The Rev. Jenny Warner has been selected to assume the role of lead pastor of the Valley Presbyterian Church after a search process of more than a year.
Following conversations with the church’s selection committee over the course of three months, beginning in March, she was given the opportunity to preach in front of the congregation as a sort of audition. The congregation then elected her as pastor. She will begin preaching at the church on Sept. 1.
“We think she’ll fit right in,” said Chris Preimesberger, an ordained elder and communications committee member at the church.
Her journey to the ministry was a novel one.
She grew up attending an Evangelical church in Southern California, but preaching wasn’t on her mind. “I grew up in a church where there were no women pastors, so that wasn’t something I was thinking about,” she said.
After graduating college with a degree in intercultural studies, she headed to post-communism Southeastern Europe in the 1990s to assist immigrating Americans adjust to life in a new setting.
By the time she decided that preaching was her calling, she had moved back to the Bay Area and started a family with her husband. They have two daughters.
Due to her parenting responsibilities, it took her seven years to graduate from the San Francisco Theological Seminary.
After spending six years into her first seminary gig in Bend, Oregon, “it was time to move on,” she said. The opening at Valley Presbyterian gave her the opportunity to personally lead a congregation, rather than remaining an associate pastor in Bend, Mrs. Warner said.
With the search over, the church will have a permanent pastor for the first time since Easter of 2016, the day that Mark and Cheryl Goodman-Morris, a husband and wife preaching team, retired after 29 years of service.
Although the Goodman-Morrises had notified the church well in advance of their retirement, the search committee was unable to even start searching for a replacement before they left. “The rules of the church are such that we cannot search for a new minister before the retirement of the old minister,” Mr. Preimesberger said.
According to the U.S. Presbyterian Church’s 2015 manual outlining the rules on calling a pastor, “the transition between pastors is a valuable time for congregations. It is an opportunity to reflect on your congregation, its community context, and its ministry in the present and future.” Before starting the search, “we had to reevaluate ourselves,” Mr. Preimesberger said.
During the transition time, the role of the pastor was filled in a rather creative way. “We had a three-member team of outside speakers called Spiritual Catalysts,” Mr. Preimesberger said, which brought with it an unexpected blessing.
Among the team of catalysts was the former national moderator of the U.S. Presbyterian Church, Bruce Reyes-Chow, who brought a great deal of publicity to the church, resulting in more than 100 applicants for the pastor position.
A surprising 10 to 15 percent of the entire congregation was needed to assist in the process of evaluating the applicants, yielding Ms. Warner as the top choice for the sixth permanent pastor of Valley Presbyterian, Mr. Preimesberger said. Mrs. Warner is now a Portola Valley resident and is currently living in a manse provided by the Valley Presbyterian Church, she said.
