I'm Merrill Louise, pastor of the Judson Fellowship: An American Baptist Church. I graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1999 with a Masters of Divinity. After serving a number of churches as vacancy pastor, pastoral assistant and supply preacher, I accepted a call and began serving The Judson Fellowship in Jamestown, New York on June 1, 2004. I was ordained to the Christian Ministry of the Gospel on April 10, 2005.

As pastor, I take seriously the exhortation in Ephesians 4:11-13 to prepare God's people for Christ's service. I practice pastoral leadership in five ways:

1. I preach the Word of God.

2. I lead public worship.

3. I pray out loud in public worship on behalf of God's people.

4. I lead conversations through my own vulnerability, my own questions and doubts, my own wrestling with the Word and with what God would have me do.

5. As a pastor, I am called to invite all people into a deeper relationship with God.

I'm Merrill Louise, pastor of the Judson Fellowship: An American Baptist Church.

• I graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1999 with a Masters of Divinity.
• After serving a number of churches as vacancy pastor, pastoral assistant and supply preacher, I accepted a call and began serving The Judson Fellowship in Jamestown, New York on June 1, 2004.
• I was ordained to the Christian Ministry of the Gospel on April 10, 2005.

As pastor, I take seriously the exhortation in Ephesians 4:11-13 to prepare God's people for Christ's service. I practice pastoral leadership in five ways:

1. I preach the Word of God.
2. I lead public worship.
3. I pray out loud in public worship on behalf of God's people.
4. I lead conversations through my own vulnerability, my own questions and doubts, my own wrestling with the Word and with what God would have me do.
5. As a pastor, I am called to invite all people into a deeper relationship with God.