For the past couple of years, the pastor at Elgin United Methodist Church (EUMC) has been Glen Loy. But after he announced his retirement, it was unsure who would be taking over his duties as the pastor. Luckily, the position has been filled by someone who is quite familiar with Elgin already.
Glen Loy’s son, Brian Loy, is now the pastor at Elgin United Methodist Church.
Loy, 58, grew up in O’Neill and his father was the pastor there from 1976 to 1983. He has two kids, his son being a deputy sheriff and rancher near Kimball, and his daughter who lives in Gering and is a school psychologist. He has five grand children as well.
Before his move to Elgin, he lived in the home he grew up in while he was serving as the pastor in O’Neill for the past three years. While there he was serving four churches. However, for personal reasons he stepped down from two. After his father announced his retirement, knowing how finding pastors can be difficult, he found a way to help us out.
“When they couldn’t find a pastor to come here, I contacted the district superintendent and said ‘Hey, if you don’t have anybody I’d be interested if they work on realigning their worship service.’ And low and behold here I am,” Loy said.
And this is not the first time he has made an appearance in Elgin. “I’ve gotten to know some of the people, had to do a couple of funerals here for Dad when he was in Florida.”
Being a pastor has been something he always wanted to do since high school. “I always admired the work that my father did with people in changing their lives and leading people to change life” Brian said.
So he began his path in becoming a pastor in 1981, but it soon came to a halt once he started pursuing successful business ventures. “After 30 plus years of being successful, I still wasn’t at peace and happy” Brian explained. “And so I found myself on a country road and pulled into a little church, recommitted my life to Christ, and began the ministry track and haven’t looked back.”
His favorite part about being in the ministry has been “seeing people who are lost and hurting come to have a saving grace with Christ.” However, there are also downsides to being in the ministry. “Standing before a family that just lost a loved one, and that was killed in an alcohol-related accident and trying to explain and make sense of that.” For the complete story turn to this weeks edition of the Elgin Review.
