Warwick United Methodist Church pastor reassigned

WARWICK — After 10 years of service to his parish and community, the Rev. Chris Yount, pastor of Warwick’s United Methodist Church, has been reassigned by his bishop to serve as pastor of New Life Community Church in Fairfield, Conn. The new appointment, as is customary for all reassigned pastors, will be effective this July 1.

On the same day, the Rev. Julia Yeon-Hee Yim, currently serving as pastor of the Farmingdale United Methodist Church on Long Island, will become the new pastor in Warwick.

“Julia and I are ordained elders,” said Yount, “And we were both ordained together. She has been serving at Farmingdale for seven years and I know everyone will welcome her when she begins her ministry in Warwick.”

Doubles church attendance Yount and his wife Elizabeth moved to Warwick in July 2002. They have four children: Christiana, who is married and living in Ohio; Luke, a student at the State University of New York at Oswego; Nate, 16, and Daniel, 11, who both attend Warwick schools.

Yount earned his bachelor of science degree at Nyack College, a Christian liberal arts school in Rockland County and his master’s of divinity at Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, N.J.

Before coming to Warwick, he was pastor of Christ Church in Beacon. And while there he coached the middle school boy’s basketball team and also hosted his own radio show.

When he was assigned to Warwick he already had a long history of getting involved in any community where he served and he continued that practice while doubling church attendance and instituting new ministries like the Go and Do Camp.

Participants in this unique summer program “go” into the community and “do” projects like garden clean-ups, painting, simple home repair projects and the like for neighbors who would have difficulty performing these tasks.

‘Where God wants me to be’ Since 2005, Yount has also served as chaplain of the Warwick Fire Department.

Yount also loves the outdoors and recently traveled to Virginia to begin an eight-day trek hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail. It was an opportunity, he explained, to pray and seek God’s guidance in the quiet and majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“Although we will miss Warwick and we leave with many happy memories,” said Yount, “I know my new assignment is where God wants me to be and I look forward to it.”

One of the most wonderful and unusual things about Warwick, he recalled, has been how well all the churches work together.

“I credit much of that,” he said, “to the leadership of Father Michael, as pastor of St. Stephen’s, the largest parish in the Ecumenical Council, and to all the different pastors who not only just get along but actually like each other.”

- Roger Gavan