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New Pastor at United Methodist Church

Written by Hunter Pane on September 17, 2019

There have been a lot of changes recently in and around Kansas Wesleyan this year and with these changes comes a new Pastor at the United Methodist Church which is located right next to campus. I recently asked the new Pastor a brief series of questions regarding his relationship with Kansas Wesleyan and to get a better understanding of his background. Below are the questions that I asked him and his responses. I hope you find his responses as insightful as I did.

What is your current relationship with KWU?

I am the Lead Pastor at University United Methodist Church
I serve on the Board for Campus Ministry at KWU

Great Plains United Methodist

Pastor Talbott
Campus Ministry Team Member
I am the KWU Campus Ministry Liaison to the Great Plains Annual Conference
Football Chaplain

What are some future plans you have regarding the community surrounding KWU?

Creating a pipeline of host families from UUMC
Providing meeting, and worship spaces for Campus Ministry at KWU
Creating college small groups

Also if I could get some brief information on your background and history of service for the church or even just some history of where you came from previously.

I am from Wichita Kansas
Graduated from Bacone College in Muskogee Oklahoma
Married for 17 years to Amber Talbott
Three Kids, Bailey 16, Barron 13, and Bishop 11
First Career, Education and Coaching where I coached Football and Wrestling for the last 18 years at the high school and college level
Started in Ministry as an FCA huddle leader, Youth Director, and Worship Leader and went into fulltime ministry in 2013
I have served in Hillsboro, Stockton/Woodston, and now University

Another question that I thought of was what are some barriers if any that you have had to overcome while being a Reverend that has visible tattoos and do you use that to your advantage or is it seen as a hindrance to your practice.

It has not always been easy! I have been asked to cover them by churches in the past. I have been told, “I should not be a pastor, looking like that.” But, I believe if I can have a conversation with you, you won’t care about the tattoos after that.
I believe the tattoos have helped me more than hurt me in ministry. Because of the tattoos, I am not viewed as your normal clean-cut pastor. People are usually curious about how a pastor can have tattoos, so natural conversation takes place. The tattoos visibly tell people, I am a normal, flawed, follower of Jesus. I am not perfect, I am approachable.
The main question I get is Why? My best answer is this, “I love art, people will go buy a painting and hang it on the wall because it moves them somehow. I just chose to hang my art on my body.”