As summer approached, it became clear that God was opening the door for Pastor Su Kim and his family to serve in Thailand and thus, our church leadership faced an impending vacant Assistant Pastor position. Prayerful consideration was given to developing and adjusting our pastoral staff to fill the roles Pastor Su was overseeing in our Missions and Family Ministries. After much reflection, First Church extended a call to Pastor Steve Clark, a former Gordon-Conwell seminary student we have known since 2016. In early May, Steve and his wife Kim visited Bonita Springs and met with our church staff and leadership. Session unanimously voted to offer Pastor Steve the position of Assistant Pastor.
Pastor Steve Clark accepted the call and will begin his ministry here in September. He comes to us from First Presbyterian Church in Corinth, New York (a small town north of Albany), where he served as the solo pastor for three years. After graduating from Cedarville University in Ohio, Steve was awarded a full-tuition Pratt Scholarship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He was with us in January 2018 as a visiting intern and received his Master of Divinity in 2019. Steve and Kim met in a seminary class, began dating in 2018 after Steve returned from a summer mission project in Dubai, and married in 2020. Kim grew up in Syracuse and holds a master’s degree in Religious Education from Gordon-Conwell.
We invite you to introduce yourselves to Pastor Steve and Kim in the coming months. Please join us in welcoming them to our church family.
What led you to answer the call to serve at First Church?
Kim and I sensed the strong discipleship and deep commitment to the Lord in the staff and the many members of the church we met. God is doing some great things here, and we are excited to be part of that. It is rare for an interviewing pastor to have had a wonderful 6-year relationship with a congregation. We have felt personally cared for, so it feels more like moving in with family.
This Epistle addresses the biblical worldview; what secular or non-biblical worldview do you see as a threat to the true Christian faith in our time?
Many young people of my generation can be described as “spiritual but not religious.” They have a vague faith in some supreme being but no personal relationship with the God who desires to be part of our daily lives. I label their viewpoint as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. They are deists because they believe in a distant God but have not gotten to know Jesus. Their ultimate concern is their own health and happiness. Living with a vague sense that they should be “good people,” they reserve the right to decide for themselves what their code of right and wrong will be. And, if they are good enough, they will be rewarded; if there is a heaven, they will go there. But the concept that they cannot earn God’s approval and are solely dependent on Christ’s grace and mercy is not one they have considered.
