The Rev. Dr. Jason W. Harvey is the new senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, Salisbury. – Karen Kistler

 

Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — First United Methodist Church of Salisbury is welcoming a new senior pastor as his first Sunday preaching will be July 13 during the 10 a.m. worship service.

This will be the fourth appointment in the annual conference for the Rev. Dr. Jason W. Harvey as he officially began his ministry at the church on July 1, taking over for the Rev. Dr. Mark Conforti who was appointed to become the new Yadkin Valley District Superintendent for The United Methodist Church. His last Sunday was June 29.

In a letter, Conforti said he and his family would miss Salisbury and the people.

Harvey said those in the congregation he has met so far “have been really welcoming and very friendly, very nice and encouraging and hopeful” and he is looking forward to meeting more people soon.

Pastoral transition is one of the gifts of United Methodism, he said, noting “there is this method to their ways of pastoral change that most other denominations don’t experience” and the part of that beauty of Methodism he added, is matching up the needs of the congregation at that particular time to the gifts of the pastor.

As for his gifts, Harvey he said he loves worship and music and hopes to “get to know, care and work with members and friends of the congregations to which I am appointed to serve, and seek to be a calm presence in our often challenging world and lives.” 

Prior to coming to Salisbury, Harvey served first as associate pastor at First Church in Morganton beginning in 2001 and serving there for three years after which he went to Broad Street United Methodist in Statesville beginning in 2004, also serving as associate pastor. His third appointment was in Greensboro at College Place United Methodist, serving as the only full-time pastor for 14 years. 

Harvey then said he was contacted by the district superintendent and asked to consider coming to First United Methodist Church in Salisbury.

“It’s a church with a rich history and a long tenuring ministry, a downtown church, and it’s absolutely beautiful,” he said, “and I consider it an honor to be coming here as pastor.”

Harvey, who is from Germanton, which is near Winston-Salem, said he grew up in a small church that has a multi-generational history for his family. And while 45 people in attendance on a Sunday was a good crowd there, he said the church offered many opportunities for him to take part in the ministry when he was young prior to his receiving a call to the ministry. 

While he was in junior high, Harvey said he would help with worship service and even before he could read he would sing in the choir with his grandfather.

With a laugh, he said, “that’s pretty funny as you need to read the music and words.”

After graduating high school, Harvey went to Appalachian State University to pursue his degree, wanting to become a high school history teacher. 

While in college, he got involved in the Wesley Foundation there and participated in church life and the experience of it and said this was “a time of deepening faith.”

He participated in retreats, service projects, worship teams and mission projects, adding that they put a new roof on a campus ministry building during his first year there “when I probably should have been in class.” 

It was during his sophomore year while on a retreat that Harvey said he received his call to ministry. The retreat, he noted, was an unusual one as it rained the entire time and they had to make lots of changes to the original plans.

“So that evening, I heard the call in a pretty clear way that I would be a minister and I really didn’t want to be a minister but that was the calling,” he said.

And even though he had already applied to Union Theological Seminary, Harvey said he continued going for his history degree and did his student teaching. Following graduation, he went to seminary, which has since changed names, but he said it was a good education and made him a strong Methodist through and through. He is grateful for the experience.

Harvey said both of his parents grew up in the United Methodist Church and are active members and leaders in the congregation, but he is the first clergyperson in his immediate family.

In noting that he would be preaching his first sermon July 13, he said, as God welcomes us into his love and grace, everyone is always welcome there. And, he added, if someone was searching for a church home and never been to First Church, Salisbury, this would be the perfect time since he has never been there on a Sunday morning to worship either, “and so we can do new together and participate and see where God is calling us into the future.”

The church, Harvey said, has a long history on this very site where it’s located now on the corner of South Church and Fisher streets.

He said that Salisbury “very clearly is anchored in a history of faith” as he noted the number of churches and denominations that are represented in the city.

“This church has been downtown for a reason,” Harvey said, speaking of its love for the community.” 

In sharing about his ministry, he said he knows God loves and cares for him and has called him to serve and worship and he hopes to help others understand that in their lives and also that none of us goes at it alone.

“God’s always with us, to care for us, love us, strengthen us and calls us to reach out in the same love that we’ve received,” Harvey said, and looks forward seeing what’s next for the congregation and what God has in store for the community.

“It’s an important part of my prayer life,” he said, “and I hope others are praying that same thing because that does make a difference.”