Brittany talks with Rev. Fernie Rivera

A native of Texas, pastor Fernie moved to Louisiana in 2015 after getting his MDiv at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. While living in Chicago, Fernie served at First UMC of Palatine as the Director of Contemporary Worship. His main responsibility was to recruit, hire, and train a team of people to launch a new worshipping community within the walls of a long-standing church. By the end of his time there, a new contemporary worship service had been launched, a partnership was built with Garrett-Evangelical to make the church a training ground for future pastors, a new breath of life was injected into that church, and the first mission trip the church had done in about 15 years was planned and executed to Detroit, MI.