United Methodist Church of Macedonia welcomes new pastor

by Nicole Rosselot

The United Methodist Church of Macedonia welcomed its new senior pastor, Josh Elliott, in July. Elliott’s first worship service was Sunday, July 2, and the congregation held a welcome reception for Elliott, his wife Margo and their three children on Sunday, July 23.

Elliott came to Macedonia from Streetsboro, where he served as pastor at Streetsboro UMC for five years. For the past year, Elliott served as pastor for both Streetsboro UMC and Faith UMC in Twinsburg. He was appointed pastor at UMC Macedonia by Tracy S. Malone, bishop of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Elliott, whose parents were both pastors, first received the calling to pastoral leadership in 8th grade, but didn’t answer until much later.

“I had to blaze my own trail and God led me to different careers in a variety of fields,” he said. “After two or three years, there was this deep sense of restlessness and it wasn’t until I finally accepted the call to ministry that the restlessness was replaced with a deep sense of peace.”

In 2010, Elliott returned to college at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he earned his undergraduate degree as well as his master’s in clinical mental health counseling. During that time, Elliott also served as a student pastor at Riverview United Methodist Church in Toronto. He received his Master of Divinity in 2023 from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

As he begins his ministry at UMC Macedonia, Elliott said he plans to help the church “focus on becoming the church that the community needs us to be … a calm, inviting, loving, safe place.” One way he wants to accomplish this is through mission work ranging from local to international.

According to Elliott, UMC Macedonia supports several missions including a street ministry that distributes free clothing in downtown Cleveland and OPEN M in Akron, a Christian nonprofit  that offers pathways out of poverty.

“My hope during the next year is to acclimate myself to those programs that exist already, see if  we can further bolster those programs and then begin looking for new and relevant ways that we can reach out in other places,” Elliott said.

Though his path to ministry took a slight detour early in life, Elliott said his pastoral career is  rewarding. “I think the most meaningful [part of my job] is the opportunity and the privilege to walk with people through life, experiencing with them their highs, their lows and everything in between,” he said. ∞

Photo: Pastor Josh Elliott. Photo submitted.