Rev. David Williamson figures he will be ready when the time comes to take over as senior pastor at Zionsville United Methodist Church.
Williamson, the teaching pastor at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, will start his post July 1. The benefit of waiting is extra time to prepare for coming to Zionsville.
“We will have time to join them for staff retreats, some of the staff meetings and get to know them,” Williamson said. “The disadvantage is that it is a long goodbye at St. Luke’s.”
However, he can honor his commitment to take the St. Luke’s youth group to Haiti In June.
“I feel well prepared for the role,” he said. “I hope to enter July with a little more knowledge and relationships than most pastors get.”
Bishop Michael Coyner will serve as interim senior pastor from March 1 to July.
Coyner is a retired bishop in the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. Williamson is replacing Rev. Glenn Howell, who is now working for the United Methodist Foundation of Indiana in Fishers.
Williamson, 41, was formerly a pastor in Rush County at Milroy UMC.
“In my eight years at St. Luke’s, I have worked in about every area of the church,” he said. “I have been over the family ministry, children’s and youth ministry, worship ministry and congregational care.”
Williamson’s wife, Jamalyn Peigh Williamson, is an outreach minister at St. Luke’s. Williamson and his wife are starting a nonprofit, Advance Haiti, to work on several projects in Haiti. The couple, who lived in Haiti for a few years, has been ministering in Haiti since 2003.
The couple and their two children, Margaret, 11, and Nathan, 9, live in Indianapolis but plan to move to Zionsville this summer.
Coyner described Williamson as a “great choice” for senior pastor.
“I preached (at Zionsville UMC) several times and know a lot of people there,” Coyner said. “My main job is to keep things running smoothly until the new pastor arrives.”
