By Gary Lindsay

For Eric Falley, God’s calling to ministry was not a Paul on the road to Damascus moment, where a voice said, “Eric, I call thee to ministry.” Instead it came on gradually. With a nagging feeling that the profession he had prepared himself for would not be permanent, he opened himself to possibilities, and St. Paul’s offered him some inspiration.

Eric has roots in both Oregon and Montana. “I think if you combined the populations of Wyoming and Montana you might get half the population of Iowa,” he said. After growing up in Oregon, his family moved to Montana when he started high school. Two major influences shaped his early life, a loving family and the United Church of Christ. Eric describes the United Church of Christ he knew as more Evangelical than Methodism, but more open-minded than its congregations in the Bible belt. The beliefs of his family were in a God of love, following the compass of the example of Jesus Christ. Through his family he has always had a relationship with God.

After high school in Montana he attended college at Oklahoma Christian University studying both music and mathematics education. He eventually realized that neither field suited him well, but after seven years he needed to graduate. These years of study were not wasted, Eric said, as the education at OCU through both his religion professors and his classmates opened his world to new truths and exposed some contradictions and paradoxes in his earlier beliefs.  It was a long transition, Eric, said, “But I had grown up believing in a God of love, that compass guided me through my faith transformation.”

After graduating with degrees in math and music education, Eric returned home still looking for a career path. He realized that he had the skills to work in the insurance industry as an actuary. After two more years of study he applied to many companies and landed a job in Cedar Rapids with Transamerica.

In April of 2019 he began shopping for churches but for a while his best match was what he called the church of nature. He was frustrated looking for a church that was compatible with his theology and that also had a number of people his age. Many of the mainline churches matched his beliefs but the majority of the congregations were older. He realized that the church of nature was not the spiritual community that he was seeking, so he asked himself of the places he had visited, where did he feel most welcomed and comfortable, and that was St. Paul’s. The music program, the open atmosphere, the classes and the leadership of the pastors were all part of this level of comfort, Eric said.

He felt inspired by Pastor Sherrie and Pastor Jonathan and their leadership and preaching styles. He began to think, “Maybe I could do that, too.” His pastors in the Church of Christ had fit a different mold that did not suit Eric well. These pastors had mastered the dynamic, autocratic leadership style needed to convince a congregation to hire them. Eric said, “My picture of a pastor growing up was very different than what I saw at St. Paul’s and I began to think, “Oh, Pastors can also lead this way, and maybe I could do that too.”

As he began to think about this new type of leadership embodied by our pastors, Eric thought back and realized that he recognized that he had brought pastor-like behaviors to many of his experiences where his leadership style helped grow communities.  “I wanted to develop that community to have a special connection to each other and be able to mold into something that was more than a sum of its parts and to create communities where people feel safe and feel loved.” The ability to do this was something Eric believes he has always had but didn’t recognize the gift until he heard God’s call.

So, what lies ahead? The first step is three years of seminary study at Boston University with the goal of becoming an ordained United Methodist Minister. He wraps up his work at Transamerica next week and then will return to Montana for two to three weeks, and then he will take a road trip with family to California. From there the family will fly across the country to move him into Boston to begin his new adventure. In his studies in Boston, Eric hopes to find a collaborating community of people like him and explore answers to some big questions: “What does a spiritual community look like? What kind of things to they do? What helps them grow? What helps them actually produce fruit?

Eric doesn’t know just where the winding path of his ministry will lead, but he said that he will always hold special memories of St. Paul’s as the place he received his call, and he hopes to always stay connected here.

If you want to watch the conversation between Eric and Gary, you can watch it here.