Maranatha Brethren Church of Hagerstown, Maryland, this past Wednesday extended a unanimous call to Dan Thornton (pictured) of Soldotna, Alaska, to be its executive pastor. Thornton has accepted the call and he and his wife, Sue, are moving forward with selling the family‘s Alaska home and plan to move to Hagerstown in early summer.
Thornton said, “We’re impressed with the Maranatha church leadership. My title will be Executive Pastor, with a role that is becoming increasingly common, providing overall ministry leadership and training, while sharing the pulpit with two other excellent preachers.
“Ron Shank was youth pastor at Maranatha for over 20 years. He is currently chaplain at Brook Lane Mental Health (brooklane.org). John Miller previously led another church in Hagerstown and is currently a missionary with Churches in Missions (churchesinmissions.org). John and Ron have done a great ministry of preaching and providing pastoral leadership for Maranatha during this interim. The three of us will share the preaching responsibility for the church.
“Josh Fretz (son of former pastor Jay Fretz) is doing a great job as Youth Pastor.”
Thornton came to Peninsula Grace Brethren Church of Soldotna in 1986 as Pastor of Worship and Administration, becoming Senior Pastor in 1989, serving until 2007.