Meet Faith UMC's Pastor

Pastor Keith has lived in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Ohio. He and Betty have been married for 13 years and have a blended family with four children and two grandchildren. Betty has worked for the United States Postal Service for over 20 years.

Betty and Keith both enjoy reading, gardening and jet skiing together. Betty also enjoys walking and caring for their pets. Keith enjoys hunting and baking/eating cakes. They have two beagles and a cat.

Keith is a graduate of Huntingdon Area High School and the Altoona Area Vocational Center (plumbing). He attended Asbury College with a double major in psychology and Bible. He earned his Masters of Divinity degree from Oral Roberts University School of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in the area of Congregational Development and Redevelopment. He has served churches in Kansas, Oklahoma and Ohio since 1978.

Pastor Keith has served in various positions on both the District and Conference levels over the years as well as in Emmaus, Chrysalis and Kairos Prison Ministry. He has been involved in various civic and community groups including Lions, Kiwanis and is a past Rotary president. He is a trained consultant in Church Growth with Integrity and Natural Church Development.

Philosophy of Ministry

The Scriptures are God’s Word to us and are infallible for faith and practice.
Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and came to reveal Himself as well as offer Himself as both Sacrifice and Victor to win our salvation as we respond to Him in faith (active trust).
Christ fully shares His victorious power with us through the Holy Spirit when we personally receive Him as both Savior and Lord.
Christ grows us into the unique persons He created us to be as we cooperate with Him in molding and remolding us into His image individually and corporately through His Church.
Nothing is ours. We only manage what is entrusted to us. We do not give: we merely return what is already His. Tithing along with prayers, presence, service and witness is a good starting point in this. Mine, ours, yours and nope are four-letter words.
God wants us to have an eternal, growing, love relationship with Him as He grows us for eternity.
God is constantly at work around us and wants each of us (lay and clergy) to join Him in what He is doing. We work with Him rather than for Him.
When God invites us to join Him in what He is doing it often involves major changes in the life entrusted to us and brings us to a crisis of faith where belief must believe as we adjust to His plans rather than our own.
The needs God promises to meet are what is needed to accom-plish His will in His way according to His timing and nothing less, no matter how needful it may seem or the cost involved.
As we accept His invitation to join Him in what He is doing and adjust to His call, He reveals Himself to us and through us with the result that we do not just know about Him, we experience Him.
One of God’s methods is for us to sow seeds according to the actual needs He reveals to us as we trust Him to multiply it back to supply us with what is needed to do His will. That can be scary.
Laity are not just in, but are the front line of ministry. Pastors come and pastors go while the laity remain and are used by God to provide the needed continuity, depth, versatility, expertise, gifts, experience and energy God wants to share through us together.
God is constantly pouring out His blessings on His Church. We are called to follow His leading in being in position to receive and share those blessing with a lost world in need of a Savior, Lord, coming King and eternal Friend. We are blessed to bless others.