Faith Presbyterian Church of Valley Village

5000 Colfax Avenue • Valley Village • CA • 91601 • (818)766-8103 • Fax: (818)766-2987

Rich's Reflections

Pastor Richard Poole

Greetings in Christ!

I am so very honored and thankful for the call to serve as a Pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church! I am grateful to Rev. Dr. Kim Strutt and his dear wife Julie, and to so many others who have spent the past several years dedicating their lives to the service and enrichment of the members and friends of this amazing church and community!

I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you more of my own story, experience of and with “faith,” and my hopes with regard to serving as the Pastor of this dynamite congregation!

A self-described “Son of California,” I was born in Santa Barbara, and baptized at La Canada Presbyterian Church, by the remarkable Rev. Dr. Gary Demarest (whom, at the ripe age of 3, I believed to be God himself!); but by the time I was 18 years old, I’d lived in 18 different houses in three states!

I had a wonderful experience during those first eighteen years, filled with its own unique sets of pro’s and con’s, challenges, successes, and struggles. Through it all I had my family, Mom and Dad, Julie and Walt, and little sister Amy, a life-long “best-friend.” As you can imagine, with all that moving, “home” was never a specific location, or, a set of “four walls,” but rather wherever we were!

With all that moving I didn’t grow up with a “regular” church home, finding my Christian instruction coming in two primary ways: first, through the explicit instruction of my parents (Bible reading, Lord’s prayer, etc.) and second, through the love and care they showed to my sister and me and to one another.

As a teenager while we were living in Las Vegas, NV, I began regularly attending a church but grew “disillusioned” about the nature of the church at that point. I would see people acting one way on Sunday, and then quite differently throughout the week. I couldn’t “vibe” with the inconsistency or sense of hypocrisy, and so I turned away from “the Church.”

At the invitation of a pretty young lady, I decided to check out Young Life, a non-denominational youth organization. I then decided to stay there as the ratio of pretty young ladies to young men was about 6:1. Eventually, my interest in attending Young Life shifted as the leaders who were very fun and charismatic at the start of the program became serious and talked to us teenagers about things that 1: I didn’t think adults wanted to have anything to do with, and 2: claimed that they weren’t the only ones interested/concerned but that God was!

At a weekend “retreat” I had the Gospel explained and in an intimate moment resting against a blue-spruce pine tree on a cool crisp night under a blanket of stars I dedicated my life to following Jesus Christ and began to understand my life (past, present and future) as something from God.

Well, it was time to move again! Not a big surprise, but a tad unfortunate in that the community we were going to move to had no Young Life – what was I to do with my fledgling faith if I lost my support community? Long story made short: I got connected with a Presbyterian Youth Group, and through that experience, had my “disillusionment” of “the Church” healed and became plugged into the life of the Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies.

In this Church I grew in my faith, and my understanding of what it means to be both a Christian and a Church-member. I served the church as a youth deacon and eventually heard a call to ministry as a junior in high school through the voice of God and the support of the congregation and its leaders.

I followed God’s call to the College of Wooster in Ohio, the alma-mater of my beloved late-grandfather Dr. H. James Holroyd, “Papa,” and grew further in my faith, knowledge, and skill. I completed my degree at Wooster with a double major in Geology and Religious Studies, and went on to pursue my Master of Divinity degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS). I am truly grateful to God and my parents who gave me the privilege of this excellent academic experience and hope to do good with the gift I’ve been given.

Following my wonderful experience at SFTS, I followed God’s call to ministry at Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies, as Chaplain in Granby, CO; then again as the Solo Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Rockdale, and just before coming here as a Campus Minister in Norman, OK.

Personally, I have been blessed to enjoy the gift of marriage and fatherhood, as well as the unfortunate and unexpected pain and processing of divorce and single-parent fatherhood. I rejoice in my sons, Austin Jackson Poole (currently 6) and William Walter Poole (currently 3), and in God’s redemptive power and promise to give me hope for true love and another chance at marriage in God’s own time.

When I began to sense my call shifting and to search for the community God had in mind for me, I was amazed, and overjoyed to discover it here! I truly believe I would follow God’s call anywhere, but experience a deep sense of joy to pursue the call in my home state of CA and in an area so close to one of the great passions of my life: cinema and story.

I share the passion of the folk at Faith Pres to engage in vibrant worship, compassionate outreach, and local mission as together we pursue the work and worship of God. I hope that, together, we are able to continue to find ways to support the people of our community providing them a “place” and a “space” to feel safe, supported, and grow in their life and faith, as individuals, families, members of our church, community, state, nation and world.

And I hope for the opportunity to get to know and serve, you!

Prayerfully,
Rev. Richard W. Poole
“Pastor Rich”

The Pastor Nominating Committee Report

With great joy and prayerful gratitude for God’s leading us in our search for a new pastor, the Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) of Faith Presbyterian Church of Valley Village introduces Reverend Richard W. Poole.

Rev. Richard Poole, age 28, describes himself as “a son of California.” He spent much of his early life in our state. Although he has lived in many parts of the American West, Rich feels he is now coming home. He brings with him his two wonderful sons, Austin, age 6, and William, age 3.

Rich Poole, though young, has extensive experience as a Presbyterian leader. He is currently Director of a Presbyterian campus ministry at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to that, he served as Solo Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Rockdale, Texas, and as Chaplain of a Christian Camp and Conference Center in Colorado.

He has a special sense of call to bring young adults into the church. He is an inspirational preacher, a devoted student and teacher of the Bible, and a dynamic leader. Rich is committed to the power of prayer and to the spiritual growth of his congregation, to Christian education, to pastoral care for the sick and elderly, and to mission.

Rev. Richard Poole became a Presbyterian while he was in high school in Colorado. He received a B.A. in Geology and Religious Studies (from studying the ages of rocks to studying the Rock of Ages) from the College of Wooster in Ohio. He earned his Master of Divinity degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

In his “Pastor Information Form”, which is the Presbyterian denomination’s version of a resume, Rev. Poole was asked, “What are the key theological issues currently facing the church, and how do they shape your ministry?”

Rev. Poole answered as follows: “The key theological issue, for me, continues to be, 'How do we seek to be faithful to the person and the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’, who 'is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow’ (Hebrews 13:8). How, in this time and place, will we need to know, understand, respond to, and share the freely given undeserved grace of Christ our Lord?"

“I believe the answer is to be found as we pursue our own discipleship through prayer, worship, Bible study, fellowship, pastoral care, and mission, both global and local. I believe that God is faithful to every generation, and that we must be faithful to his charge that we spread the good news to all nations (Matthew 28:19), for lo, He is with us to the very end of the age. In all things I seek to know and do the will of Christ, and to encourage, equip, and empower others to do the same.”

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
(1 Corinthians 12: 27)