Glen Mar UM Church in Transition as Pastor Matt Poole Takes the Helm

By Connie Ballenger

When several members of the congregation talked to Rev. Dr. Anders (“Andy”) Lunt about becoming pastor of Glen Mar United Methodist Church in Ellicott City in the late 1970s, they had to resort to using the church’s “potential” to entice him. The congregation’s pastor at the time had health issues and, consequently, could not be an effective leader. It was clear the church, built in 1955, was on a downward spiral.

Andy accepted that call to ministry. But, instead of just salvaging Glen Mar, he turned it into a larger, vibrant church that served the local and broader community in a multitude of ways, from holding a temporary Cold Weather Shelter for the homeless that Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center could not house to embarking on local and faraway mission trips. Andy had numerous achievements that only God could have foreseen when the then 34-year-old entered Glen Mar’s pulpit the first time in 1979. They include the following :

· Membership swelled to 1,200 and average weekly worship attendance grew to 650, making Glen Mar one of the top 10 in both categories among the 650 churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

· Worship expanded from one to five services a week.

· The congregation moved into a new sanctuary adjacent to the old one in 1989 and again relocated to a new building at a different location in 2008.

In June 2010, after 31 years at Glen Mar, Andy retired. It is against this backdrop, that Rev. Dr. Donald Matthew (“Matt”) Poole became lead pastor at Glen Mar on July 1.

Though Andy can easily be considered a hard act to follow, Matt welcomes the responsibility of leading a large congregation in a modern building into the future. “It’s a great opportunity to learn and grow as a leader,” said Matt. “I’ll be challenged as I have never been challenged before.”

Two other ordained pastors, Mary Ka Kanahan and Jen Stallings, will help the lead pastor face the challenges ahead. Matt also has 16 other paid staff members with a wide variety of responsibilities to draw on for support.

Even with Glen Mar’s paid staff, Matt knows he must use the congregation’s resources and talents to continue to fulfill Glen Mar’s mission and, with God’s help, broaden its reach. “There’s a lot going on,” said Matt. “I need to develop leaders.”

Matt’s task of growing leadership is consistent with the laity-based ministry that Andy established. The church’s mission statement, developed during Andy’s tenure, remains, “Praising God, growing disciples, serving the world.” A Strategy Team, composed of lay people and Matt, are working to shape Glen Mar’s long-term vision.

Matt feels that Glen Mar excels at mission, but is getting feedback from members that the church needs to renew its discipleship efforts after spending a lot of time on the building project - an endeavor that bore much fruit, and positioned Glen Mar to attract new members and serve the community better.

The church sits on a 22-acre site at the intersection of New Cut and Montgomery roads in Ellicott City. The largest room is the Spirit Center where most services are held. The Spirit Center seats 600 and doubles as a gymnasium, which is used almost daily for recreation and social activities. The two-story education wing houses Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and Glen Mar’s Early Learning Center, which provides a preschool and day care for the public. The site has 500 parking spaces. “We have not fully lived into all this space,” commented Matt, whose goal is to increase church membership.

A new sanctuary on the site is planned for the future.

Like all United Methodist ministers, Matt was appointed to his new assignment by a Bishop at the Conference level. The Bishop made his selection based on a profile for the senior pastor position written by Glen Mar’s Staff Parish Relations Committee. Among the attributes that Committee listed were strong preaching skills, ability to expand discipleship and mission, and the capacity to maximize a laity-empowered church.

“Matt is making his mark on Glen Mar UMC in a very positive way even in the short time that he has been here,” said Libby Boswell, chairperson of the Staff Parish Relations Committee. “His strong sermons have been enjoyed by all who have attended worship. His effective communication skill with staff and laity is laying the groundwork for strong relationships. His ability to understand our issues and provide leadership on key decisions is already apparent.”

Before Andy retired, he repeatedly told the congregation that Matt was one of two people he hoped would succeed him and considered it a blessing that Matt was chosen. In his last article for the church newsletter, Andy wrote, “…because of my high regard for Pastor Matt’s leadership, I am excited about Glen Mar’s future ministry.”

