By Erik Cave, Director of NextGen Ministries, PacNWC
Enjoy this interview with Phil Rushton, the new Lead Pastor at Bellingham Covenant Church
What is your personal and ministry background?
I grew up in Abbotsford, BC as the youngest of three. During my middle school years I became heavily involved in a local church and started to sense a call to ministry. I attended Trinity Western University in Langley, BC and received a B.A. in psychology and history. During that time I served as the worship director at Murrayville Community Church, and worked as a support worker for adults with developmental disabilities. I met my wife Julie at Trinity Western. We’ve been married 14 years and have 3 boys – James (8), and twins Nate and Drew (3).
After finishing my B.A., I went to Regent College in Vancouver, BC and completed my M.Div. From there I took a call at Longview Community Church in Longview, WA as the associate pastor of spiritual formation. LCC is an interdenominational church that was founded back in the 1920’s. I served at LCC for 11 years. While at LCC I completed my D.Min from Fuller Seminary, which was focused in spiritual direction and formation. I met a number of Covenant pastors at Fuller and they introduced me to the ECC. After completing my spiritual direction training I joined the Spiritual Directors Network in the PacNWC and started the Covenant Orientation program. When the position at Bellingham Covenant Church came up I sensed that it might be a good fit. We are grateful for the opportunity to be officially part of the Covenant now and to find a great church family here in the Pacific North West. Both my wife and I have family in the area.
What are you passionate about in ministry right now?
I am passionate about the ministry of preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and spiritual formation. I am excited to help lead people beyond information into a transformational relationship with God. Theologian Karl Rahner says, “Knowing God is more important than knowing about God.” That sums up the journey I’ve been on personally over the past few years. My doctoral dissertation focused on creating a spiritual formation process based on the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Through that experience, I have enjoyed finding ways to help people not simply understand the scriptures intellectually, but encounter them experientially.
How can we pray for you?
I have read a few books on how to start a new call as a pastor, but there are not a lot of books about how to do this during a global pandemic! Pray that I will continue to find ways to connect and develop meaningful relationships with my new congregation here in Bellingham. Pray also that God would lead us to the right house in this crazy housing market. We are grateful to have the chance to stay with my wife’s family for the interim time, but are hoping to find our own place soon!
Five things you didn’t know about Phil:
What is the greatest challenge you have had to overcome in your life thus far?
Surviving the first 7 months with twin babies while writing a doctoral dissertation was probably one of the hardest seasons we’ve had! We also had a hard season when our first son James was born with a severe congenital heart defect and had to have open heart surgery as a baby.
What is your favorite thing to do?
I love to be out in nature running, mountain biking, or snowboarding.
What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
My friend had a connection with a movie producer in Vancouver and I got to be an extra on the movie “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” staring John Voigt. If you pause the movie at just the right spot and have a zoom feature on your DVD player you can see the back of my head!
What would you do (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?
I almost became a therapist instead of a pastor. If I wasn’t a pastor I would probably be doing something like therapy or social work.
What are your three most overused words/phrases?
As a spiritual director I use the phrases, “I wonder,” “I notice,” and “I sense and invitation to . . .” a lot. It is creeping into my preaching as well.
[Click Here] to see Phil’s Facebook Page
[Click Here] to visit Bellingham Covenant’s web page