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Pittsburgh and Southwest Churches
Welcome New Interim Area Minister
Rev. James T. Oldham
I am delighted to have been extended the exceptional privilege of serving as Interim Area Minister for Pittsburgh and Southwest Pennsylvania. I appreciate the confidence shown in me by our Executive Minister Frank Frischkorn in asking me to assume this position and I am excited about working with Frank and the rest of the ABCOPAD staff during the course of my tenure. I look forward to getting acquainted with all of our pastors, churches, and association leaders and supporting and encouraging you in your ministries in whatever ways I can.
I want to express our corporate thanks to Rev. Dave Skinner and Rev. Dr. Nate Williams for the faithful and fruitful service they have offered to us prior to their respective retirements on December 31. I am deeply grateful to both of these Christian gentlemen for the assistance they have provided in orienting me to the field of ministry into which I have now entered. We all join in wishing them and their families’ health, happiness, and fulfillment as they follow the Lord's leading into a new season of life.
By way of introduction, let me tell you a few things about myself. I was born in Staten Island, New York, and lived there until I graduated from college in 1968. In addition to a BA in History from Wagner College, I have an MS in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi, and an MDiv. from Eastern (now Palmer) Seminary. I was ordained in 1975 and over the course of the 32 years of my ordained ministry I have served as a pastor, associate pastor, interim pastor, military chaplain (active duty and reserve), and denominational staff member. (I have also distributed telephone directories, worked in catalogue order fulfillment, found telephone numbers for people, and assisted with the US Census, among other jobs, during various periods of "transition" in my vocational life.) The past ten years, I served on the staff of the Cleveland Baptist Association, the final two of these as Interim Executive Minister. I met my wife Hazel at Eastern and we were married in the seminary chapel three weeks after graduation. Hazel is also an ordained American Baptist minister and currently serves as a hospice chaplain. We have three grown (well, almost) children--our daughter Violet and our son Peter who are both graduates of the University of Sioux Falls and who have made their homes in that city and our son Jay who is a junior at North Park University in Chicago.
I am a lifelong (60 year) American Baptist and over the course of my life and ministry I have been a member of and/or served on the staff of ABC churches in nine different regions: Metro New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Niagara Frontier (now part of New York State), Northwest, West (now Growing Healthy Churches), Rocky Mountains, Cleveland, and now ABCOPAD. I hope that this diversity of experience will be of value as I undertake this new responsibility. I am extremely committed to the ministry of the local church and continue to direct my efforts to strengthening its effectiveness. I am currently in my fifth year serving as the Treasurer of my own local church of membership in Columbia Station, OH, where I have also served on the Church Council, as Vice-Moderator, and as Chair of the Pastoral Relations Committee.
I want to tell you a little bit about how I anticipate fulfilling the Interim Area Minister responsibility. Some of this plan is preliminary at this point and subject to re-evaluation with time and experience. Because of ABCOPAD financial constraints, my staff position is funded for only one-half time at the present. I expect to spend about three days per week in the Pittsburgh/Southwest Pennsylvania area. A portion of those days will be spent working out of the Pittsburgh office. The remainder of the time will be spent contacting, visiting, and working with clergy, lay leaders, and denominational and ecumenical representatives in various venues, forums, and capacities. The scheduling of these three days will be flexible based on needs and opportunities, but most commonly will be Tuesday through Thursday of each week. Our dedicated and highly competent Southwest Area Office Manager Denise Veselicky will always know of my schedule and whereabouts, unless I forget to tell her! During those portions of the week when I am "back home" in Cleveland, you will always be able to be in contact with me by phone and e-mail. Hopefully this arrangement will help to bring the great metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Pittsburgh just a little closer together (at least until the next NFL season begins!)
I ask for your cooperation, understanding, and prayer over the next few months as we settle in to our new staffing arrangements. Working one-half time, I am going to try to fulfill professional area minister responsibilities that were formerly covered by two different individuals, working one and one-half time between them. At the same time, Denise is assuming administrative support responsibility for three new associations, encompassing over fifty churches, plus other ABCOPAD-wide duties that were previously performed by two other staff members. So we are all going to be on a very steep "learning curve" over these next few weeks. There will undoubtedly be some unintentional mistakes and omissions for which we ask for forgiveness and patience in advance. As time moves forward, we will work together to define how to most strategically allocate the time and energy that is available to help our area, associations, churches, and related ministries make the most effective witness for Christ in this time and place.
Jim Oldham
Pittsburgh/Southwest Interim Area Minister
Rev. James T. Oldham
Office: 412-687-3940
Fax: 412-687-3941
e-mail: pghbaptist@aol.com |