Immediately prior to coming to Glen Mar, Matt had served three years as Regional Guide for the Baltimore-Washington Conference where his duties included evaluating pastors’ skills and coaching them. Some of those churches were as large as Glen Mar. Prior to that, he served at three United Methodist Churches – FaithPoint in Urbana, MD (2001 to 2007), Thurmont in Thurmont, MD (1996 to 2000), and Calvary in Annapolis, MD (1993 to 1996).

Each church experience was different. Matt was an associate pastor of a large membership church at Calvary, transitioned Thurmont out of crisis after the previous pastor had an affair, and developed a new church from scratch at FaithPoint.

Matt calls starting FaithPoint “the best thing I ever did” because he learned more than if he had gone to a different church. “You learn by making mistakes. I learned to make mistakes really well,” he said, half in jest. “I had lots of little failures that, by the grace of God, didn’t lead to a big failure. I had enough successes along the way to compensate for my mistakes.”

In his first sermon at Glen Mar, Matt drew on his experience at Thurmont, where some congregation members were enraged by the previous pastor’s infidelity. “I want the Glen Mar congregation to know I care about people who don’t have it altogether,” said Matt, referring to the irate congregation members as well as the pastor who sinned. The other pearl of wisdom he extracted from this real-life example: “The obstacles to our faith are not always external. Our anger, attitude, and beliefs can get in the way.”

“This is not a guy talking theory in his sermons,” said Glen Mar’s Lay Leader Paul Behrens. “He talks about his own experiences. He has lived this stuff.”

The lay leader thinks Matt is a “good fit for the congregation” because starting a new church at FaithPoint gave him experience at what it takes to interest people and welcome them so they want to stay and Matt’s background coaching pastors equipped him to continue training Glen Mar’s staff and laity for ministry.

Though Matt works hard now, he admits he did not put much effort into school. Because he was a quick learner, he got Bs without even doing homework until he went to seminary. There he upgraded to As because he was more highly motivated. It was not divine intervention that caused the improvement – it was buckling down to do the work.

Matt got a B.S. in psychology from the University of Maryland in College Park in 1989, a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., in 1993, and a Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership and Preaching from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ken., in 2004. He received a scholarship to go to the Beeson Pastor Program at Asbury from 2000 to 2001 as part of his doctoral program.

Leadership is more than an academic pursuit to Matt - one of his favorite pastimes is to curl up with a good book about leadership. He has applied what he has learned not only as a Regional Guide at the conference level, but by regularly teaching church development and leadership at the United Methodist’s annual conference’s leadership training events.

Clearly Matt has developed his spiritual and mental muscles over the years, but he also works on building his physical muscles so that he can play basketball and compete in triathlons.

When he takes it easy, Matt enjoys history and watching sports.

Glen Mar’s new lead pastor, who grew up in Wheaton and Damascus, had an on and off relationship with God during his high school years and admitted he sowed some wild oats in college. He said in his second sermon at Glen Mar that he was no stranger to bars before turning his life over to God. He committed to the Lord completely and felt his call to full-time ministry during an altar call at a Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., held just before he started his senior year in college.

“I love to hear stories about people running away from God,” said Matt, recalling his own stumbling path to Christianity. He recognizes that many people will not go to church because they are afraid others will judge them, but does not want anyone to stay away because they’ve sinned. “We are all people still under construction,” he said.

Matt married Heather 20 years ago. They have two daughters, 14-year-old Rachel and 12-year-old Lauren. They currently live in Eldersburg but plan to move to Ellicott City in October. The family is attending Glen Mar.

Though Andy still lives in Ellicott City, Charge Conference rules discourage pastors from attending the church they recently left so Andy won’t be found at Glen Mar anytime soon. But, Matt and Andy are free to talk. They started consulting weeks before Andy retired and continue to do so. “There has been stability in the transition,” said Matt, who is grateful for his predecessor’s encouraging spirit and helpful advice.

Glen Mar’s new lead pastor is ready and willing to preach regularly again, rather than substitute for a church’s regular minister as he has done as needed for the last three years.

“I was happy to be asked to lead Glen Mar,” said Matt. “I missed preaching in the same place and to the same people. I like seeing progress and fruit.”

Glen Mar UMC is located at 4701 New Cut Road in Ellicott City. Its website is www.glenmarumc.org and the phone number is 410-465-4995. Services are held every Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30, 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m.