Rev. Bill Pinches

Pastor (Teaching Elder)

by Margaret Doolittle and Merrilee Brockman

Bill has been serving as our Pastor since May of 2008. Under his leadership and guidance we are in the process of building a stronger and healthier congregation. We are expanding our Bible study and small group opportunities, creating a more effective structure for outreach and the assimilation of new members, creating avenues for people to be able to use their gifts in meaningful and productive ways in the life of the ministry of the church, and delving into “Natural Church Development” —a structured multi-year process designed to improve the overall health and strength of the congregation in the areas of empowering leadership, gift-oriented ministry, passionate spirituality, effective structures, inspiring worship services, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships. In the fall of 2011 one of Bill's dreams came true when we successfully launched the Disciple Bible Study, an in-depth program that provides adults and older teenagers with a detailed overview of the entire Bible as well as opportunity for personal reflection and life application.

In January 2012, Bill began a three-year commitment serving on the Leadership Team of the Presbytery of Lake Michigan. Prior to that, Bill had served as a member of the presbytery’s New Communities of Faith Committee.

Bill was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He moved with his family during his first year to Columbia, Missouri, and six years later to Lawrence, Kansas, where his father taught Financial Management at the University of Kansas. While attending high school, Bill was active in his church serving as a youth group leader and officer, a Sunday School teacher, a Vacation Bible School assistant, a counselor at a church-sponsored camp for developmentally disabled adults, a member of a search committee for an Associate Pastor, and a member of the Festival Ringers, which toured the United States and Great Britain, where the bell choir rang inside St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh and on the front steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Bill enrolled in Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and earned a Bachelor of Arts with high honors in Religious Studies. While in college he coordinated a local CROP Walk, served as Recreation Coordinator for an inner-city summer children’s program, led a middle school youth group, and served as a chaperone for two summer youth trips.

Bill earned his Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. During his Princeton years he served as a Pastoral Care Intern at a physical rehabilitation center, an Assistant Chaplain at a retirement center, a Research Assistant (working on a revised translation of the book of Deuteronomy for the New American Bible), and a Teaching Fellow (teaching students how to read the New Testament in Greek). Bill joined Nassau Presbyterian Church, a 1500-member congregation in the heart of Princeton, where he served as an adult education teacher, a committee member, the editor of the church’s monthly newsletter, and a part-time staff member. Bill was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) at Nassau in July 2003.

Since his ordination, Bill’s continuing education has included specialized training in leadership development, church growth, stewardship, outreach and evangelism, conflict mediation, family systems, and premarital counseling.

It was at Bates College that he met his wife, Katharine Wise, a Psychology major, and they were married in 1993. Together they have four sons: Andrew, Colin, Timmy, and Sam (think: “ACTS”). Over the years they have had several dogs, a hamster, a Betta fish, and two hermit crabs. In 2011, the family raised a service dog in training, who is now bringing children delight at an elementary school classroom in Tecumseh, Michigan.

In 2003, the First Presbyterian Church of Frostburg, Maryland called Bill as its Pastor. During his five-year tenure there, he served as a member of the Board of Directors for an ecumenical campus ministry, was a small group leader for a Presbyterian Youth Conference held at Montreat, NC, held the offices of Treasurer and President of the local Ministerial Association, and chaired the Presbytery of Baltimore’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry, the committee that prepares and oversees candidates who believe themselves to be called to ordained ministry.

Bill and his family arrived in Mason in May of 2008. It was a positive and wonderful move for the Pinches family. They have greatly enjoyed the friendly atmosphere, the tree-lined streets, the beautiful downtown, the small-town feel, and everything that the greater Lansing area has to offer. They purchased the house that had formerly been the church manse and have made significant renovations to it, including new siding, new windows, and new insulation. Katharine has planted a garden, apple and crabapple trees, and berry bushes. They have plans to keep making improvements to the interior of the house in the years to come.

The family makes frequent trips to the public library, as Katharine homeschools the boys. Bill has read (out loud) the entirety of The Lord of the Rings to the two oldest boys and is currently making his way through it with the third. Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, and strategy board games are all very popular with the Pinches boys. The guys in the family are huge baseball fans (go Tigers!) and Andrew has earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Bill took up running during his Frostburg years when he discovered that he needed a better way to relieve stress. He then discovered that he loved it. His best 5K time is now 21:39 and he tries to improve that every year at the annual Mason State Bank 5K Run. He ran his first marathon in 2011 in under four hours. Since coming to Michigan he has also taken up swimming and biking, and is currently training for a half-ironman triathlon (1.2 mile swim + 56 mile bike + 13.1 mile run), which he expects to complete in the summer of 2012. He exercises six days a week, enjoying beautiful Michigan sunrises in his running shoes or from the saddle of his bicycle. “I meet God out there on those roads,” Bill says. “I write sermons out there. I just wish I could remember all the details when I get back home!” In the summer of 2010 Bill and Andrew participated in the Dalmac bike ride from East Lansing to Mackinaw City. The following summer they participated in a 520-mile bike trip along the Lake Michigan shoreline, sponsored by the League of Michigan Bicyclists. In March of 2012, Bill received and accepted an invitation from the Scott Rigsby Foundation to join their team of endurance athletes who raise awareness and funds for people who have lost limbs or mobility to enable them to live an active lifestyle. He has also re-discovered the piano, after many years of absence, finding it another joyful way to process the emotional aspects of his life and work. He offered his first piano solo to the congregation during worship on Remembrance Sunday in November of 2011.

Bill believes that the most satisfying part of his work as our Pastor is facilitating an ongoing process in which people grow in their relationship with God. “That’s what this is all about,” he says, “putting our relationship with God first, above all else. Everything else flows from that.” He loves leading classes that foster spiritual growth and greatly enjoys the interaction he shares with members of the congregation during casual conversations, in committee meetings, and at other day-to-day church events. He finds the people positive and dynamic, and says he is amazed at the different kinds of talent present in his congregation.

The biggest challenge facing Bill is time management — making the most productive use of the time available to him. “When you love what you do,” he says, “it’s easy to forget to find a balance between one’s professional and personal life, and that’s not healthy either for the church or for the Pastor and his or her family. Unfortunately, too many pastors try to do this job at the expense of their spouse, their children, and their own personal health — not to mention their own relationship with God. That's not the way it's supposed to be.” In March of 2012 Bill was invited to attend a Presbyterian CREDO Conference in Texas, where he heard God clearly affirming to him the overall path of his life and ministry, and challenging him to take the next steps to continue his own personal and professional development, his service to the world, and his relationship with God.

The following passage has been a source of much inspiration, encouragement, and soul-searching for Bill in recent years:

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

Bill says, “There are four dimensions in our lives, all of which are vitally important: an emotional dimension (heart), a spiritual dimension (soul), an intellectual dimension (mind), and a physical dimension (strength). God calls us to continually grow in all four of these areas, working to make each one of these dimensions as healthy and as productive as it can possibly be, for our own health and for the good of the whole world around us, so that we can give to God our very best.”

With Bill’s direction and nurturing, we look with anticipation to where God is leading us. We want to continue in and grow a more effective ministry that expresses and reflects a love for Christ, each other and our neighbors through a welcoming, warm and caring spirit, a passion for mission, a commitment to Christian Education for all ages, and inspirational worship and music. The overall goal is to help all people live a more faith-filled Christian life.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:7)

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