New pastor James Kessler at North Shore Community Church

James Kessler clearly saw the path that lay before him when he was a teenager. But his ambition to be a man of God was not shared by his family members. They were poor, and moved often, but Kessler, who described himself as a serious and deep thinker, held on to something solid, his faith.

“I was always religious as a kid, finding aspects of mass mysterious,” Kessler, 44, said. “The otherworldly appealed to me. I felt a call in my life to serve people, dig into the Bible and make it understandable to people.”

Kessler has now brought his devotion and commitment to God to Oyster Bay. He became the new pastor at North Shore Community Church on Nov. 15, replacing John Yenchko, who served the church for 20 years.

“James is a wonderful man and has a great heart,” Yenchko said. “He will be a blessing to our community.”

Raised Catholic, Kessler was fascinated by the Church as a youth and comfortable there, but attended Mass infrequently. When he was old enough to go to church on his own, he visited churches of different faiths with his friends.

“My first real religious experience was with an old psalms and prayers collection,” Kessler recalled. “Having something old and solid and sacred appealed to me. It drove me to understand more.”

His friends had typical growing-up issues, he said, but his life was different because he could connect with the church. He didn’t experience teenage angst, he said, but he didn’t feel different or like an outsider. He believed his interest in God was worth investigating, and he wanted to learn more.

Kessler enrolled in Covenant College, in Georgia, where he majored in history and English. There he met Laura Childs, whom he married when they were sophomores in 1999. They left Covenant shortly thereafter and enrolled at the University of South Alabama, where Laura attended graduate school, intending to become a physician’s assistant, and James completed his undergraduate degree in 2002. He went on to earn a graduate degree at Covenant Theological Seminary, in St. Louis, in 2005.

Kessler was ordained in January 2006, and became a youth pastor and associate minister at Northwest Presbyterian Church in Dublin, Ohio. He stayed for nine years before leaving to found a church, New City Presbyterian, in Hilliard, Ohio. It closed last June.

“It was young and small and Covid wrecked us,” he said. “There was so much trouble for a small church to handle, and we couldn’t afford to continue.”

Shortly before New City closed, North Shore Community Church formed a committee to search for a new pastor. The arduous process involves meeting candidates and conducting background checks before the congregation votes.

Although Kessler didn’t know Yenchko, they had mutual friends. A former pastor doesn’t play a role in choosing his replacement, but the congregants chose Kessler.

“I declined a couple of times to come to Oyster Bay, because I thought I should stay and help my church,” Kessler said. But after New City closed, he came to the hamlet in August. “They listened online to a lot of my preaching before I got anywhere in the process. And I preached a few times at North Shore, and met some of the congregants before church.”

Kessler said he loves his new position, and living in Oyster Bay. He bought a house three blocks from the church. His daughters, Audrey, 14, is in the 8th grade at Oyster Bay High School and Emmaline, 11, is in the 5th grade at the James H. Vernon School.

“They love the school, and the kids have been incredibly welcoming to them,” Kessler said. “As a parent, you worry. I think my kids needed a smaller school district. Laura has been getting involved there, too.”

His goals, he said, are simple: to serve the church and community well, and to honor Yenchko’s legacy.

“I could not have had a more ideal predecessor,” Kessler said. “John is a wonderful man, with integrity. He gave me a strong pathway to follow.”

The state of the world leads him to believe the church is more necessary than ever. In our culture, he said, people are anxious and exhausted, and there are so many challenges. He is committed to reaching the non-believers.

“My engagement has been to look toward the doubter,” he said. “I want to speak directly to those who are skeptics of the gospel.”

His experiences in Oyster Bay thus far have been positive. People are honest, he said, and willing to talk. And Kessler likes the diversity, with newcomers living alongside families whose roots in the hamlet date back decades.

“The big thing is to understand the different communities in Oyster Bay who haven’t been engaged in the church,” he said. “I go around town to get to know business owners and get to know the people. I love the people here, their straightforward nature. In the Midwest and the South, it can take years to know what someone thinks about something. I’ve felt very welcomed here.”