The board of First Christian Church voted at its meeting on August 19 to offer the post of Intentional Interim Minister to Rev. Benjamin Masters.
As he wrote in his Personal Profile, Rev. Masters or “Ben” says about himself: “I am a pastor ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) based in Minneapolis, MN, called to encourage small congregations with big hearts – especially communities in transition. If God is calling us to work together to nurture disciples, develop leaders and love neighbors, then I say: ‘Onward in the Spirit!’”
Ben spent this past summer working in a pastoral role at Holden Village, in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. He served as Interim Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church of Northeast Minneapolis from 2022 to 2025. Before that, he was an Interim for two years at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Ben grew up in the Palouse Hills area of Washington State. Is it coincidence or “something else” that he and Pastor Dan Adolphson recently discovered they had mutual acquaintances and experiences from their childhoods in the Northwest! He served as pastor at two rural Presbyterian congregations in the Finger Lakes region of New York from 2018 to 2020, through the pandemic era.
Ben currently is a member of the Committee on Representation and Ethics, a group that invites leaders in the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area to reflect on and deepen its commitment to diversity and just relationships in the Body of Christ. He also loves to spend time with Iglesia Luterana St. Paul’s San Pablo, an urban multilingual congregation in Minneapolis, where his husband Rev. Hierald Osorto serves as senior pastor.
In an email replying to our invitation to minister to us at First Christian, Ben said, “I am truly humbled by FCC’s generosity and openness of heart. Thank you for inviting me to journey alongside you in ministry!” Ben will be introduced to the SpringHouse congregations at the Joint Worship on
September 7, and preach his first sermon as he leads worship at First Christian on September 14. We hope everyone will extend a warm welcome to Rev. Ben Masters and join him in saying “Onward in the Spirit!”
