Called To Serve: New Pastor Invigorates Hampton Bays United Methodist Congregation.

There’s a nameplate and reference to a passage from Philippians on Pastor Kenny McQuiller’s desk in Anderson Warner Hall in Hampton Bays. The United Methodist Church’s new pastor takes the scripture as a theme and a guide. It exhorts disciples to be like Jesus.

“Jesus came to serve,” he said. “That hits me. I’m just put here to serve others … There are so many ways I can do that.”

Now 61, McQuiller began his life of service long before coming to Hampton Bays for his very first appointment to the helm of a congregation last summer.

A member of Christ Church in Port Jefferson for some 24 years, he served in a lay leadership capacity for decades, before deciding to become a formal minister. The decision made, he followed a fast track to certification in lieu of going to seminary. Online coursework compressed four years of seminary into one and he was ordained a licensed local pastor.

Working full time for Sprint as a training manager, he spent close to 15 years traveling for that job and said, “I never in my wildest dreams thought I could juggle both.” But with seven kids, McQuiller is used to having lots of balls in the air.

Then Sprint and T-Mobil merged, offering him a new job opportunity as the national training manager for virtual trainers and, “I thought maybe this is God telling me I can now do all those things.”

A resident of Shirley, the pastor recalled his mother taking him to a Methodist church as a child growing up in the Bronx. But, he acknowledged, “I was away from church for a long time, to my mid-30s or so.”

Friends encouraged him and his wife, Clarice, to try Christ Church and, while his wife and seven kids attended, McQuiller held back.

“It took them a while to convince me to go, but once I went, I was all in,” he said. “The Methodist way just felt right for me.”

Most appealing to the new pastor was Methodism founder John Westley’s philosophy of taking faith outside the four walls of the church.

There is a lot of that going on at the church in Hampton Bays. “All the groups are serving such a great purpose,” he said.

During his service in Port Jefferson Station, he was director of the congregation’s Cancer Care Ministry. A survivor himself, he’s led monthly support groups and hopes, as COVID shutdowns and restrictions lift, to host bigger events for the community.

“We have a vital and vibrant Men’s Group that we started. We are doing monthly activities with the men and we are planning a Men’s Conference in early May,” he reported.

A Women’s Group and a Bible study group meet weekly.

A food blessings box was erected on church property. It’s kept stocked with nonperishable staples — while a reporter visited with the pastor recently, a young pregnant woman arrived and was shown the blessings box and given a bag of food. The church participates in the Maureen’s Haven outreach for homeless people, providing them with two meals and shelter overnight.

McQuiller is especially excited about the church’s new youth group. The church didn’t have a youth group for years and years, he pointed out.

The building is also home for AA and NA groups, and was recently chosen to give space to a veteran’s support group, all of which meet weekly. There’s a nursery school, called, “It Takes a Village,” in Anderson Warner Hall and, the pastor informed, “We also host a sister Spanish Church in our building on Sundays.”

The pastor’s first sermon, and his move to Hampton Bays, could be described as a baptism by fire. He and his family made the trip from their home up-island to Hampton Bays on July Fourth weekend.

While the pastor and his family continue to live in Shirley, they can stay at the parsonage on the Hampton Bays’s property during the weekends. “Then I can walk right down the hill,” he acknowledged.

Church appointment season runs through July, and it was early June last year when McQuiller got the call. “They said, ‘Hey! We have a church for you.’ I didn’t really know anything about Hampton Bays.”

Parishioners welcomed him warmly, he recalled. “They so embraced me right away,” he said.

He’d acted as “a pulpit fill-in” for other pastors over the years, but for his very first service at the helm, he admitted, smiling, “I was so lost … I was really, really nervous.”

Methodist pastors can use what’s called a “lectionary,” that matches scripture to days in the liturgical year. McQuiller uses the recommended scriptures on holidays like Christmas and Easter, but for the most part, he said, “I get inspired by so many different things.”

He creates his own sermons rather than relying on the lectionary.

“I just feel like, God’s going to give me a word to say on Sundays,” he said.

In general, the pastor refrains from engaging in political discourse when addressing congregants. Asked specifically to address hot button issues, he said, “I pray for discernment.”

So far, he took note of the homeless population in Hampton Bays, and how their presence may be a sticking point for some. He reminds of scripture and the quote from Jesus: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

The pandemic brought with it “a big challenge” with endeavoring to balance in person and remote worship services. It is definitely different, and he’s grateful for his Sprint training that helped him navigate technology.

He’s gotten to know congregants who attend services regularly, and made note, “Everybody’s story is very different.” Working to meet the disparate spiritual needs of his flock, “To be able to carve out time for them is very, very challenging, and at the same time, the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.

“I have a vision that we will be a lighthouse for this community, where the broken can come to hear God’s word, feel God’s peace and be shown God’s love and grace.”