Our Ministers
At Asbury Church we are committed to the belief that Christianity can only live into is fullest gifts when done so through the context of our community. As we continue to live into a post-pandemic world where our community is no longer behind geographic boundaries, we are learning how to commit to be on this journey with each other. This involves patience, grace, inclusion, and service to each other. As such we consider all those who call Asbury their faith home (whether they are the 800 or 900 hundred who join us via cyberspace each week, or those who find a physical pew) our church Ministers. Additionally many serve in roles unique to our community such as our leadership council, trustees, nurture, outreach, witness, and mission committees. Beyond this work of the church, we do have a trio of staff at Asbury Church.
Tracey Borden, Music Director
First is our Music Director, Tracey Borden. Tracey has served for over two decades as our music director. In addition to lending her incredible voice to our weekly worship, you will also find her as a regular leader of local choirs and music programs. Additionally, she serves as a laity leader in our community helping drive the future of our church from a ministry and strategic perspective. She is the mom of two grown boys and is a respected businessperson in Keene.
Lucie Fortier, Outreach Minister
Lucie Fortier is Deaconness in the United Methodist Church and has been appointed to our community for close to a decade. In the United Methodist Church Deaconesses and Home Missioners are laypeople who are called by God to be in a lifetime relationship in The United Methodist Church for engagement with a full-time vocation in ministries of love, justice, and service. They work in local mission and ministry with their appointed church as their home base. Lucie serves as our official outreach minister challenging us to find new ways to connect with our broader community and is often our first point of contact. Beyond the local church, she is extensively involved in bereavement support and hospice volunteering. Lucie also serves as Asbury’s denomination representative, and works with programs such as United Women in Faith (Formerly UMW), the NH Lay Servant Ministry Team, and MissionU where she serves as the Dean of the educational program.
Rev. Scott Masters, Pastor
Pastor Scott Masters has been serving Asbury Church since 2007. 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 pastoral ministry in the spring of 2003. 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 also serves as the Coordinating Pastor of the ministry team at West Rindge UMC, in West Rindge, New Hampshire.
For his formal theological training, he has an undergraduate degree in Accounting/Public Finance from Franklin Pierce University. He undertook his religious training 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 and Duke Divinity at Duke University in North Carolina (2020). During the summer of 2022, Scott completed his Doctorate in Public Theology via the prototype New Theology School focusing on community curation in an age of hate, extremism, and social divide. His research and study led to the publication of his first book “Deconstructing Q; Community, Reconnection, & Grace in the Shadow of the QAnon Heresy”. He has done further study and research study, certification, and training in Trauma-informed Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Direction. He is also a strong advocate of contemplative spirituality.
He currently or has served as the New England Annual Conference Chair of Global Missions, NH District Committee on Ordained Ministry, member 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. Additionally, he is proud to be a member of the Monadnock Interfaith Project and serves on several local community groups, including the Monadnock Area Trauma Committee (a CHIP program intended to guide the region into becoming a Trauma-informed community)
In February 2023, he was named as the Executive Director of the Monadnock Center for Mission & Ministry based out of Keene, New Hampshire. This center engages ecumenically with individuals, churches, and faith-based communities to foster a healthy spirituality rooted in the training, resourcing, and developing methods and opportunities for trauma-informed mission and ministry, spiritual direction, and formation. As part of this work, he has become one of the founders of the Caritas 3i Model of Spiritual Direction. This ministry can be found on Facebook and can be reached via monadnockministry@gmail.com
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. He lives in Keene, NH, and is married to Stacey, and together they have two girls; Annie (a local educator on Violence Prevention) and Sophie (A Painting and Art History Student at Maine College of Art). A new Malshi puppy named Eloise completes his clan. Besides the church, Scott loves storytelling, is a passionate sports fan, a die-hard movie buff, and spends a great deal of time weightlifting and running on the backroads of Keene and Chesterfield.
Should you have any questions about our church, or our leaders, feel free to reach out. Pastor Scott can be reached at PastorScott2007@Yahoo.com or via Facebook at http://facebook.com/pastorscott2007