Rev. Truman E. Parker

I came to the First Congregational Church in 1994. The past thirteen years have been the most delightful and fulfilling years of my professional career. This is an extraordinary church and I enjoy being its Pastor. Our congregation shares fun and fellowship as we work together to carry out the mission of the church. We are a congregation that likes to laugh.
  
Following a long and winding path I arrived in Mountain Home. Having grown up in White Plains, NY, I spent a year studying in Britain after high school, and subsequently graduated from Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona.

After working various jobs following college, I finally settled down as a district manager in the circulation department of a suburban newspaper. District managers recruited and managed paper carriers. Our carriers were teenagers. I didn’t like the job, but I enjoyed working with the kids.

I received my Masters of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School in 1976. Going into graduation I was torn between two career paths. I spent two years in hospital chaplaincy and loved the clinical setting. But I also served as a summer interim, and discovered the joys and challenges of the parish.

I decided to forsake the hospital and enter parish ministry.

In thirty years of ministry I have served four congregations, two in Ohio, one just outside of Chicago, and my present parish in Mountain Home.

During my professional career I have been active in various levels of the United Church of Christ, and have served as director/counselor/chaplain in over 25 summer camps.

My wife, Terri, and I have been married for thirty years. We have three children, two sons who recently graduated from college, and a daughter who is an undergraduate.

I am in parish ministry because I enjoy the work and love collaborating with people of all ages. I believe passionately that we are called to be the church, a fellowship that laughs and cries together as it ministers to others in the name of Jesus Christ.