Pastor
Reverend
Since July 1st, 2001,
Aldersgate United Methodist Church’s pastor is the Reverend Scott E. Wylie.
Scott begins his 21st
year of full time Christian ministry in the United Methodist Church’s Northern
California area. The 56 year old pastor
is married to Rev. Denise Bowman Wylie, who serves at an American Baptist
church in Corte Madera. The Wylie family
includes daughter Rachael, who graduated from Oberlin College [Ohio] in 2005
with a bachelor of arts in music education.
She spent 2006 working as the Youth and creative worship leader at the
Oberlin United Methodist Church, then most of 2007 as a missionary. Sarah, is in her junior year at New York
University, where she majors in romance languages. She knew French when she was
accepted, mastered Italian at NYU’s campus in Florence, Italy and is now
learning Spanish at the NYU campus in Madrid, Spain. She will return to the U.S. in May and we all
wonder where she will spend her senior year.
Rev. Wylie holds a
Bachelor of Science degree in economics and Business Administration from the
University of Illinois, Urbana, 1973; a Master of Management (MBA) degree with
specialization in finance and organization behavior from Northwestern
University, Chicago, 1979; and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from Pacifica
School of Religion, Berkeley, 1986.
Yet his career in
ministry is marked by an emphasis on the spiritual rather than on the
institutional aspects of church work.
That’s saying something, because Scott just finished nine years of
service on the Council on Finance and Administration for the California-Nevada
Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. For four of those years, ending in June of
2004, Rev. Wylie chaired the Council’s subcommittee on the Budget. For the last four years, he served as President
of the Council. In 2000, every day under
the guidance of God’s Spirit has become a joyous adventure for me. I want that for the people of Marin County as
well.”
“I have been trained
to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI] and like to
use that to help people understand themselves and prayer styles which will suit
each person well. It’s been great to
conduct two MBTI workshops for faith based organizations in Marin County. People tell me they have found this expanded
understanding of self and spiritual life very rewarding”, Wylie reports. “We live where people want to be spiritual,
yet do not look to organized religion as a source.”
An avid amateur
musician, Scott has played piano and viola.
He studied voice for eight years and is a trained baritone soloist. He IS the bass section in the Aldersgate UMC
choir, balancing some 10 other voices.
He owns a violin, an electric guitar and a bass guitar. “I throw myself into important gaps in church
music programs. My instrumental practice
time goes where the church needs it. For
special events, that has been violin.
But most Sundays, I’ve played electric guitar”.
Scott has sung in the
Opera Chorus of the San Antonio [Texas] Symphony, where he appeared in “Aida”,
“Faust”, and “Madame Butterfly.” During
his two years as the associate minister in Carmel, Scott auditioned into the
chorus of the Bach Festival. He has also
had chorus parts in “Pirates of Penzance” by Gilbert & Sullivan and solo
roles in some small community theaters over the years.