chad@stlukeumc.com    333-6886 ext. 312

Senior Pastor

A lifelong Methodist and an ordained elder since 1988, Chad was born in Winfield, Kansas, the oldest of three children.  Chad’s two sisters and his father and mother now live in southwest Kansas.  Growing up in Wellington, Kansas, Chad was active in the community, church, and school activities.  Football, wrestling, track, and baseball occupied a great deal of his time; however, the power and presence of a caring faith community, along with church-active parents, made spirituality, mission, and justice work a high priority for Chad.

Chad met his spouse, Susan, when both were beginning their sophomore year in college.  Chad attended Southwestern, a small United Methodist liberal arts college in Winfield, where he received a degree in Religion and Philosophy.   Susan studied Elementary Education at Kansas State University while playing on the KSU varsity tennis team.  Shortly after graduation, they were married and moved to Denver, Colorado, where Chad began studies at the Iliff School of Theology.  At the same time, Susan began her teaching career with Denver Public Schools.  Chad completed his Master of Divinity degree in 1988 just in time for the arrival of their fist child, Britt.

Chad received his first appointment to serve the churches of Utica and Arnold in the Kansas West Conference.  It was during the first year of this appointment that their son, Taylor, was born.  In 1991, Chad was appointed to Hays First United Methodist Church where he served as Associate Pastor, responsible for youth and Christian education ministries.

In 1994, Chad requested a transfer to the Nebraska Annual Conference and was appointed to serve St. Luke as Associate Pastor.  During his five years here at St. Luke, Chad cared for a variety of ministries including youth, stewardship, the child development center, the senior center, pastoral care, and occasional worship and preaching.

In 1999, Chad was given the oppurtunity to work closely with the poor as Executive Director of Together, Inc. Emergency Relief Services.  In 2001, Chad was appointed to serve as Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church in Omaha, and most recently Chad served as the Director of Connectional Ministries for the Nebraska Conference office in Lincoln.

Now, appointed to St. Luke as Senior Pastor, Chad is eager to get acquainted with every member of the congregation and, through preaching and leading, continue to define and exemplify Progressive Christianity.

info@process-theology.org

Pastor Emeritus

Dr. Vernon Goff was the founding and Senior Pastor of St. Luke from its beginning in 1964 and remained here until he retired in 1999.

Vernon Goff was born in 1928 on a farm in northwest Nebraska that was homesteaded by his grandfather.  He was a child of the Depression, a teenager during World War II, and was nurtured in a fundamentalist interdenominational brand of Christianity until young adulthood.  He was a traveling evangelist in the early years of his ministry and received his education in secular, biblical literalist and progressive schools of higher education.  He received a BA degree from Taylor University (Upland, Indiana), Master of Theology from Iliff School of Theology (Denver, Colorado), and Doctorate of Ministry from San Francisco School of Theology (California).  Dr. Goff has been pastor to both small and large churches.  His ministry, including his 35 years at St. Luke, spans over 50 years in the Nebraska Conference (now known as the Missouri River Conference) of The United Methodist Church.

While he is no longer on staff at St. Luke, we affirm Dr. Goff in his ministry as an extension of St. Luke's progressive theology.

Visit Dr. Goff's website here.