New pastor prepares for first Passion Week in NC

Mar. 31—ELIZABETHTOWN/LEWIS — The Rev. Bryan Bond prepares for his first Passion Week in the North Country at the United Church of Christ in Elizabethtown and the First Congregational Church of Lewis, which will hold combined services.

On Palm Sunday, April 2, worship will be held at First Congregational Church of Lewis at 10 a.m. On Maundy Thursday, April 6, dinner and worship service will be held at Elizabethtown United Church of Christ Parish Hall at 6 p.m.

On Good Friday, April 7, worship will be at the First Congregational Church of Lewis at 7 p.m.

On Easter, April 9, Sunrise Services will be held at the Cobble Hill Golf Course Club House in Elizabethtown at 6:30 a.m.

Easter breakfast will be offered at the Elizabethtown United Church of Christ Parish Hall at 7 a.m. followed by Easter Morning Worship at the First Congregational Church of Lewis at 10 a.m.

NEW CHARGE

"I rolled into town literally on New Year's Day, and it was cold," Bond, 60, said.

"I came from Kansas City. Obviously, it gets cold there. I've been in many spots as a pastor. I grew up in Knoxville, Tenn., and we got snow there. It's the gateway to the Smoky Mountains, Dolly Parton's hometown, but it's not the Adirondack Park."

From 2009 to 2014, Bond pastored in the Finger Lakes, so he knows a little bit about rural New York.

"It's still not Adirondack Park," he said.

BACKSTORY

Bond grew up in Knoxville, which he points out is east Tennessee.

"Tennessee is kind of like three states," he said.

"You got west Tennessee where Memphis is, middle Tennessee where Nashville is, and east Tennessee where Knoxville and the Smokies are. They are three really distinct cultures. For instance, Knoxville was 80 percent Union not Confederate (Civil War)."

Faith wise, he was raised in the Church of Christ.

"They think they're the only ones who are going to heaven," he said.

"Unless, you are dunked in a tank in baptism in the Church of Christ, you're all going to hell. I couldn't date a Baptist girl. My mom would just freak out whenever I would go. I wish I was making it up. I spent the first 16 years of my life thinking I was the only one that ever had a secret."

His younger brother came out to him on the fourth putting green on a golf course.

"We didn't even finish the round," he said.

"I couldn't believe it. I said couldn't you wait until I hit my putt. I couldn't even make the putt. We had to leave. At the time, I wasn't down with it. It was really hard for the both of us because there's six or seven verses in the Bible that apparently seem to be saying well all gay sex is wrong. But that's not what it's saying at all. I'm convinced of that. Jesus never said a word about it. So, I think we're on pretty good ground on that."

SPIRITUAL REBOOT

Bond said he had to tear everything down that he had been taught, believed.

"I was a real hardcore evangelical for like of a better word," he said.

"You can define that a lot of ways. That was my worldview, you know, and everything changed in '03, '04. I've been a Presbyterian since 1997, even then I was on the conservative side of things until 2009, when I joined the mainliners. We literally thought we were going to hell in my first 10 years of ministry.

"I was so mad at those guys because they were teaching the false things, and now I'm on their team. So, I've been on both sides of the aisle, politically, socially, and theologically."

CAREER PIVOT

Bond was a double history and English major at the University of Tennessee. He earned his master's in teaching at Kent State University.

The middle schoolers led him to the doors of seminary.

"I wanted to teach literature to high schoolers," he said.

"I ended up teaching prepositional phrases to middle schoolers. I didn't care about grammar. I don't even like middle-school kids. They don't want to hear prepositional phrases at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was really a bad fit. I love my kids, don't get me wrong. I didn't even like my own kids in middle school."

Bond's adult children are 35, 33, 31 and 26.

He is a grandfather and has been married to his current wife, Lisa, eight years.

"I taught middle school for four years, and they drove me crazy," he said.

"The four years of middle school led me to seminary. That is part of it. That's a long story, too. I was a part-time youth director in Little Rock as I was teaching school. I just really found a lot more joy doing that than teaching the kids. Plus, I had a lot of troubled kids in that youth group, and I just did not have the acumen or the Biblical knowledge to really help them. and I thought, you know what I better go to seminary. I think this is what I need to be doing. I went when I was 30 years old. I was a late seminary guy."

A sermon title for his seminary experience, "$22 in the checking account blues."

"It was really difficult," he said.

"I had three kids. We didn't have a lot of money. You have to work your way through seminary. I'm back to square one with a career. It was really a struggle, but it was a joy, too, the camaraderie because everybody was in the same boat. Really beautiful. Again, I disagree basically with everything they taught me basically, but I respect my professors there. They were actually pretty cool people, even though we disagree."

PCA vs PCUSA

Bond attended Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo.

"It's the PCA, the Presbyterian Church in America," he said.

PCA is miles away from the mainline PCUSA, the Presbyterian Church of the United States.

"The PCA broke off in 1973 from the PCUSA because they were being way too liberal," he said.

Bond was ordained a month after seminary in 1997.

He has pastored five churches in the Finger Lakes, Tuscaloosa, Ala. for 10 years, campus minister in Cookville, Tenn., then his PCA journey began in Van Buren, Ark.

SERMONS WITH ROCK TITLES

Though he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, Bond is a United Church of Christ pastor.

"The Presbyterians and the UCC have an agreement where they can share pastors because basically we believe the same things. A Presbyterian can fill in for UCC, and vice versa. They don't really disagree on anything. Lewis and Elizabethtown are UCC churches."

Bond arrived between Advent and Epiphany and contemplates Holy Week.

"Which traditionally, I hadn't really observed because of the conservative background," he said.

"The last 13 years, I have. Maundy Thursday is the Thursday night service commemorating Jesus in the Upper Room with His Disciples before he was crucified," he said.

"He's up in the Upper Room with his Disciples sharing a meal, which ends up being the Lord's Supper that Christians commemorate. The night he was betrayed really was Thursday night. Friday is Good Friday service at Lewis, and that was the day Jesus was killed, even though it's a misnomer to kind of call it Good Friday. I always wondered that was really weird. How was it a good Friday when Jesus got murdered? Then, we have Sunrise Service Sunday at the golf course, followed by a breakfast, then the normal Easter Service in Lewis."

"A Horse With No Name" is the title of his Palm Sunday sermon.

"All my sermon titles are rock'n'roll songs," Bond said.

"Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. We don't know the donkey's name, so the horse with no name. So, that's great. When Jesus ascends into heaven in two weeks, it'll be 'Up, Up and Away.' That will be my sermon title because off He goes. I wish I had a cool one for Easter. I'll come up with a cool one for Easter, but I don't have it yet."

In the past, he has preached an Easter sermon, with "Thriller" as the title.

"There's a part in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus dies, the tombs burst open and people come out and start walking around just like 'Thriller,' but I don't think that will be the title. That won't be my angle this time. Also when He raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus comes out of the tomb in his grave clothes. That's also one I title 'Thriller.'

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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