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Keith is a native Georgian born in Atlanta, the youngest of three children. Keith grew up surrounded by the influence of a strong faith. Church, Keith says, was like a second home.
Keith can’t remember a specific time when he became aware of God’s call on his life. He simply knew that the Sovereign Lord would lead him where He wanted and that Keith would follow.
In the beginning, Keith followed God right into a Roswell Street Car Wash. Working there throughout High School was a “great time!” It gave Keith the knowledge that he would always want to work with people and be in a place where God could use relationships to bring glory to Himself.
During college, Keith was led to partner with another student and a small campus ministry called “Off the Wall” was born. Together, Keith and Aaron Slaten began traveling the local area speaking to youth about the love God has for them. Naturally, the ministry was blessed and God led Keith to the attention of First Presbyterian Church!
Learning about “Off the Wall” ministries, an FPC congregant suggested the Youth office contact the two young men and secure them for an upcoming Youth Retreat. After experiencing the passion exemplified by Keith and Aaron, FPC (in need of two Youth Assistants) hired both of them!
Keith began working at FPC in 2000, the same year that he married Amy Strickland, backstage manager of a youth conference at which Keith was speaking. Keith and Amy are now expecting their first child in early Fall 2007.
In 2002, Keith graduated from Kennesaw State College with a Sports Management degree. He readily admits that his reticence to be “in school” was used by God to direct Keith toward Sports Management. Not only did it shorten his time at Kennesaw, but it also provided a background education for Youth Ministry! Managing the financial, logistical and volunteer staff of an enormous, recreational youth ministry requires many of the skills he obtained in pursuit of his degree.
Keith’s evolving call to Youth Ministry has been confirmed again and again as God has led the Youth program at FPC. Youth from around the county come to experience the love of our many adult volunteers and our amazing leadership in Keith Gunter. Keith believes that a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ begins with relational ministry in which kids are called to action, service, worship, joy and celebration!
“I love seeing people ‘get it,” he says and today, Keith knows that God has led him to Seminary. Sponsored by FPC, Keith began Columbia Theological Seminary in 2003 and graduated May 19, 2007. Keith was nominated and elected to serve as Associate Pastor of Youth on August 19, 2007. He will be ordained on September 16, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary.
Sense of Call to First Presbyterian Church of Marietta
I have felt the call to youth ministry and to exploring new avenues of worship throughout my studies at Columbia Seminary. Over the past couple of years I have grown in ministry and have been renewed to the body of Christ and the community of First Presbyterian Church of Marietta. Transitioning to becoming the ordained Associate Pastor of Youth enables me to explore a wider breadth of the church while continuing to validate my call to youth ministry. The community of Marietta and Cobb County provides an opportunity for mission and discipleship within the structure of the family. Exploring ways in which the church can be balanced in ministry and in purpose with the whole family provides me with an exciting challenge at First Presbyterian Church. The opportunity to serve in this capacity has been affirmed as I have tried so hard to avoid this call and found God leading more and more to this opportunity.
Initially, I hope to strengthen the theological depth of youth ministry as a whole. The church needs to challenge our children and further their conversations around their understanding of faith. Once we as a community move beyond youth ministry as something we should do but rather as something we believe as essential to strengthen the foundation of church, then we can experience a fuller picture of the body of Christ. At the same time, I feel it is my call to help link the youth ministry back into the context of the whole church. It is becoming a greater battle to unite the church as one amongst its own ministries. Our theology calls us to connect all generations under one banner and one worship to our living savior.
It is my hope that I can use this passion as a cautious guide in shaping the use of my gifts in ministry. I love to communicate the passion verbally. This tremendous responsibility of communicating the message and specifically the Gospel is often overwhelming with its power. I pray to remain humble in this role that I may be led to point away from me but to Christ alone. It is my hope to come up with fresh and creative ways to experience the love of God found in Christ Jesus. Being able to explore this in worship during the new 4th service at First Marietta provides an avenue unique to the call that God has placed on me in ministry. Finally, I believe God is not done with me at First Presbyterian Marietta so I seek only to be obedient to His call on my life.
