New Senior Pastor Appointed at University Park United Methodist
University Park United Methodist Church announced in its email newsletter yesterday that the Rev. Matt Gaston has been appointed its next senior pastor, effective July 1.
It was news to me that the church was in need of a new senior pastor, so I called the current one, the Rev. Leighton Bearden, who assured me that everything was hunky-dory at UPUMC. Bearden is retiring after five years at the Preston Road church — which followed his stints as senior pastor at First United Methodist Church of Rowlett and pastor of First United Methodist Church of Grand Prairie — and he and his wife are planning a move to Colorado.
Gaston is the lead pastor at First United Methodist Church of Denton. He has a degree in economics from Harvard and received his Master of Divinity from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. His wife, the Rev. Cammy Gaston, is the campus minister at the Denton Wesley Foundation. Their son, Blaine, is a junior in high school.
