Reverend John Welton will be serving at FPCD as our Interim Pastor. John will be serving the Church for this interim period as we work our process of recruiting a called and installed Pastor. He officially started in this role on August 19. Please welcome Pastor John as he serves our faith community in this next phase of the life of our Church.
Rev. John Welton grew up in the life of First Presbyterian Church in Liberty, MO. When not causing trouble in Sunday school taught by his parents, he spent his summers at Boy Scout camp, running cross country and put up hay on the family farm in Kansas. His calling to ministry became clear working with the United Campus Ministry at the University of Maryland. Moved by this experience he served as a campus minister intern at Virginia Commonwealth University and Muskingum College. He came back west to receive his Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. After graduation from Union-PSCE a Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA. He served a fellowship at Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Chester, VA and directed the feeding ministry in downtown Richmond, VA at Second Presbyterian Church. Heading west and motivated by his experience with youth, he joined the Chaplain and Youth Programming Staff at Ghost Ranch where he hiked the Rockies, assisted in youth service projects, nurtured our young disciples, and lead worship at chapel. In 2012, he became the Designated Pastor of Steelville Presbyterian Church in Missouri. There he focused on intergenerational ministry and helped the congregation regain a sturdy base after a time of prolonged conflict. He left the longest serving pastor in 20 years. After this experience he felt a call to interim/transitional ministry. As interim in Cortez, CO he partnered with Habitat for Humanity on their first ground up house build. He became the anchor of the local trivia team and enjoyed pastoring in the community. In 2020, he accepted a position in Winfield, Kansas to be closer to family. He arrived when the world shut down in response to the pandemic. He led the congregation in returning to worship online, drive-in, and landed at the garden of an elder and local doctor. In Winfield, he truly became the pandemic pastor. Motivated by change around them, the congregation decided a new model of ministry and partnered with another Presbyterian Church and called a pastor early in 2024.
John remains the geography and history anchor of any trivia team. He and his brother have a love of hiking and make a yearly trip to a National Park. He enjoys reading and time spent in the coffee shop with a good book.