(A Member of the Reformed Episcopal Church)
Rev. Gerald S. McLynn
It is hard to write a bio about myself, as it is God who has opened the door to the opportunities in my life and God who has worked in them. I am merely along for the ride.
First things first: I became a Christian through the ministry of Bishop Cummins church and a family from that church in 1985. Shortly after becoming a believer I started getting asked to help with a camping ministry for inner city children. I kept saying no as I knew nothing about Christian camps, children or patience which I was sure was needed. They were desperate for counselors so I went and that started a journey of youth ministry which continues to this day.
At about the same time, God opened the door for me to start working with the homeless in Baltimore. God used me, a new Christian, to organize a ministry to the city which started out as sandwiches juice and coffee and ended up with a weekly Bible Study on the street and a monthly worship service on the street, along with coffee, juice and sandwiches.
God called me into missions and my start in short term missions was like my start in youth work. People kept asking me to go on short term trips and I kept saying no, as I knew nothing about short term missions, didn’t have the time and thought there was enough to do here. Well once again God was right and I was wrong. It ended up with God sending me to Germany 5 times for 3 weeks at a time, 3 one-week trips to Costa Rica, 3 months in Belize, 2 months in Jamaica, 2.5 months in Brazil and a couple of weeks in Nepal.
A discussion with my pastor about going into full time Christian service lead to me going to seminary. My pastor was an artful man and told me that if I went to Seminary, he and the church would be behind me in whatever God called me to do. It did not take a genius to figure that if I ignored schooling (which was my want), I was on my own. I truly believe God calls us to be submitted to those in authority over us, so off to Seminary I went. I graduated from Philadelphia Theological Seminary which is now Reformed Episcopal Seminary in 1994.
The first parish God sent me to was in 1997 near Hazelton, PA. Again, this was God’s plan not mine, as I did not want to be a parish pastor but a missionary. In 2001, I was called to Grace Church, Havre de Grace, MD, and in 2008, I was called to Emmanuel Church, Somerville NJ.
While in Havre de Grace, I met my wife Ginger, which was again God’s doing, as we had friends who were trying to set us up and I was very unartfully dodging their attempts to do so. Of course once I met her, my tune changed and we got engaged one year to the day after our first date. We married in June of 2006. We are both animal lovers and we have two dogs.
