conference. With his appointment to Penn Yan United Methodist Church, there is an opportunity to settle in for the long term to help plan for and implement ministry for the next decade and beyond.
Jeff has two daughters: Sara, who is working on a PhD in Mathematics at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA and Ellen, who is working on a PhD in Sociology of Religion at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. His mother, Louise Childs, still lives in his home town, but there will be many times she will come to Penn Yan and visit. Jeff's daughters may only get here once a year to visit.
Jeff is planning on taking Fridays as his Sabbath day off, but otherwise, his door is open and you can contact him via:
Email:
revchilds@hotmail.com
Phone:
(315) 536-6711 (Office)
(315) 536-3083 (Parsonage)
(315) 729-4464 (Cell)
Click HERE to be directed to Jeff's Facebook page
Click HERE to be directed to Jeff's Blog
