New Interim Pastor Named

Dear FPC Dalton Members,

The Interim Search Committee, comprised of members of the Staff Team, has proposed and the Session has approved the hiring of The Rev. Dr. Kenneth B. McKenzie as our Interim Pastor. He will assume his duties Thanksgiving Week on Monday, November 21, 2022.

He is no stranger to our church. In the summer of 2021, while the Rev. Will Scott was on sabbatical, Ken filled our pulpit for two consecutive weeks with The Word, wisdom and warmth. Ken’s wife, Vicki, considers Dalton her hometown.  Her father, Joe Davis, was principal of Dalton High School during the construction of and move to the Dalton High School campus on Manly Street in 1976. Vicki grew up here!  But even closer to our church, Ken and Vicki were married at First Presbyterian Church, Dalton in 1978!  So, they really are just coming back home.

The role of an Interim Pastor in a Presbyterian Church (USA) is more involved than holding worship services and meeting with the Session and various Sessional Committees.  The interim pastor is trained to lead the congregation and staff through self-examination of the church to evaluate the past and plan for the future. This helps the congregation to define its priorities as well as the desired characteristics of the pastor they will call.

Dr. McKenzie is an Atlanta native and a graduate of the University of Georgia and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.

The retired Presbyterian minister has served Georgia parishes in Atlanta, Bainbridge, Rome, Pooler, Savannah, and Rockmart as well as his first parish in Greensboro, NC. He also served as General Presbyter for the Savannah Presbytery, headquartered in Brunswick, Ga.

Ken retired as a Clinical Trauma Chaplain at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah in 2019.

The McKenzies have two grown sons, Mac and Ian.  Ken says both young men live “close enough to join them in an emergency but too far away to come and cut the grass!” Maybe that’s why Ken says he and Vicki enjoy working in their yard and volunteering at Faith Presbyterian Church and the Blue Ridge Arts Association in their retirement hometown of Blue Ridge, Ga.

We look forward to welcoming Ken and Vicki back to Dalton and encourage you to get to know them better as we continue to move forward as a strong and serving church!

Thanks be to God for leading us to Ken McKenzie and Ken to us.  Thanks also to the Staff Team which pored through dozens of applications from around to country to select and recommend to the Session Ken McKenzie.

Walter Jones and Dick Neelly, Bridge Pastors