BWCUMC Appointment Announcement for Incoming Pastor

NOTE: The following information was shared in worship March 16 by CUMC Lay Leader, Barb Julian, speaking on behalf of Dana Buckwalter, the chairperson of the Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC).

It is my joy to share with you today that Bishop LaTrelleEasterling has appointed Rev. Doug Robinson-Johnson as the new pastor of our congregation.  Pastor Robinson-Johnson will begin his new responsibilities on July 1 of this year.  As a United Methodist Church, we are a part of an appointment system.  Our congregation’s Staff-Parish Relations Committee has met with the District Superintendent to identify our congregation’s needs and the needed skills in a pastor.  We have met with Pastor Doug to get to know him and to ask questions.

Pastor Doug completed his Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, in Evanston, Ill. in 1995, and was ordained a deacon in the Louisiana Annual Conference that year. He worked with young adults at Northwestern University in support of the Chaplain and served both rural and urban appointments in Illinois.  In 1998, Pastor Doug was ordained an elder in the Northern Illinois Annual Conference. He brings 30 years of pastoral and administrative wisdom from experiences gained in varied institutional settings, multi-generational work, and many geographical areas across the country. In 2019, he was called to the Baltimore-Washington Conference from the Boston area to Metropolitan Memorial UMC, the National Methodist Church, in Washington, D.C. 

On a personal note, Pastor Doug grew up in Southern Louisiana so loves to be near or on the water and he likes to fish.  He met his wife, Erica, while they were both students at Centenary College of Louisiana, a liberal arts United Methodist supported school, and together they have one adult son, Evan.  Pastor seems to have an interesting relationship with food…loving the BBQ from family in Texas and being very conscious of eatingfor health.  He shared that he likes to sing and plays some guitar and drums, yet is delighted to have the skilled musicians he’s seen bring worship music to life! Our live-stream service is a way he is already beginning to get to know something about us.

The SPRC is thankful that Pastor Doug will bring who he is in Christ to the role of lead pastor at CUMC and will share his ministry, leadership, spiritual gifts and family life with our local congregation, and the Conference, so that we, together as Christ’s Body, will continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.