Lake Fellow in Parish Ministry

317-726-5426 | BDavison@SecondChurch.org

Ben was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio and is a graduate of Hope College and Duke Divinity School. From a very young age, Ben discerned a call to ministry with the help of many of his teachers and mentors, but was unsure of what that call would specifically entail. In college he was gifted with the friendship of a local pastor who placed a fire in his bones and a deep desire to teach and shepherd the church. He developed a conviction to lead the church through prayerfully submitting to Scripture, inviting the church into a deeper sacramental imagination, and joyfully serving the needs and aches of the world.

Looking back at his call to ministry, Ben understands his call to be grace and gift all the way through. Throughout seminary, he worked at three different churches which were drastically different in size and culture. In his two summer internships he respectively served a small Presbyterian church in Mount Airy, NC and a larger Presbyterian church in North Palm Beach, FL. He also interned at his home church, Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church, during his second and third years of seminary in Durham, NC.

Throughout his three years of seminary, Ben was given the gift of living in a community of people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Living alongside those who exist at the margins of society stirred a desire in Ben to create welcoming spaces of worship where the gifts of all people are celebrated. This community continues to stir his imagination for what the church could be as we seek live as people who belong to God and one another. Always excited to explore the new thing that God is doing in our world, Ben has committed himself to interfaith conversations and especially to the strange and beautiful work of Christian-Muslim dialogues. He joyfully embraces the mysterious and creative work of proclaiming the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in our ever changing world.