Rev. Joseph M. Gastiger
Pastor

E-Mail Joe at:
joegastiger@hotmail.com

Joe entered Chicago Theological Seminary in January of 1998 and graduated in August of 2000. Joe worked at First Congregational UCC as a Student In-Care of the Prairie Association during his studies, and was mentored by Rev. William Moore, Rev. Jane Ann Moore, and Rev. Robert Meissner.

Joe was baptized and confirmed at Saint Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in Westbury, NY, where he grew up. He completed his undergraduate work at S.U.N.Y Stony Brook and at the University of Iowa, and then attended Colorado State University for graduate studies. He came to DeKalb in 1980 to teach English at Northern Illinois University, where he later earned his doctorate.

He met his wife Jean, a nurse practitioner at NIU’s Health Services, through a mutual friend and they married in 1982. They have one teenage son, Michael.

The Gastigers joined First Congregational UCC in July of 1994, when Joe noted that he was "led to this church by [his] son, Michael, whose own spiritual questions—which came up while he was playing with toys, or while [he] and Jean would read to him at night—whose own innocent and profound questions had reawakened deeply felt concerns" in Joe. He turned into ministry as a quest for a greater challenge in life and a growing interest to learn more about Christianity and the Bible.

As Pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ, Joe says he would "like to do whatever we can, in big and small ways, to learn to live in the Kingdom of God, in the ways we look after each other and look out for each other."

We certainly feel blessed to have Joe Gastiger as our Pastor, and we look forward to many exciting years together in ministry.