Gary Denning was born in Madison Indiana where he grew up in a Christian home. He was active in the American Baptist Youth work and served as State President for the Indiana youth during his first two years of college. He studied psychology at the University of Louisville, KY. While there he served as a youth director at a local church. He studied theology at the International Baptist Seminary at Rueshilikon, Switzerland, and did graduate studies in Old Testament and Egyptology at the University of Zurich. Gary was ordained in 1986 and served as an Associate Pastor for Pastoral Care and Evangelism at the First Baptist Church, Sioux Falls, SD. He came to us as Interim Pastor in 1991 and was installed as our pastor in 1992.
Gary has worked as a volunteer on archeologial digs at the site of ancient Kinneret on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee several times since 1983. He communicates his love of archeology when he uses his experiences to teach us about life during the times the books of the Bible were written. As he says, "The thrill of touching pottery and other objects up to 5000 years old has been a wonderful experience, and helps me to appreciate the cultures which we read about in the Bible."
He has great interest in our children and the children of the surrounding community. He worked very hard to establish a Vacation Bible School and a weekly evening program for children. (See his description of planning for the year 2000 event: 2000 VBS2000.)
Gary says that his guiding verse from the Bible is probably 2 Corinthians 5:19 and the entire section of verses 17-21. He says, "The notion that Christ's work of reconciling the world to God calls us to be Ambassadors of reconciliation, says to me that our work is to help remove barriers, and trust God to create new life. I have seen that in my own life, and have rejoiced in the lives of others who found new ways to healing and life, because another Christian helped pave the way to reconciliation."
He believes that the toughest challenge to our church is to be relevant within the community around us. We are in the midst of university complexes and a world class hospital system. We have as our closest neighbors one of the richest and one of the poorest populations of Pittsburgh. We have a real challenge.
He declares: "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful life sustaining force our community could imagine, and my desire is to do what Jesus said in John 6:39 - lose nothing that has been entrusted to us, but rejoice as Christ's love raises people into new life."
Gary's e-mail address is: denning@andrew.cmu.edu