OUR PASTOR

Rev. Doug Leonard

Rev. Doug Leonard has served as the Lead Pastor of Hopewell Reformed Church since September 2020.  He and his wife Sarah see their ministry as a partnership.  Doug and Sarah have two daughters, Sonja and Chloe.

“Sarah and I approach ministry as a couple.  We have experienced incredible grief.  It is our faith in God, our walk with Christ, our Christian friends and the family of the church that has gotten us through.  At Hopewell, we are all engaged in ministry together.  Life can be hard.  This church is a powerful community of support and care that makes the love of Christ tangible.  We support people in any situation they face, providing a welcoming, loving, non-judgemental place to grow.  We help people to find their way to the peace and joy that awaits them with a life in Christ.”

Doug is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and received his Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2001.  He is trained in pre-marital and couples counseling as well as discipleship and faith development. He loves teaching the Bible, training in discipleship and outreach, and helping seekers and the skeptical to come to a knowledge of the beauty of a life transformed in Christ.

Through his 23 years in ordained ministry, Doug has served two congregations, as Associate Pastor at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City and as the Pastor of the Reformed Church of Cortlandtown in Westchester County.

Doug has a heart for mission. From 2009 to 2016 he served as a missionary with the Reformed Church in America in Oman (Arabian Gulf) where he led the Al Amana Centre for Muslim and Christian Relations.  In Oman he supervised research for the Fulbright scholars program and taught a summer course in religion and peacebuilding at Cambridge University’s faculty of Divinity.  From Oman, he went on to serve as the Director of Global Mission in the Reformed Church in America.

Doug is experienced in diplomacy and handling delicate situations of conflict. He served as the World Council of Churches’ representative to the United Nations in New York where he brought the voice of Christian concerns to advance development, peacebuilding and religious freedom.

Sermon

Sarah serves as the director of residence life at a nearby retirement community and is trained in counseling and geriatric care.

In their spare time, Doug and Sarah enjoy studio arts. Doug is a sculptor and has led congregational projects incorporating the arts with ministry.  Sarah designs mobiles. Doug plays acoustic guitar, sings and loves running and skiing.  They enjoy gardening, hiking and attending classical music events in the Hudson Valley.

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