Two pastors of two congregations find happiness under one roof

Last modified: Saturday, October 13, 2007 8:16 PM CDT

Two pastors of two congregations find happiness under one roof

Steve and Ann Scott don’t spend Saturday nights like a typical couple.

Their 15-year-old son, Jackson, jokes that most families on Saturday nights get to kick back and munch pizza while watching a movie.

“You guys are both writing sermons,” he told his parents.

That’s because Ann Scott is the pastor at Zion United Methodist Church on 1102 Superior St. in Chippewa Falls, and Steve Scott is the new pastor at the North Presbyterian Church on 1516 Birch St. in Eau Claire.

Two pastors for two congregations of different denominations spend Saturday night under one roof, preparing for a 10:30 a.m. service the next day.

“I didn’t expect in any way to be going into pastoral ministry,” said Ann Scott, who was appointed to serve at the Chippewa Falls church by a United Methodist bishop in July 2006.

“I didn’t see this coming. I figured I’d be a news journalist until I retired,” said Steve Scott, who recently succeeded the late Rev. Gerald Mann at North Presbyterian.

Then there’s their family backgrounds.

Ann Scott, 51, grew up in North Prairie, Wis., in a family where both of her parents were journalists for the then-Milwaukee Journal. Steve Scott, 47, a former journalist for 23 years at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., grew up in a family where his father and three brothers were all pastors.

For a time, Ann worked for professional sports teams while Steve’s job was reporting on professional sports teams.

The couple, who married in January, have four children. Besides Jackson, there’s Lara, 19, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Scott, 26, of Milwaukee, and Jill, 29, of Bloomington, Ill.

Ann and Steve Scott met while attending classes at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. “Ann was a full-time seminary student,” Steve Scott explained. “I was just taking classes because I thought it was fun.”

He had joined the Pioneer Press in 1983, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and working for the Leader-Telegram for three years. At the St. Paul newspaper he became the deputy sports editor, and later served as the religion editor for five years.

Ann Scott had graduated from Mount Mary College in Milwaukee. She did lay work in Christian education and worked for non-profit organizations. She also worked for a professional soccer team, the Milwaukee Wave, and was an assistant to a general manager of a now-defunct indoor football team, the Milwaukee Mustangs. “It was a fun job,” she said.

She met Steve Scott at the seminary in 2004, the same year she graduated with a Masters of Divinity degree.

Falling in love wasn’t in the plans. “Seminary is not the place to go to meet a husband,” she said.

But, in this case, it was.

“It was amazing to me when I met somebody who got me,” she said. “He understood what I was passionate about and seemed to share my love of theology.”

For awhile, the couple carried on a long-distance relationship. Ann Scott was living outside of Racine, in Franksville, working at a church there. Steve Scott continued to work at the Pioneer Press.

Then Ann Scott was appointed to be the pastor at Zion United Methodist., which has a 180-member congregation.

“This is like home,” Steve Scott said. “I never foresaw being able to move back home.”

Last November, a downturn in business led the Pioneer Press to offer a buyout to its senior reporters. Steve Scott had spent half of his adult life at the newspaper. He assumed he would stay there until Jackson graduated from high school in 2010. But this was the right time for him to make a change in his life.

“The buyout gave me a chance to do this,” he said.

So he began taking seminary classes again, this time at the United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities. And he joined his future wife’s church in Chippewa Falls, where he was warmly accepted by the congregation.

Then in June came the untimely death of Mann, who was well-known in Chippewa Falls for providing pastoral care for several years at what was called Lakeside Nursing and Rehabilitation.

“When he died, there was a pastoral void,” Steve Scott said.

He had been doing work part-time for the Eau Claire church, even though he is still in the process of becoming a United Methodist pastor. The word “pastor” follows his name, instead of precedes it, showing that he has not completed his seminary studies.

The position at North was offered to Steve Scott for at least a year, and he happily accepted.

So now he says he has three half-time jobs: his work at North Presbyterian Church, his seminary studying and his free-lance journalist work.

He says there are compelling reasons to go into the ministry. “It’s just a way of being that resonates with who you are.”

Ann Scott said she is doing what she is called to do. “I have a partner in that,” she said.

Churches are wonderful communities, and both Zion United Methodist and North Presbyterian are wonderful, Steve Scott said.

“We’re doubly blessed,” he said.