Journey of Faith
I guess the best way to begin talking about my journey thus far is to understand where I have been. As the pesky youngest of three, I followed my father (a Presbyterian pastor) around the church as much as I could. I guess you could say it was natural that my baptism, where I was named after one of my father’s Columbia Seminary professors, would lead me to this process of ordination. I have been connected at all times to my faith. Admittedly, the connection has been thin at times but at all times there has been an unseen hand guiding me. Eventually, various relationships and defining moments have shaped my understanding of who I am in Christ to lead me to where I am today. Defining moments such as worship in Anderson auditorium at a Montreat Youth Conference have provided stepping-stones which challenged and strengthened my faith. Meanwhile, there were Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and those who truly sought to live an example of Christ’s servant love in my life that helped me grow and develop in my relationship with Jesus Christ. It is by these critical models in my life that I now hope to imitate for others.
The church, in its own unique way, has provided a sanctuary for exploring and growing while keeping me rooted to God’s word. Working very close with a small church in Blairsville, GA gave me an opportunity to find my own identity in the community. Meanwhile, I was always able to return to the church where I grew up to find a family the deeply cared for me. Maybe there were times I attended simply out of the sense that it was something I should do, but I now understand that sense to be the Spirit of God graciously preparing and shaping my life.
My wife and I have been married for almost 7 years. Our life together has shown me the beauty of love and the mystery of forgiveness without bounds. I believe marriage to be an act in which both are drawn closer to God. I don’t believe I will fully know how this happens, but I know it continues to show me a greater and more beautiful picture of God. We begin each day in our reading room that serves as our space for prayer and personal study in the Word. This personal study, which is critical for my day, serves as the core time of my day that intimately connects me to Jesus Christ and the living Word. The absence of this time on any day leaves me feeling disconnected and off rhythm.
Today, the church continues to be a safe place to explore while being cared for by the body of Christ. More then ever, I am excited about a church that is being renewed by the love of Christ. Working as the Youth Director at First Presbyterian Church of Marietta while obtaining my Masters of Divinity allowed me the unique opportunity to immediately explore what was being discussed in the classroom to the ministry I was leading. Though putting theory into practical use often frustrated me, it did challenge me to ask questions and take a new look at my understanding of ministry. Working with the students has kept me grounded to authenticity and the necessity of being pastoral even over being a friend. I look forward to the transition to ordained ministry as a time of wonderful discovery.
Theological Statement
I believe in the Triune God. As expressed as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit there is an intrinsic and extrinsic relationship desired for God’s people. The triune God is the God who is, who was, and is to come. In this we find peace in knowing God was and is triumphant. Thus, we wait in eager expectation in God who is to come and reign again. The desired relationship is both individual and communal. This relational understanding is most evidently found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as fully human and fully God demonstrated love, justice, and grace as an act of compassion to a broken world.
I believe that we are called to live fully in the mission of Jesus Christ who is alive and active in our communities today. The church as the bride and the body of Christ works as a transformative and counter cultural force in our world. Through the message of salvation in Jesus Christ and its demonstration of compassion to the world, the church serves as the essential demonstration of God’s presence in our lives. Guided by the Holy Spirit, as our counselor, the church serves to create the kingdom of heaven here and now. In this, we are shaped by God’s Word found in scripture that is proclaimed in our community. Scripture is “God breathed” and fundamental in teaching us how we are to live and interact as faithful disciples. By this we learn to trust in the love of the one who desires to set us free from our blindness and entanglement in sin.
I believe that sin, which separates us from God, deserves death. We cannot escape this death by our own power, but we worship a God who by grace has conquered death for us. Sin as an act and condition in our lives entangles us from fully experiencing God’s call on our lives. Only by Christ can we find faith and hope that does not disappoint us. And as we see more and more each day of the reality found only in Christ we respond in repentance and with thanksgiving. Therefore, our individual and corporate worship seeks to fully express our love of God in mind, body, and heart. Our worship is to express glory to God alone. Our worship is not inherently for us but is focused to and for the glory of our Lord.
I believe we will never fully grasp who God is and we will not fully know until that Day what God’s plan is for God’s people. This beautiful mystery is what reminds, heals, convicts, and restores us on a daily basis. Living into this unknown gathers us in faith to a benevolent and sovereign God. Claiming this sovereignty finds its culmination in our lives in the Sabbath that reminds me to rest knowing that God is God, and I am not, and in this I live in great joy in love with the One who loved us first. |
, Associate Pastor 
