Pastor Dave Dorst

Pastor Dave is originally from Pittsburgh, PA and is an avid Steelers fan.  He and Ann have a "Steeler Room" in their home full of memorabilia from the Superbowl teams.  He played baseball and basketball in high school and baseball at the University of Pittsburgh.  After graduating from Pitt as a History of Religion major, he attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and earned a Masters in Divinity, magna cum laude.  He was ordained to the gospel ministry May 14, 1972.  He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1989 and his thesis was, "The Sermon Support Group:  Partners in Developing and Evaluating Preaching."  In addition to that "book," Dave's major effort, "A Year With the New Testament," is being published by White Blackbird Books, with volume 2 due in May, 2021.

Dave and Ann celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary July 5, 2019.  They have served Presbyterian congregations in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Ohio and Georgia over the past 50+ years.  Dave began as a youth pastor and in 13 years of youth ministry saw more than 30 of his students go on to become pastors or missionaries.  As a senior pastor, he has been blessed to see congregations grow in numbers and in numbers of disciples earnestly seeking the Lord's calling on their lives.

Dave and Ann have 3 sons:  Dave Jr. and Jonathan are Presbyterian pastors and Josh is a member of Grace, where he and his dad have led a "Movies With a Message" ministry.  The Dorsts have 6 godly grandchildren:  in Tulsa, OK and Middletown, DE.  Dave and Ann love to play golf and just about any board game know to man.  Ann is a well-known Chocaholic (that's not a Presbyterian denomination)!

Associate Pastor of Congregational Care:

Married to Jillian nee Hoogendoorn and blessed with three daughters and eight grandchildren. Pastor John was born & raised in Nova Scotia Canada where he received his BA degree from St Francis Xavier Univ. in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.  He then attended Faculty of Religious Studies and Presbyterian College in Montreal, Quebec from where he received his Bachelor of Theology and Master of Divinity. 

He served as an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for 39 years while also serving for 10 years as Padre to the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves.  

He pastored several congregations throughout Canada, The Bahamas and Bermuda.

He retired from fulltime active ministry in 2015, and is full time resident of the USA living in Leesburg, Fl.  He is now starting again at Grace EPC as Associate Pastor of Congregational Care.

The verse that Rick, and his wife, would use to describe his life would be Proverbs 16:9; “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Rick was born and raised in a small town in northeastern PA. He married his wife in 1976 and raised 2 sons there. From his early teens on, he was always active in serving the Lord in many capacities and his calling to be a pastor came later in life. His working career started with racing motorcycles but ended early with an injury. Later in life, he taught motorcycle safety courses. He worked at a sign company and went on to open his own sign company in 1984, which his oldest son runs to this day. He was called to be a pastor after his sons were raised and married. He attended Baptist Bible College (Clarks Summit University), Practical Bible College (Davis College) and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.  He was called by God to Silver Lake Presbyterian Church as their pastor in 2008. He served there 11.5 years. God also allowed him to be part of the process of leading SLCCC out of PCUSA and into EPC. This brings us up to the present when he thought he was coming to Florida to retire in the warm weather. Many times he has been asked “what brought you to Leesburg?” His answer, “God” of course. And until he walked into Grace EPC, God let him know that he wasn’t ready for him to totally retire, but, once again wants him to continue to serve him.  

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”