Harry Long
I’m originally from Chattanooga, TN, where my father, George Long, was the pastor of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church. I met my wife, Mary, at Wheaton College and we were married in 1976. After Mary’s graduation in 1977, I served as youth director at Central Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga for two years before we headed off to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with one child in tow, Davison, and one on the way, Margaret. In 1982, Mary and I came to serve at Sycamore and our third child, James, was born here in 1984. Now all three are grown and married, two live nearby, and have given us the blessing of 9 grandchildren.
I actually find a straight forward, first person bio hard to write. Plain facts are boring, jokes somehow seem inappropriate, accomplishments seem like bragging, difficulties too complex to explain (and failures too painful), our best stories too long to tell, and the central character in a church is not the pastor, anyway, but rather God who makes things quite exciting in his own time and way.
I think you should just come give us a visit, see what God is doing, pull up a chair and study the Bible with us, make friends and be friends. Our greatest needs are not met by the church, but by the God whom we worship, in the Lord Jesus who gave himself for us, and by the Holy Spirit whose power changes us. I think I’d rather talk about Him than me!
