Bob attended high school and college in Iowa and attended Yale Divinity School. He served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala and then worked in Nicaragua as a community developer. He is fluent in Spanish and has led youth mission trips to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Chicago, and St. Louis.

Bob has served as a long-term pastor in Grinnell, Iowa, and as an interim pastor in Belleville, Illinois. He worked at Eden Seminary for a short time and is currently the conference minister for the UCC in the Ohio conference, which is the largest conference in our denomination. Bob's wife Ann is also a pastor and has been called as an interim associate pastor at St. Lucas UCC here in St. Louis. They have adult children and are drawn to the St. Louis area by their two grandchildren, who live in Ballwin.

Bob's ministry, like all of our faith journeys, evolves and grows over time. He says that his current ministry is one of hospitality. Here are some passages from his ministerial profile:

"Whether in impoverished villages in Central America or in tragic moments of personal loss and grief, I experience God as One who is busy with divine crochet needles, knitting together the tattered strands of our lives. God can craft a beautiful afghan of grace to warm our hearts in the most desperate of situations.

"Now the concept of hospitality has become a defining model for ministry, the lens through which I reflect on the role of the church. God's realm is a great banquet to which the blind, the lame, and the poor are invited as guests of honor. In my mind, the spread looks a little like my mother-in-law's Thanksgiving table, with mountains of food and all the table leaves added, so the table stretches from the dining room into the living room, and sometimes, when all the children and in-laws and grandchildren and ex-husbands and ex-wives and step-kids and cousins are present, the table turns the corner into the family room and just keeps going.

"There's a place waiting for us, a place where all the artificial barriers that society erects are dismantled. It's a come-as-you-are kind of place, where the lame and the blind, the poor and the marginalized, gays and people of color, republicans and democrats alike, children and uncertain seekers all get to sit at the head of the table. And it is spread with nourishment for the journey.

"Ministry is the act of pointing to that abundant setting and saying, "Dinner is served! Wash up and get in there. God has been waiting for you!" And then, after dinner, scattering that well-nourished household for the transformation of the world."

When our circle interviewed Bob over Skype we talked about progressive Christianity and about the diversity of religious tradition at Peace and found that he has done a lot of thinking, writing, and working on the idea of the church in a post-modern world and how we as a church attract and nurture those who are not drawn to the traditional image of church. In his own research on our congregation, Bob said that he is excited about the direction in which Katy has led us and says we're uniquely positioned to meet today's challenges to the church.

We will be making some changes in anticipation of Bob joining us in ministry. He uses a wheelchair to get around, so we will be pushed to think more clearly, with his help, about accessibility in our building. Bob is very athletic and was training for RAGBRAI, the bike across Iowa, in 1997 when he was struck by a car and paralyzed below the waist. This hasn't slowed him down much, as he now participates in RAGBRAI using a racing wheelchair and has participated in iron man competitions. He missed a trip to the London Paralympics in breaststroke by just one place, and his time ended up as tenth in the world.

Bob will start work at Peace UCC on May 1, and may be around before that time to get to know us a bit. We would ask you to join us in welcoming him to Peace. We are all excited to continue our journey with him.

Thank you!

Laura Evans, Marie Keath, Ann Groner, John Panhorst, and Rob Hartmann