John Musgrave is the pastor of our church, and has been here as pastor from the time of the church’s founding in 1999. He loves it here—especially the people—and is grateful to God for them.
John loves to teach and instruct from the Bible, God’s only standard for Christians’ beliefs and practices. He thinks that understanding the Bible better is exciting (because it means we know God better).
Other things about John:
He’s the father of five daughters.
He grew up in New York and Ohio.
He played baseball as a youth; lacrosse, basketball, and soccer in high school; and soccer in college.
He served in campus ministry with CRU at Wittenberg University, Wilmington University, and Indiana University.
He also served with the ministry to athletes, Athletes in Action, in Cincinnati.
John has a B.A. from Wittenberg University (Ohio) and an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando).
He teaches seminary classes in Bible, Theology, and Biblical Interpretation at LAMP seminary in Raleigh (NC).
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John loves his family, loves having five daughters, loves to run, and loves to laugh.
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Here are some of his other likes:
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TV:
Freaks and Geeks, Smallville, Seinfeld, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, The Office, Monk, Arrested Development, King of the Hill, The Man in the High Castle, Blue Bloods, Band of Brothers, Jack Ryan, Brooklyn 99.
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Movies:
Breaking Away, Chariots of Fire, Ordinary People, Rocky, Groundhog Day, Elf, Saving Private Ryan, The Fugitive,
Dances with Wolves, A River Runs Through It, Apollo 13, Legends of the Fall, Sense and Sensibility, Kramer vs. Kramer.
Note: John, like one of our deacons, calls anything starring Liam Neeson “Qui-Gon’s new movie.” Qui-Gon is his favorite Jedi by far.
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Actors:
Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, Liam Neeson,
John Travolta, John Krasinski, Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise, Russell Crow.
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Books:
Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy), Crime and Punishment
(Fyodor Dostoevsky), and Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy).
Music:
The Beatles (far above all), Wings, Simon & Garfunkel (& Paul Simon, solo),
The Commodores (& Lionel Richie, solo), Rush, Devo, Elton John, Queen,
Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, The Cars, Stevie Wonder, most pop from the 1970s.
He thinks the years 1970, 1972, 1975, 1980, and 1983 were exceptionally good years for pop music.
He thinks most undervalue disco, mostly because of the peer pressure not to like it. ;)
John has played piano, clarinet, saxophone, and guitar.
He once played the character Bernardo in the musical, West Side Story (ask him where the rumble is).
Sports heroes
& favorite athletes:
His dad, Julius Erving, Pele, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Fran Tarkenton,
Bode Miller, Ezekiel Elliott, Justin Fields, C.J. Stroud, Max Verstappen, Johnny Dutch,
Katie Ledecky, Keni Harrison.
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Sports teams:
The Ohio State Buckeyes, teams in the NFL that have former Ohio State players, the Cincinnati Reds,
the New York Yankees, the Carolina Hurricanes.
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Funny facts:
He may or may not be in an episode of The Brady Bunch.
Two of his childhood heroes were Greg Brady and Vinnie Barbarino.