Jon Greenstone has been called to serve as Pastor for the congregation at Elias Lutheran Church in Emmitsburg. Pastor Jon currently resides in Gettysburg with his wife Suse. The Greenstones will be moving into the Elias church parsonage in early November.

Pastor Jon was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Brookeville, Maryland. Jon is the second to youngest from a family of five children. Jon’s parents, Reynold and Carolyn Greenstone continue to reside in Brookeville. After graduating from high school Jon began a greenhouse and truck farming business. He grew flowers and vegetables and sold them at farmers markets in and around the D.C. Metro area. Farming has been a life long labor of love for both Jon and Suse, in fact, they met through their mutual interests in farming and gardening. Jon and Suse have been married since 1982.

For their first four years together they farmed the land at Dayspring Church Farm in Germantown, Maryland. Jon describes this experience as a strong influence on his call to the ordained ministry. “It may sound strange, but my call originated from working with the land and working with people.” Jon says that during those farming years at Dayspring “we got a unique sense of what it means to be the community of Christ. Even though we were a ‘for profit’ business, people also knew that we stood for justice and sought to serve all people equally through growing healthy fruits and vegetables and making the produce available in many neighborhoods where the stores had closed, there was a message in the way we treated people and the land.”

Jon and Suse continue to love to grow things and teach gardening skills to inmates at the Adams County Prison through a program that Suse coordinates known as the “Seeds to Success" Life Skills program. Suse also coordinates a small market know as the Seeds to Success Farm Market, which is located at the South Central Community Action Programs in Gettysburg, PA. Suse is also director of the Just Community Foods Program.

While at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Jon focused on the town and country ministry program known as the Town and Country Church Institute. Jon says that “when you go through this program you learn how to ‘read’ the fabric and the landscape of small town churches and rural peoples -- you get to know what their struggles are and what they value from their church and community.”

During his course of studies Pastor Jon worked with a number of small family farmers who were interested in establishing direct markets for their farm products. Jon found it very interesting to work with the Mennonite families up around Newville. “Seeing the connection between our small family farms remaining viable and preserving God’s creation became a great challenge to me and I worked to help several of these families promote their products. Suse and I especially appreciate getting farm raised chickens for the freezer and the lean beef from grass fed steers.

In terms of his ministry goals with Elias Lutheran Church here in Emmitsburg, Jon looks forward to getting to know the congregation over the next several months and then beginning to reach out into the community. “With Elias’ strong tradition of church suppers, good fellowship, and extensive history, I think that we are in an exciting position to welcome new families into the parish.”

Jon hopes that new residents who have recently moved to the Emmitsburg area will want to find a spiritual home at Elias. “Being Christ’s church in this place is a great responsibility, we have to continually welcome our new neighbors and introduce them to who we are while also listening and learning about who they are and together, find our unity in the one faith.” Pastor Jon is also excited about the Emmitsburg Council of Churches and looks forward to working with the clergy in the area.

You can contact Pastor Jon at jsgreenstone@verizon.net