New minister takes the reins at La Cañada Congregational Church
A towering man, standing well over 6 feet tall and looking out from the pulpit, Kyle Sears, the new minister at La Cañada Congregational Church, kicked off the start of a new church season last Sunday with a sermon that related Jesus Christ’s parables to subversive imagination.
A search committee unanimously approved Sears’ appointment this summer and the church’s council voted in the new pastor on Sept. 6. Following the Sept. 11 church service, Sears led the church’s annual launch event outside where dozens of white doves (technically homing pigeons) were released to mark the new church year. A luncheon with a slide show was held afterward.
“I’m ready to serve and get engaged in the community,” Sears, 36, said in an interview following the service. Hailing with his family from Hutton, Texas, and now residing in Pasadena, he is a full-time student at Fuller Seminary. Sears has one more year to go to complete his Masters of Divinity degree. He is an ordained baptist minister and has 14 years of experience in ministry.
Fuller Seminary has a universal evangelical curriculum and Sears will undergo a transfer of the ordination to the congregational church, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
Sears takes over La Cañada’s oldest church from former pastor Skip Lindeman, who served from 2002 to July 10 of this year.
Sears’ wife, Erika, is a third-grade teacher at Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena. They have three children: Kylie, 12, Katheryn, 9, and YoSeb, 6.
Starting his sermon on Sunday, Sears referenced the 50-year milestone for the television show “Star Trek,” entrepreneur Elon Musk’s pursuit to put someone on Mars within his lifetime, and then dived into the parallels of subversive imagination.
“I tell my kids to be explorers,” Sears said to the congregation.
Following the service, Sears said he will stay on the same topic for the next two sermons.
“I’m focusing on how to be a Christian then, honor the history today and embrace tomorrow,” he said.
During his first year at the La Cañada, Sears says he will listen to the congregation and the community at large, take it slow and learn the day to day.
“I want to lessen the distance between the church and the community, and overlap the life of the church with the life of the community,” Sears said.
Patti Stewart-May, chairperson of the worship committee and member of the pastor search committee, said the search that led them to hiring Sears “was not normal.” It took a painstaking two years.
“It was fate that brought Kyle to us,” she said during the launch event.
Matt Sanderson is a contributing writer.