Early Years in the Faith
I came to know the Lord in 1979 as a junior in high school. Two years later I began to sense the Lord calling me to full time ministry. My pastor suggested I get my bachelor’s degree in a field of Christian service and continue to listen for God’s leading in my life. I attended Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, where I met my wife Cynthia. We both graduated in 1985 with degrees in Christian Education. In order to pay for my tuition, I joined Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at Bryan College in 1982. After graduation, I owed the Army six years of active duty service.
In 1991, I finished my military service and began looking into full time ministry. In 1993, while at my home church in Columbus, IN, I was invited to do part time pulpit supply for Clifford Baptist Church. Later that year, I was called to be the full time pastor at this church.
Around the year 2000, the Lord began to bring Christians into my life who were from the Reformed faith tradition. The more I came to understand the Reformed faith, the more I began to realize that I was not really prepared to be a pastor. I resigned from being the pastor at the Clifford Baptist Church in 2003. I set out to know what it was to be part of a Reformed church and I asked the Lord to show me if he wanted me to be a pastor in the Reformed church.
Discovering the RPCNA
I first became a member of the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Columbus, Indiana in 2003. I then became a member of the Columbus Reformed Presbyterian Church in 2008. In 2015, I was ordained as a ruling elder in the Columbus RPC.
After 2 years of serving as a ruling elder, I began to sense the Lord calling me to full time ministry. I made this known to my session and they began working with me to confirm whether or not the Lord was calling me to ministry. In 2018, I became a Student under care of the Great Lakes Gulf Presbytery. I began studying at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated with a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) in May of 2020.
Prior to my studies at RPTS, I had been involved in a church plant effort in Louisville, KY which started in 2016. In June of 2019, I was licensed to receive a call and became the Resident in Training working in Louisville, KY with the Home Mission Board of the RPCNA.
In October of 2020 I received a pastoral call from the Grace Reformed Mission Church in Columbia, Missouri. I accepted their call and was installed as their pastor in January of 2021. The Louisville church plant continues to be an outpost for the gospel under the leadership of the Great Lakes Gulf Presbytery.
Giving Thanks
I give thanks to the Lord as He has used many people to bring me to this place in my life. Cynthia, my loving and supporting wife of 36 years, has been a great encouragement to me all along the way. My pastor, Andy McCracken, and the session of the Columbus RPC were instrumental in discipling me. The RPTS faculty and the elders of the Great Lakes Gulf Presbytery have also been a tremendous help in preparing me to be a pastor. To God be the Glory.
Gary McNamee is the happy husband of Cynthia (for 36 years), and the glad father of Taylor (34), AnnaGrace (33), and McCheyne (19). He enjoys every moment he can get with his four grandchildren, Mackenzie (7), Roman (7), Logan (5), and Ezra (8 months). Gary also enjoys fishing and golfing, even though he is not very good at either one!
Editor’s note: This article is Part Two of Two. To read about how Grace Reformed Church came to call Pastor McNamee, see Part One.
