Third Millennium Fellows
Rev. Jay Ferguson
Rev. Jay Ferguson
Jay was born in southern West Virginia in 1966. Growing up in the blue collar world of the coalfields, he learned both about the hard knocks of life and the virtues of self-reliance. He is very grateful for his roots.
In 1991 Jay graduated from Bluefield State College in 1991 with a B.A. in both History and English. Following his conversion to Christian faith and his call into ministry, he attended Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore Kentucky, where he earned the degree of Master of Divinity in 1994. Currently, Jay is completing work toward the terminal degree of Doctor of Ministry through Drew Theological Seminary at Drew University, in Madison, NJ -- while he is serving as senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Dandridge, TN.
In the course of his ministry, Jay has provide pastoral leadership in three appointments prior to coming to First UMC Dandridge. He is ordained as an Elder within the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. Jay's real passion in ministry is two-fold. He wants to see theological clarity of thought shape the practical ministry decisions of the local church. To that end he finds himself reading widely in a multitude of areas, but always with an eye toward how to bring all thoughts under the guiding principles of the Gospel. Growing out of this commitment to theological clarity and effective praxis in ministry, Jay has done much work in the area of conflict resolution -- an area that he believes is much neglected in the life of the contemporary church -- always focused upon the task of helping pastors and laity see that conflict in church is rooted ultimately in both theological and spiritual confusion about the life of faith and a failure to take interpersonal relationships seriously as an expression of the covenantal love that Christ commands us to embrace.
He has been married to Kelly since 1989 and has one son, Micah. Since Jay believes they are the best part of him, he includes their family picture in this biographical sketch.