Our Pastor

Rev. Ryan Wallace, Fairmount Senior Pastor

Meet the Rev. Ryan Wallace!

 

 

Amanda, Cece, Silas, Mae, and Rev. Ryan

When I was 12 years old, I returned home from a mission trip and told my parents that I had decided to become a pastor. It stuck.

After growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I went south for college to Vanderbilt University. While I never quite acclimated to southern culture, I did fall in love with a genuine southern belle, Amanda. We moved to Chicago when I began studying at McCormick Theological Seminary, and we were married in Amanda’s hometown (Chattanooga) in 2011. We have three children—Mae (6), Silas (3), and Cecilia (7 months). Mae loves to read, Silas loves tools, and Cece loves her mom.

 

Halfway through seminary, I felt the Spirit calling me into community-based social justice ministry. I graduated with a Master of Theological Studies and spent several years working in community organizing and public policy at two faith-based non-profits—Community Renewal Society and Interfaith Worker Justice. I worked on a wide range of justice issues at the city, county, state, and federal levels, including violence prevention, education funding reform, wage theft, restorative justice, tax policy, re-entry and recidivism, and police reform. 

In addition to my community organizing experience, I also served five PC(USA) congregations—most recently as Associate Pastor for Faith Formation at the First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville in Illinois. I love every aspect of congregational ministry, but what I love most is the people. The call of a pastor—to walk alongside people of all ages and backgrounds in their spiritual journeys—is a blessing that defies description.

I also have a strong entrepreneurial streak. I’ve been involved in three church plants in Chicago (including one that raised money by brewing beer), and over the past two years, I’ve been working to foster connections between churches and social entrepreneurs. I’ve served on the launch team for the Small Business Growth Initiative at the Lake County Community Foundation and I’m also the co-founder of The Spiritual Entrepreneurship Lab, an ecumenical project that aims to align the mission and resources of churches and social entrepreneurs to create new and innovative ways of doing church and business.

I have served in other leadership roles to support the Church, including  a term on the Mission Committee of the Chicago Presbytery during its relaunch, redesigning a model to distribute more than $250,000 each year in grants. I serve  on the Board of Directors for the Inclusive Collective, a progressive Christian campus ministry with a focus on serving LGBTQ  young adults in Chicago. I am also a fellow at the Ecumenical Center for Clergy Spiritual Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery. 

How Your PNC Chose Rev. Ryan Wallace

The Presbyterian Church USA links searching congregations and pastoral candidates in an online application site (Church Leadership Connection) in which both parties complete detailed information forms.  PCUSA asks the church to select 10 characteristics from its Leadership Competencies list and then matches them with candidates’ own choices. PCUSA then sends Pastor Information Forms (PIF) to the searching church that best matches its chosen 10 criteria. Interested candidates can also apply directly to the church through the CLC site.

Your PNC consulted the recent Mission Study and Convergence Report to carefully identify our list of 10 competencies. We developed a scoring system so we could individually judge each candidate on these criteria. Their PIFs include detailed narratives, work history, service to the denomination, and links to videos of sermons and services and links to writing. Between May and October, the PNC evaluated more than 100 PIFs and conducted multiple Zoom interviews.  Because congregations had rich video archives during COVID, we also viewed the candidates in multiple sermons and settings not included in their applications.

We reached out to broaden our candidate roster by advertising in Presbyterian Outlook, Presbyterian Today, and The Christian Century, and Fairmount’s social media. We turned to former Fairmount pastors for recommendations and also reached out nationally to advisors that these pastors, Jessie, Lindsay and others recommended to ensure the broadest diversity of candidates.

Rev. Ryan Wallace appeared early in our search as an outstanding candidate. He scored at the very top of all candidates against our criteria. He also sought us out, applying to be considered by Fairmount in the midst of what we later learned was considerable interest from other congregations across the US. The committee conducted two long Zoom interviews with Rev. Wallace and were uniformly impressed by his maturity, the seriousness of his spiritual and social justice goals, and his spiritual depth built in a life of service to the church.  We spoke in detail to his references, and the Presbytery of the Western Reserve conducted two background checks and a suitability interview. Ryan and his family visited for three days in October to learn more about Fairmount and to meet the search committee individually and in small groups.  He was our unanimous and enthusiastic choice following this careful and prayerful review.

Endorsements from Your PNC

Rev. Wallace distinguished himself as a visionary pastor able to inspire and engage Fairmounters to bring our vision as articulated in the Mission Study to fruition. Equally impressive is his spiritual depth and passion for pastoral care.  – Vanessa Whiting, Chair

Rev. Wallace is extraordinary in so many ways, a born leader, a person of unimpeachable faith, the right person to lead Fairmount forward in the 21st century, to venture beyond our walls to spread the Gospel through the love, kindness, compassion and justice advocated by Jesus, to inspire us in our daily lives, to partner with our remarkable congregation. – Bill Leahy, Vice-Chair