White Stone Chapel
Penn Yan, New York 14527
315-694-8997

• Education: After 3 years of undergraduate education with a major in business administration, I entered Carolina School of Ministry, affiliated with Nazarene Bible College. I completed the requirements for ordination in the Church of the Nazarene and was ordained in 2006
• Experience: 25 years managing and owning auto repair businesses. 7 years of volunteer work with Promise Keepers in the 90’s 35 years of teaching, worship leading, bus ministry, mens ministry leadership and volunteering in various churches in the East. Currently a pastor of White Stone Chapel A Nazarene Church in the Finger Lakes area of New York.
• Comment to those looking at my sermons: Preach the word, use anything I have without need of giving me credit. I preach heavily from the word of God and if I am truly listening to the Spirit of God, it belongs to Him anyway. I have had the benefit of using other’s messages and adapting them to my personal style or presentation, so do with these word what you would, but always seek the guidance from our Holy Spirit.
• Sermon or series that made a difference: Nothing has ever done more for my personal development and understanding of the Love of God than when I read only the actual words of Christ for my devotions. To understand how He never condemned individual sinners, only the act of sin, or certain groups of people help me to overcome a sense of never being good enough.
• One of my favorite illustrations: Einstein is reported to have closed a debate about the existence of God among the great minds of the day by having the participants determine how much of all there was to know was represented in that room. After discussion they agreed that they knew 5% off all there was to know. Einstein concluded by say, "Well gentlemen, what do suppose the odds are that God exists in the other 95%?"
• Family: Pastor Rich is married with 6 children and 14 grand children.
• What my parents think of my sermons: I grew up without any parents, meet my mother when I was 36, unfortunately she never heard my sermons. The only time she was present at a message I gave was her funeral.
• What my spouse (really) thinks of my sermons: You would have to ask her, but she had never fallen asleep and I rarely preach the same message over again.
• Best advice given to me about preaching: Prepare, spend at least 10 to 20 hours a week on your messages, but after preparation, trust the Holy Spirit and preach from the heart.
• Books that have had an impact: The Holy Bible of course Out of literally hundreds of great books, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell has had the most profound effect of my thinking. Whatever became of Holiness by Steve Deneff and In A Pit with A Lion On A Snow Day by Mark Batterson are two of my most recent favorits.
• Hobbies: Roller skating, music, singing
• If I could Preach one more time, I would say...: There is no greater life to live than one lived in the will of God.
• Something funny that happened while preaching: The week after preaching about GPS, "God Positioning Spirit" and telling everyone in the church they could set their watches by the atomic Clock I had put in the back, a member pointed out the clock was off due to a bad battery. A lot funnier at the time.