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newlenoxpatriot.com life & arts<br />
The New Lenox Patriot | August 24, 2017 | 21<br />
Dickson’s next step in career lands in New Lenox<br />
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor<br />
It’s been about two months<br />
since The Rev. Wesley<br />
Dickson was appointed his<br />
new position as senior pastor<br />
at the United Methodist<br />
Church of New Lenox, but<br />
he’s already putting the pressure<br />
on himself to remember<br />
everyone’s names.<br />
“I’m the kind of person<br />
who loves to meet with<br />
people, loves to get to know<br />
who they are and loves to<br />
encounter folks,” Dickson<br />
said. “This is a church that’s<br />
just big enough that it’s<br />
tough to learn everybody’s<br />
name quickly. So, there’s a<br />
piece of me that’s really adjusting<br />
to not really knowing<br />
everybody right away.”<br />
That’s part of his personality<br />
though, trying to get to<br />
know everyone in his church<br />
as soon as he can and helping<br />
them in their faith journey.<br />
“I love what I do,” Dickson<br />
said. “I have a passion<br />
of just connecting people to<br />
faith that’s deep, and rich<br />
and meaningful, and something<br />
that’s going to provide<br />
a reason for you to want to<br />
get out of bed on a Sunday<br />
morning to engage in faith,<br />
to cause you to think, to<br />
grow a little bit deeper, to be<br />
challenged a little bit. But,<br />
also just to experience something<br />
that equips you to have<br />
quality community.”<br />
Dickson grew up in Bristol<br />
and graduated from Northern<br />
Illinois University in DeKalb<br />
with a degree in communication<br />
studies before attending<br />
the University of Dubuque<br />
Theological Seminary, where<br />
he received his Master of Divinity<br />
degree.<br />
He became a pastor long<br />
before the degrees, however,<br />
and began preaching at two<br />
small churches at the age of<br />
20 when he said he experienced<br />
the call to ministry.<br />
As part of the United Methodist<br />
Church’s process of itinerancy,<br />
where pastors are appointed<br />
to different churches<br />
on a yearly basis. Dickson<br />
most recently served as a pastor<br />
at a church in Sterling and<br />
Bolingbrook before that.<br />
He and his wife, Karen,<br />
had dated since middle school<br />
before getting married after<br />
college. She works as a<br />
speech-language pathologist<br />
at Independence Elementary<br />
School in Bolingbrook, where<br />
the couple currently lives.<br />
Aside from the challenge<br />
of learning his parishioners’<br />
names, Dickson said he is<br />
adjusting well to the new<br />
church and is looking forward<br />
to September when<br />
programming at the church<br />
picks back up.<br />
“For the most part, a lot of<br />
what we do as pastors is pretty<br />
transferable from place<br />
to place,” Dickson said. “...<br />
Even though [pastors] move<br />
among different churches,<br />
we’re all structured the same<br />
because we all basically<br />
adhere to the same Book<br />
of Discipline, which is the<br />
outline for how we structure<br />
our life and ministry and our<br />
work together.”<br />
Another change for Dickson<br />
has been that he has some<br />
extra help in the form of The<br />
Rev. Matthew Krings — the<br />
associate pastor at UMC of<br />
New Lenox.<br />
“My experience up until<br />
[coming to New Lenox] has<br />
been serving as a solo pastor,<br />
so one of the things I’m pleasantly<br />
adjusting to I’m is working<br />
with a colleague,” Dickson<br />
said. “We can frequently<br />
get together and bounce ideas<br />
off of each other, and make<br />
sure that ministries are covered,<br />
and that we’re able to do<br />
the work together and coordinate,<br />
which, as far as I’m concerned,<br />
is one of the greatest<br />
blessings of this place.”<br />
Aside from his work at the<br />
church, Dickson said he enjoys<br />
reading and geocaching<br />
in his free time — and said<br />
he’s already found a few caches<br />
near the church and along<br />
the Old Plank Road Trail.<br />
Dickson has a unique way<br />
of describing faith, and compares<br />
it to Magic Eye images<br />
— stereograms that were popular<br />
in the 90s and feature an<br />
intricate, computer generated<br />
pattern with a hidden 3D image.<br />
“There’s so many people<br />
who get lost in the details or<br />
you just give up, or you just<br />
don’t focus on it, But, to catch<br />
a glimpse of the actual 3D image<br />
is one of the greatest moments,”<br />
Dickson said. “That’s<br />
my passion is to equip people<br />
to stick with it [and] look<br />
deeper. Don’t get lost in the<br />
tedium, and don’t just eliminate<br />
pieces that you don’t<br />
like. There’s something rich<br />
behind there, and if you catch<br />
the image of the fullness of<br />
our faith it’s magnificent, just<br />
magnificent.”<br />
The Rev. Wesley Dickson speaks during an outdoor service.<br />
United Methodist Church of New Lenox’s new pastor since July, The Rev. Wesley Dickson,<br />
greets church member Nancy Jarosik at a recent service. Photos Submitted
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