GreggTownsley.com

My Resume

Gregg E. Townsley, D. Min.
Forest Grove, OR
(503) 348-1066
Gregg@GreggTownsley.com

SUMMARY
A creative, action-oriented leader, communicator and businessman who has demonstrated consistently high levels of performance in the church and community.

RECENT EXPERIENCE
Founder and President, American Family Martial Arts, Inc., Forest Grove, OR 5/01 to 5/08
• Responsible for the vision, marketing and growth of two owner-operated martial arts and fitness studios in Hillsboro and Sherwood, Oregon, featuring “the finest in after-school martial arts and summer camp experiences for children, adult fitness and self-defense systems for women, men, teens and children.”
• Initiated and coordinated more than a dozen satellite programs, serving a diverse population of students in public and private schools, recreation centers, health clubs and apartment houses.
• As Master Instructor and owner of the Sherwood studio with approximately 100 private students, taught as many as forty private lessons a week, supervised six instructors and a front counter person, and interacted with multiple business, chamber, and school district employees. The studio was closed in April 2008.
• As the owner of the Hillsboro studio, I developed Washington County’s first transported after-school and martial arts summer camp program that serviced 13 Beaverton and Hillsboro elementary schools and, in the summer of 2003, featured 14 weeks of summer day camp for elementary age children. I sold the studio in September 2003.

Pastor and Spiritual Teacher for the Faithspring Community, Portland, OR and Carson City, NV 11/01 to 5/08
• Incorporated two part-time independent and progressive Christian fellowships — Portland, in October 2001 and Carson City, in November 2003 — after leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) in order to care more intimately and creatively for people with non-traditional faith experiences.
• Encouraged and cared for as many as 75 people meeting in two states, scheduling local airlines and meeting houses in the same fashion as frontier preachers once utilized schoolhouses and horses.
• Purchased and renovated the former Brooks Hill Free Methodist Church in Portland, empty for three years, begging the assistance of a broad coalition of neighbors and friends, and opening it as the Skyline Community Church. We sold the church building in 2004 to a group of community-minded songwriters and musicians.

Interim Pastoral Team at the United Church of Christ in Forest Grove, OR, 9/06 to 12/07 and 6/07 to 12/07
• Provided leadership, administrative, and motivational support to a medium-sized congregation transitioning from a traditional ministerial staff design to a shared ministry model, consulting specifically with existing pastoral and program staff, Nurture, Worship, Finance and Property, and the Caring Ministry Commissions, preaching twice a month and conducting adult education classes as needed.
• Consulted with conflicted members of the congregation, utilizing specific strategies and micro-skills to solve problems, build community, and increase the spiritual commitment of the congregation.
• Designed and led a successful annual fund experience that resulted in approximately 50 percent of the congregation increasing its pledge, and resourced the church’s moderators and trustees to take a more intentional look at annual and capital funding campaigns.
• Responding to the stated needs of several male congregants, instituted the church’s first casual, off-campus men’s ministry, which currently gathers 15-20 members each month for dinner and wide-ranging conversation.

Senior Pastor and Head of Staff, Valley Community Presbyterian Church, Portland, OR, 11/1994 to 12/2000
• Led the spiritual, programmatic and financial vision of an 1,100-member suburban church, supervising 32 full and part-time staff, increasing the annual revenues of the church to a budget of $1.2 million.
• Initiated significant cross-cultural mission initiatives in Central America, Mexico, Jamaica, El Salvador and Honduras as well as three locations stateside. For example, in 1999 a team of six teenagers and adults bicycled across the United States, raising over $35,000 for a Habitat for Humanity project in Hillsboro.
• Expanded community outreach that enhanced youth and music programs including the creation of the Valley Academy of Performing Arts, the Valley Christian Preschool and a residential-based youth intern program known as the Youth House.
• Opened and encouraged a $4 million master plan, charting the church’s future property and program needs, prior to leaving in the midst of significant personal and professional changes.

Senior Pastor and Head of Staff, First Presbyterian Church, Carson City, NV, 7/1985 to 10/1994
• Successfully completed three capital campaigns in Nevada’s oldest church with 650 members and a 12 member staff.
• Raised over $3 million for operational and capital needs, transforming the congregation’s physical appearance, community interface and mission.
• Constructed a Family Life Center, expanded classroom and fellowship space, purchased a professional office building to house an expanded staff and professional counselors, and forged the unlikely coalition of a savings and loan, a nearby casino and city government to create a “super lot” for public and private parking needs.
• Expanded the church’s volunteer and study opportunities to involve over one-third of the congregation.
• Positioned the church as a significant community center for personal growth by hosting over a dozen AA groups, community study, food and sports programs.

FORMAL EDUCATION
• University of Nevada, Reno, NV (no degree) D. Ed. program in counseling and educational psychology
• Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, PA (D. Min.) Administration and organizational dynamics
• Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA (M. Div.) Communication and professional studies
• Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA (B.S.) Social psychology

CONTINUING EDUCATION
• Nearly 300 hours of training in conflict theory and group leadership with university professors and senior consultants of the Alban Institute
• Served as a faculty assistant at the University of Nevada, training small groups and teaching active listening and influencing micro-skills
• Formerly certified by the Presbyterian Church (USA) as a Conflict Management Consultant
• Have led six trips to Central America for humanitarian relief and study purposes, serving for three years on the board of Mercies Unlimited, an ecumenical relief agency working in rural Honduras
• Seventh-degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate, after 25 years studying physical and non-physical methods of safety and self-defense
• Certified Oregon Unarmed Security Officer

HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS
• 2008 After sporadic writing for various newspapers and religious periodicals, became a regular columnist for the Cowboy Fast Draw Association’s Gunfighter’s Gazette.
• 2002-2004 Featured once in the Sherwood Gazette, twice in the Hillsboro Argus and once in the Beaverton Valley Times, noting our corporation’s community involvement and creative programs for children
• 1996 Featured in a Valley Times cover story, “Black Belt Pastor”
• 1994 Hosted a weekly call-in program on AM radio station KRCV in Reno entitled “Cross Talk”
• 1990-1993 Moderator, Presbytery of Nevada, Presbytery trustee and member of its General Council
• 1989-1993 Founder and President of the Nevada Religious Coalition, who in partnership with Nevada’s Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse trained and organized 10% of the state’s clergy in issues related to substance abuse
• 1986 Named “Outstanding Religious Leader” by the Carson City Jaycees

MEMBERSHIP
• Life Member, Single Action Shooting Society
• Life Member, Cowboy Fast Draw Association
• Founder and President, Oregon Fast Draw, LLC
• Member, Sherwood Chamber of Commerce
• Former member of the Hillsboro Rotary Club and co-chairman of its Rotary Student Exchange Committee
• Former Member, Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce