Anna Maria Island's Roser Community Church welcomes new associate Pastor Neil Crowell
ANNA MARIA -- On Dec. 6, Neil Crowell let the cat out of the bag with a Facebook post, stating: "It is now official ... I signed the letter of agreement to become the new associate pastor at Roser Community Church in Anna Maria."
Crowell will begin Jan. 4 at Roser, 512 Pine Ave.
Caught by telephone on the road from North Carolina this week, Crowell was driving south and unable to speak.
In a post to Roser Community Church's Facebook page, Crowell said: "I would like to personally extend my gratitude to all of those who have been instrumental in introducing themselves to me and the wonderful people I have met during my limited amount of time spent on the island. You have already made myself and family feel like a part of the mission and ministries of Roser."
While Anna Maria Island will be a new home for Crowell, he is no stranger to Roser's spiritual leader, Pastor Dr. Bob O'Keefe. Crowell was a student when O'Keefe was teaching at Hood Theological Seminary in North Carolina more than a decade ago.
"We had a really good student-teacher relationship," said O'Keefe. "I felt he would be a good fit, so we recruited him to apply. He's definitely a man that comes with a lot of vision, enthusiasm and vitality. Those are three things I put a lot of stock in and we also are fortunate to be getting someone with more than a decade of experience. He brings strong knowledge of the scripture and teaching will be one of his many responsibilities."
The relationship did not automatically get Crowell the position of associate pastor, which is a new position
for the church.
"It's a big step of faith for us to step forward with a whole new position," O'Keefe said.
Cathy Meehan, who was chairwoman the church search committee, said 16 candidates applied.
"We are a nondenominational community church, so when we do a search, we don't have larger bodies over us helping us out," said Meehan. "We used print and online advertising as well as personal contacts to generate the applications that we did get. Then we went through the normal process with interviews. Pastor Crowell seemed to have the background and experience we were looking for and one of his focuses will be Christian education for all ages and a hands on mission opportunity here at Roser."
O'Keefe said Crowell's start date with Roser: "Is a blessing to us. He's a very warm and personable and friendly person. He will meet our church members well and will get to know them quickly. He has a knack of being well liked and well loved."
Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.
This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Anna Maria Island's Roser Community Church welcomes new associate Pastor Neil Crowell ."