 I was born a Presbyterian in Detroit, Michigan, on January 2ed, 1947. I was baptized in April of that same year, and I grew up in a family who were active members of the Grosse Pointe Memorial Presbyterian Church. I went to Sunday School as a child, and was active in the youth group in Jr. and Sr. High School. I met my wife-to-be in the church choir in the seventh grade.
I attended school at Alma College, a Presbyterian college in central Michigan, and graduated in June of 1969 with a BA in Philosophy. I married Sue and moved to San Francisco Theological Seminary in California where I attended seminary from 1969 to 1972.
My first call was as a co-pastor at the Dixon Community Church in the Sacramento Valley of California. I served there for five years, and my two oldest children, Jason and Heather, were born in Dixon. In 1977 we moved to Winona, Minnesota, where I served as pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church for fourteen years. My youngest daughter, Emily, was born in Winona. We moved to Geneva, Illinois in the spring of 1991, where I served as Pastor, Head of Staff, at the Fox Valley Presbyterian Church. My wife Sue became ill in 1995, suffering from a recurring pituitary cyst, and died in September of 1997 during my service in Geneva. In the summer of 1998, my youngest daughter and I moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where I became the Pastor, Head of Staff of the First Presbyterian Church. While serving in Ardmore, I met and married the Rev. Linda Sherry in June of 2000. We have seven children between us, and three granddaughters so far.
Linda became the pastor of the Weatherford Federated Church in central Oklahoma in August of 2004, and we moved with the idea that after my thirty plus years of ministry, I would seek a call with a Presbyterian Church within driving distance of our home in Weatherford. I served the Greystone Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City for eighteen months as their Stated Supply Pastor, and helped the congregation to decide to become a "Redevelopment Church" in the Indian Nations Presbytery and seek a new designated pastor who lives near the church.
I next served the Colony and Cordell congregations in central west Oklahoma as Temporary Supply Pastor for three years. Together we completed a mission study of both churches and were then ready to begin the process of calling a new designated pastor for these two church families.
I am excited to be called as the new pastor of the Island Presbyterian Church. The Holy Spirit has brought us together to continue the exciting ministry and mission of this congregation. I look forward to getting to know each member and friend of this church, and to begin to discern together where God is calling us to grow into the future.
Rick Mills
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About the Pastor
