The Rev. Se Gye Shin, who simply goes by Pastor Se Gye at our church, is an ordained

elder in the Upper New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. He has been

appointed to our church as a pastor since July of 2022 after serving Onativia UMC and Apple

Valley UMC in the same Crossroads District. He prefers to be called “Pastor” rather than

“Reverend” because pastor is a better title to describe what he does for the church as a servant

leader. What he seeks from the congregation is not reverence but mutual respect for he sees

them as partners in mission and ministry sharing equally unique and important spiritual gifts

from God.

Pastor Se Gye is originally from South Korea, born of the preacher’s family in The Korean

Methodist Church. After receiving the call from God to vocational ministry as a pastoral leader,

he changed his plan from pursuing higher education in science and technology to religious and theological studies. Pastor Se Gye holds degrees from Candler School of Theology at Emory

University (M.Div.) in Atlanta, GA and Methodist Theological University (Th.M. and B.Th.) in

Seoul, Korea. His study focus in the master’s degree programs was church history, specifically

the development of Christian doctrines in the early church and its influence on John Wesley,

the founder of Methodism.

Pastor Se Gye’s pastoral focus is on rediscovering peace in our different relationships: to

God, to self, and to other created beings – both human and non-human. Based on the

Methodist ideal of entire sanctification and the biblical concept of peace as shalom (all-

encompassing wholeness), he believes that our brokenness may be restored to the image and

likeness of God as God first intended at the creation of human beings. It is our hope that we

may work and walk together for such divine peace through our prayers, presence, gifts, service,

and witness as we commonly make our membership vows in The United Methodist Church.