wfn.org | Division Committee Chair John McFayden:

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

17-February-1998 
98051 
 
    Division Committee Chair John McFayden: 
     A Driven - Uh, Driving Man 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-He's a self-affirmed Corvette nut and a biker of the 
Harley-Davidson persuasion, but it's his call as a Presbyterian pastor that 
really drives Dr. John G. McFayden, chair of the Congregational Ministries 
Division (CMD) Committee. 
 
    McFayden, who was elected to the GAC in 1996, is former chair of the 
division's Stewardship Program Area subcommittee. He also chaired the GAC's 
Task Group on Special Offerings from 1994 to 1996. McFayden was a 
commissioner to the 1993 Assembly in Orlando, Fla., where he was appointed 
to the Stewardship and Communication Committee. 
 
    McFayden, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Arlington 
Heights, Ill., accepted the call there on Jan. 1 of this year. Prior to 
that, he served as pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Dale City, 
Va. Elected as CMD Committee chair last year prior to the 209th General 
Assembly (1997), McFayden said his role as leader of the division committee 
parallels his new arrival at First Presbyterian Church in many ways. 
 
    "There are a lot of new challenges," McFayden told the Presbyterian 
News Service. "Fortunately, this is a great committee and staff who really 
make the job enjoyable and not too difficult most of the time." 
 
    A native of Raleigh, N.C., McFayden was a member of First Presbyterian 
Church there all of his young life. He left Raleigh to attend the 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1978. During his 
years at Chapel Hill, McFayden attended University Presbyterian Church. 
 
    He was ordained after graduating in 1981 from Princeton Theological 
Seminary.  His first pastorate was a  "yoked" one which lasted three years 
at the Cove and Rockfish Presbyterian churches in the mountains of Virginia 
outside of Charlottesville. 
 
    After leaving there in the summer of 1984, McFayden moved to the 
Washington, D.C. area (National Capital Presbytery) where he served for 
nine years as pastor of Camp Springs Presbyterian Church in Camp Springs, 
Md. In 1993, he was called to First United Presbyterian Church in Dale 
City, Va. approximately 25 miles away, serving there four years. 
 
    "I left (Dale City) sooner than I ever anticipated I would," McFayden 
said. "But the call came from Arlington Heights and the conviction of the 
people there who encouraged me to come as their pastor was compelling." 
 
    McFayden has a wife, Laurel, and a teenage son, Chris, from a previous 
marriage. He said Laurel is an accomplished musician who has served in the 
U.S. Army and is currently stationed in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Air 
Force where she is director of the Air Force band "High Flight." McFayden 
said his wife plans to retire soon and join him in Arlington Heights next 
summer. 
 
    And what of his vehicles? McFayden's always been interested in sports 
cars and bikes and is the proud owner of  three American motoring icons - a 
1996 Corvette Coupe, a 1993 Harley-Davidson customized soft-tail and a 1997 
Harley Electra-Glide. 
 
    "People in my congregations have tended to respond very positively to 
(my vehicular enthusiasms) and I have perceived that it's made me real in 
their perception, accessible, down- to-earth if you will," McFayden said. 
"And, at the same time, it has provided some opportunity for me to have an 
interest that gets me away from the church and out doing something totally 
different, something not usually associated with being a Presbyterian 
pastor." 

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