Asbury Church is the oldest Methodist Community in New Hampshire and one of the oldest in the United States. Having met in this region of the country since 1772, and in our current building since 1844, we have been a continual witness to a unique brand of for almost 250 years.
We are part of the Methodist Movement begun in the mid 1700’s which believes that the Christian faith is best discerned and understood when the truths of Scripture are combined with reason, experience, and tradition. We believe that to become holy personally, one must not forget our social responsibility.
Connection, or showing up and simply being present to each other is critical to our faith journey and our understanding of the Gospel. We are welcoming and inclusive, and believe that the truth of our faith and a place in our church is available to all. We are part of a 12 million member denomination that spans the globe, and is active in ministry and mission, everywhere. To Find out more about the greater United Methodist Church visit: https://www.umc.org/
Who is our Pastor?
Pastor Scott Masters has been serving Asbury Church since 2007. Pastor Scott was born in Rhode Island, raised in Orlando, Florida, and moved to the Concord, NH area as a young teen. He attended Keene State College, in Keene NH where he majored in Mathematics and History. After transferring to Franklin Pierce University, he graduated Summa Cum Laude, with a degree in Finance and Public Accounting. He has also pursued graduate work in Supply Chain Economics, at the Florida Institute of Technology and in the Masters of Finance Program at Southern New Hampshire University.
After rediscovering his faith as a young adult, Scott took on increasing leadership roles within the local, state, and conference levels of the United Methodist Church. He served in various roles from Treasurer and Lay Leader of his local church, to serving as a member of the NH District Ministry Strategy Team and as Co-District Laity Leader. He formally entered the Candidacy program for Ordained Ministry in the spring of 2003, and completed his licensing as a local pastor in the summer of 2006. He was assigned to Asbury Church as his first appointment, in July of 2007, by the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. Beginning in July of 2021, Scott will also be serving as the Coordinating Pastor of the ministry team at West Rindge UMC, in West Rindge, New Hampshire.
For his formal theological training, He studied at Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore, KY, the Appalachian LP School in Barbourville Kentucky, as part of the Red Bird Missionary Conference, and finally completed his seminary studies at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC. Moving further, he has completed his advanced course of study via Duke Divinity at Duke University in North Carolina (2021). The ACOS of the United Methodist equivalent of an MDiv, with a focus on Wesleyan Practical Theology. Currently, he is pursuing doctoral programs with a focus on Trauma, Grief, and Pain and how these things intersect with, create, and inform our faith journeys.
Beyond what is required for his schooling, his academic interests include Rural Church Growth and Development, Storytelling, Hebrew Heritage and Theology, Social Justice and Witness, Physical Fitness as Discipleship and Stewardship, and the ancient symbols and stories of our faith. In addition, he is passionate about the potential that contemplative prayer and Christian meditation can hold in our evolving church and individual faith journeys.
He currently or has served as the President of the New England (and growing National) Assembly of Local Pastors and Associate Members, New England Annual Conference Chair of Global Missions, NH District Committee on Ordained Ministry, Chair of the NH Lay Servant Ministry Team responsible for training and equipping of Laity, board member of Fit4Faith (a ministry of physical fitness), and has trained and is working with multiple ecumenical groups related to opioid addiction, recovery, and community response.
Scott is committed to making faith authentic, relevant, and fun within this community. He is passionate about rediscovering discipleship and Wesleyan/Methodist Theology, church development, and tailoring worship and outreach to meet the needs of a new generation of seekers and believers. He believes that faith should have strong personal and communal components, and is expressed most completely through a careful balance between service and outreach to the community and personal holiness. He is strongly committed to a Wesleyan theology that is understood only in light of the full person and church and which emphasizes physical, spiritual, and community wholeness. In addition, he is passionate about personal and communal renewal through personal discipline, intentional discipleship, and Christian meditation. Ultimately, Scott believes that the promise of a renewed and reinvigorated church begins with the small rural church and expands outwards.
in addition to his work in the local church, Scott is a strong advocate of the bi-vocational model of ministry (Clergy maintaining employment beyond the church). He has worked across the denomination in the development and deployment of resources to encourage more agile and effective deployment of the model of ministry and leadership. In addition, he has worked to develop tools for not only the identification but growth and empowerment of laity. He has taught on the link between effective leadership and spiritual discipline for healthy church leadership.
As a bi-vocational pastor, Scott works full time managing the Business Planning and Forecast Group at the Automotive Lighting Division of OSRAM Sylvania. He lives in Keene, NH and is married to Stacey, and together they have two girls; Annie (a Sociology & Gender Studies Grad Student at the Lancaster University in Lancaster England) and Sophie (A Student at Maine College of Art). An senior West Highland Terrier named Sammy and a Shiranian named Maggie completes the clan. Besides the church, Scott loves storytelling, is a passionate sports fan, die-hard movie buff, and spends a great deal of time weightlifting and running on the backroads of Keene and Chesterfield.
Pastor Scott can be reached at PastorScott2007@Yahoo.com or via Facebook at http://facebook.com/pastorscott2007
