Welcome Pastor Rebecca Segers!
We are so excited to be welcoming Pastor Rebecca into leadership at Third Church! She will work hard in the next weeks to get to know us all, but in the interim, she has answered a few questions to give us a head start. Test your knowledge of Segers trivia!
What’s your favorite hymn? Favorite Bible passage?
My favorite hymn is “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” sung to the Hyfrydol tune.
My favorite Bible passage is Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
When did you first feel the call to ministry?
Actually a leader at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in NYC saw the call in me before I did! The Director of Christian Education invited me to begin taking what were called Commissioned Lay Pastor (CLP) classes back then, with the blessing of the session and at the church’s expense. I discovered in taking the Bible class that I loved scripture even more than I had previously known, and that love began the slow journey to pastoral ministry.
Who’s in your immediate family?
My daughter, Grace, is 26 years old and a journalist for The New Republic magazine. The publication is based in NYC, but she is their dedicated Capitol Hill reporter and lives and works in Washington, DC. My mother is in Fayetteville, AR. She is still practicing law, in partnership with my sister, who is also an attorney. She has two children, both of whom are married, and have five children (and another on the way) between them. My brother and his wife, who live in Nashville, TN, are attorneys as well. They have two children, one who has just finished college and is in the process of applying for law school, the other is a Freshman at Clemson University.
What’s your favorite movie/TV show?
My favorite movie is “The Matrix,” which I will argue till the cows come home is the Jesus story retold. It’s especially exciting now as “Matrix Resurrections” came out this Christmas. I rewatched the entire trilogy over the week between Christmas and New Year’s and saw the new one with my daughter and crew when they visited over the New Year’s weekend.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
Jeni’s Brambleberry Crisp
Where are you most likely to be found when you’re not working?
Pre-COVID, in a library or bookstore. Now, on my couch with a cat on my lap and a book in my hands.
What excites you about coming to Third Church?
A better question is what doesn’t excite me! I am thrilled to be starting a new season with Third Church. I’m looking forward to meeting you all, individually and across a wide variety of groups. I’m excited about working with an incredible staff—we’ve had a little time together and I am already so grateful for their energy, their responsiveness, their faithful commitment to Christ and to the church. I am looking forward to leading worship, to being transported musically, to listening for God’s voice in, among, and through it. I am truly excited about going through a discernment process together that grows us closer to one another and to God in Jesus Christ, to determining the way or ways in which God is calling us to be salt and light in a community and a world that need it so desperately, as we also strive to become the people God imagines us to be.
What do you hope to be/do during your ministry here?
I hope to listen well, to love deeply, to serve faithfully, and to grow alongside you into a church that represents Christ’s love to one another and the greater Rochester community ever more fully with each passing day.
Is there anything else you want us to know about you?
I love the arts. I believe that creativity is a gift from our Creator God, and enjoy all types of creative expression. I appreciate theater, dance, music of every genre, and love to spend time in museums of all sorts. So if you ever have an extra ticket to anything, I’ll happily be your companion for the day!