Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church voted to elect its first pastor, The Rev. Joshua N. Sullivan, at a special congregational meeting held Sunday, August 8, following the morning worship service. Pastor Josh, a Connecticut native who most recently served as associate pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, and was ordained a Minister of Word and Sacrament, accepted the call.
“Filled with joy at this new beginning and reverence for God’s ever-renewing call upon my life, I humbly and gratefully accept the call,” Pastor Josh said.
Prior to the vote, Pastor Josh led the morning worship service at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran, a congregation born out of a merger between two former Lutheran congregations in Hamden–Christ Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. On Saturday, August 7, a Meet & Greet was held at the church to give the congregation an opportunity to meet him and his wife, Maddy, and their 10-month-old daughter, Simone.
“We are very happy to have Pastor Sullivan as our first full-time pastor of our merged congregation,” said Council President Ken Watson. “We look forward to working together as we live out our mission of building a vibrant, welcoming community to proclaim Christ.”
Prior to entering the ministry, Pastor Josh trained at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in 2007. He lived and worked as a painter and musician in New York City until 2012, when he began discerning God’s call to ministry. He earned his theological degrees from Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Master of Divinity, 2016) as well as from United Lutheran Seminary (Master of Sacred Theology, 2019). To learn more about him, click here.
Pastor Josh will officially begin his pastoral duties at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Monday, August 16. He can be reached via email at Pastor@christgoodshepherdlutheran.org, or by contacting the church office at (203) 288-3196.