New stories typically occur in new locations, but for the Rev. Michael McGhee, the site of one journey’s end has become the setting for a special ministry’s beginning. McGhee grew up in the town of Chippewa, near Beaver Falls, in a church whose liturgical expression was very different from that of Anglicanism. As a member of the Evangelical Free Church, the one thing he could count on every Sunday morning was great variety in the liturgy and constant change. “We never did the same thing twice on a Sunday,” said McGhee.

While he remembers committing his life to Christ at a young age, and is thankful to his mother for her positive spiritual influence, McGhee’s relationship with the Lord grew into maturity during his years at Geneva College in Beaver Falls. The Rev. Timothy Russell, McGhee’s chaplain at Geneva, was the right person at the right time. “At Geneva, I really began to grow in my faith, especially in my understanding of grace.” Under Russell’s guidance and support, he decided that his original plan to become a lawyer after graduation would wait while he engaged in campus ministry through the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO). McGhee began this work with the CCO while taking a position in residence life at Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA.

“It was about this time that I started attending a Presbyterian church in the area, and recited a creed for the first time in my entire life,” McGhee said. “This amazed me,” he exclaimed, contrasting the stability and continuity of creedal belief with his church experience growing up. From Westminster, McGhee moved back to Geneva again, this time to work with his mentor Russell in the chaplain’s office while cooperating with the CCO, a homecoming he welcomed. “In total, I lived and worked with college students for nine years after I graduated,” said McGhee.

Soon after McGhee returned to Geneva, Russell recommended Christ the King parish in Beaver Falls to him, after he had shared that the celebration of Eucharist was becoming increasingly important to his spiritual life. “And that,” he said, “was how I became an Anglican Christian.” In spite of the struggles within the Episcopal Church, McGhee knew that he had found stable ground in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. “I knew that with Archbishop Duncan, I had a godly bishop.”

Feeling a call to something outside of his work in campus chaplaincy, McGhee began to discern a new vocation. “Through talking to friends and mentors, I realized that the things I liked to do regardless of my job title, compiled together, looked very much like the job description of a priest,” he said. Through his involvement with Christ the King parish and the Rev. Paul Cooper, McGhee felt all the puzzle pieces of his formative experiences coming together. “Paul has been immensely helpful in helping me to realize that any healthy ministry is rooted in understanding yourself as a person in relation to your ministerial hopes and goals,” McGhee said. “It’s given me a lot of hope to realize that vision-driven ministry isn’t handicapped by my own perceived shortcomings.”

McGhee has carried this positive and balanced attitude over into his newest role as the founder of College Hill Anglican Fellowship, a church plant ministering to Geneva College that worships in a familiar location, the former site of Christ the King parish in Beaver Falls. “I was afraid that we had printed too many bulletins for our first preview service,” McGhee confessed with a smile. With over a hundred people showing up that first night, the problem was not printing enough. “There is no excitement quite like seeing the Gospel break into people’s lives, and no joy like seeing the freedom that brings.”

- Posted January 11, 2010 -