Strengthening Churches in the Southeast

After two decades of faithful service, Glen Schrieber retired from his role as EFCA Southeast district superintendent and passed the torch to pastor Marc Ramirez. Before stepping into this new role, Marc served as a pastor of Fellowship Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) in Dallas, Pennsylvania, for 18 years, building on the foundation of his predecessor and growing a flourishing local church ministry there. Now, as Marc approaches one year in his new role, we talked to him about how his pastoral background, his journey to district leadership and challenges churches in his district are facing.  

EFCA: How did God call you into ministry? 

Marc Ramirez: Well, I graduated from college with a degree in business and spent about 12 years in the supply chain field, working for consumer-packaged goods companies. We were living in south Florida in the early 2000s and got involved as a family at a local church. The church was going through a leadership transition at the time, and they asked me to step into leadership.  

One of the pastors resigned and went to another church, and then another pastor left. As this happened, opportunities opened for lay leadership to become more involved in the church, and I started doing a lot of teaching and eventually preaching. That began a changing of my heart, a recognizing that this seems like more than me filling in. Others in the church started asking me the same question, “Hey, is this something that you could see God calling you to do?” 

I reached out to my Free Church pastors back in Pennsylvania, where I grew up, and I basically said, “What do you do if you feel like God's calling you into ministry?” They counseled me and prayed for me and then told me to reach out to the EFCA district superintendent.  

I met Glen Schreiber in 2004. He came to our home, and we talked about ministry and whether I should take the next step. He knew I was an EFCA guy, coming from an EFCA background. I shared with him what God was doing in my heart, and he prayed for us and encouraged me to take the step of faith into full-time ministry. 

EFCA: How did you first connect with the EFCA? 

Marc: In my late teens, I lived in northeastern Pennsylvania and attended Fellowship Evangelical Free Church in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Years later, after three years in south Florida, my wife Stephanie and I felt God calling us back to Pennsylvania. Despite not having a job lined up, we moved in faith. Eventually, I was called to serve as an associate pastor at Fellowship Evangelical Free Church—the very church we had been a part of years ago. It was quite special. The pastor, Dwight Hodne, who also officiated our wedding, had been seeking a younger pastor to mentor as he neared retirement. He saw potential in me, which began a new chapter in our lives. 

EFCA: How did you see God work while you served as a pastor at Fellowship? 

Marc: I saw a lot of growth, spiritually and numerically. We also had great unity as a church. After Dwight retired, one of the first things I had to do was hire more staff. After I left earlier this year, the same staff we assembled from the very beginning were still there. We had such longevity over the years. We developed a strong, unified team with a clear vision for the church.  

Early on, we weren't strong in community outreach, but we developed an approach and strategy for it and started seeing good fruit. Our approach to outreach began by defining what we meant by "outreach" within our church context. For us, it meant "intentional ministry to those outside our church." This vision eventually led to our church establishing an on-site food pantry and clothes closet, which attracted dozens of people from the surrounding community to our building each week.  

These individuals in need began to see our church as a place of refuge. Many of those who came to us spoke only Spanish, which prompted our outreach teams to find Spanish-speaking volunteers. Soon, we were having gospel conversations and prayer in both English and Spanish with dozens of people from all over the region, all of whom were initially outsiders to the church. An added blessing of this outreach approach was the support we received from the broader community, with secular organizations donating food and resources to our church because they recognized the positive impact we were having in the community. 

We saw many people discipled, come to faith, baptized, and a lot of marriages restored and reconciled. As my time as a pastor ended, it was important for me to leave well, and that's something that is now a part of what I'm doing as a district superintendent, helping churches and pastors transition in a healthy, God-glorifying way.  

EFCA: How do you think your business background helped you with ministry leadership?  

Marc: It helped tremendously. I've wondered about that. “Lord, why did I spend 12 years doing this?” And then I went into the church and realized I can use all these skills. When understanding how organizations work, whether it's small or large, you have to learn the organizational culture and work and accomplish your job within it. That's the same in a church.  

What is the dynamic of the people and the community and the context of that church, and how do you work within that? That was something I had to learn to do. Having some administrative and analytical skills helped me to handle meetings and finances, being able to talk to the church about vision and how it fits with what we're trying to do, giving people a big picture idea of what we're doing. Those were skills I developed over time in the corporate environment. 

EFCA: What are some of your areas of focus as you continue working in this new role? 

Marc: It's interesting to see how when you step out of the local church and move into a role like this, you start to see the differences in the job––the dynamics of leadership are very different. In the local church, you are working with elders who you meet with monthly, church staff you see almost every day and, on weekends, the congregation. So, you're leading people you have all this contact with, and over time, you pick up on the dynamic of what that is and how to do that well. 

Now, leading at a district level, I don't have those touch points that I did in the church. One of the things I'm learning is I need to lead well in smaller sample sizes of those interactions, because I don't have them as much. But when I get them, I need to maximize the time I have with pastors and churches, because I don't have it every week. 

EFCA: What challenges do you see pastors and local churches facing in your district? 

Marc: I think every pastor is wrestling with the struggle of their pace of ministry, how they're handling time and effort and family. I think that’s always something they're trying to navigate. There’s always an urgent situation happening in the church, and you say as a pastor, “Well, as soon as this is over, it'll get better.” But there's always the next thing. 

I think the other tension that every pastor, the church and people in the church are dealing with is remaining biblically faithful in your life and in your ministry, especially pastoring and leading a church in these very confusing times. Navigating the balance between being faithful to God and maintaining likability with others can indeed feel challenging. So, I find it’s helpful for pastors to work through some of that and what that might look like. 

When I encounter a pastor struggling with the demands of ministry, their church or even the surrounding culture, I aim to help them simplify and refocus. By cutting through the clutter, we're reminded that our ultimate allegiance is to our one true King, Jesus. Being faithful to Him is the key. Faithfulness may look different in various situations and may not always be glamorous, but it is always rooted in biblical principles and always brings glory to God. Sometimes, the simple yet powerful reminder to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus is all we need to persevere and continue moving forward. 

EFCA: How can we pray for you and the district?  

Marc: One of the things we’re working on is to build a team, so pray that God would provide. We also want to continue to see Southeast District churches be healthy and strong and supported, and we want to see churches start where there are no churches. We have tremendous opportunity for that in the Southeast. I saw a US News and World Report article that listed the 25 fastest growing cities in the United States, and 15 of them are in the Southeast District. It's a tremendous opportunity for churches to multiply.  

This article has been edited for brevity, clarity and readability.