Pastor Matthew D. Riley recently began his appointment as Pastor of
the Dingmans Ferry United Methodist Church. The “Little Church In The
Woods” welcomes its new pastor and his family. “Pastor Matt” as he is
already affectionately known said he and his wife Katherine are
thrilled with the opportunity to raise their young daughters, Abigail
(2 years) and Karis (7 months) in such a beautiful natural setting.
“We look forward to the pace-of-life and to growing in a community.”
In July the Methodist church continued its centuries old tradition of
the circuit rider ministry. Pastors in the
Methodist tradition usually serve about five years in a church before
moving on to bring their particular talents to another congregation.
This is Matt’s first appointment as a pastor but he has already
accumulated many talents. After spending his entire childhood in
Keyport, New Jersey he was off to Nyack College in Nyack, New York
where he obtained a BA in History as a member of the Honors Program.
It was during his junior year at Nyack that he met Katherine. She was
born and raised in Bristol, Connecticut. She is working on her
Masters in Counseling from Asbury Theological Seminary. Katherine
also had the opportunity to study at Oxford University during her
college career. They have been married since January of 2005. Matt
has spent the last six years in Wilmore, Kentucky at the Asbury
Theological Seminary working towards his Masters in Divinity. After
growing up near New York City, Wilmore prepared him for the small
town life of Dingmans Ferry. During his time in Kentucky he served as
a Youth Pastor, taught Sunday School and was instrumental in such
youth events as the “30 Hour Famine”. All the while he was paying the
bills with secular jobs as a waiter at Friendly’s, shipping packages
at UPS and installing alarm systems. Between church and work he still
found time to both organize and participate in intramural sports. He
is hoping to start an inter-church softball competition in Pike County.
At 28, Matt has been involved in the Methodist Church his whole life;
you could say it’s in his blood. His grandfather, Norman Riley, was a
Methodist pastor serving at St. John’s in Hazlet, New Jersey. It was
at this church that he learned about service. He did a lot of
pastoral volunteer work such as hospital and shut-in visitations. He
preached many times during Sunday worship services not only at St.
Johns but at four other Central NJ churches. He led a Bible study and
began taking Junior High youth on shut-in visitations. As a member of
the Manhattan Gospel Team, a ministry of Nyack College, in New York
City, he helped bring the gospel to the children of the Smith
Projects in Manhattan. He continues his relationships with some of
those children to this day. He says, “My family brought me up in the
church and instilled a great tradition of faith in Jesus Christ. In
college I began a journey in which God made my faith my own as I was
touched by grace not as a child of a Christian but as a Christian
myself.”
Pastor Matt loves to travel and has been to every state on the
Eastern Seaboard as well as Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Kentucky, W.
Virginia and California. He has also been abroad to Ukraine, Poland,
Germany, Canada, England, France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Ireland. He
would love to see Ireland again as well as Italy, Israel, and India.
Matt’s parents still live in his childhood home. His mother is the
manager of his father’s office. His dad is a Christian clinical
psychologist. He has two older sisters who both work in early
intervention programs in New Jersey.
Pastor Matt hit the ground running at DFUMC. He was at the hospital
visiting church members before his appointment even began. It is
clear that this is going to be an excellent fit for both the Riley
family and for the church. The congregation has already adopted the
Riley girls as their own and looks forward to watching them grow up
with their parents here in Dingmans Ferry. Services are on Sunday at
9 and 10:30AM if you would like to come and meet the new Pastor for
yourself.