First Presbyterian Church Welcomes New Pastor

The First Presbyterian Church of Cranford is highly active in its community. Whether through their Helen K. Baldwin Nursery program, the Cranford-Elmora soup kitchen volunteers or their 10 a.m. Sunday worship services, the congregation makes its presence known in the Cranford community and keeps busy doing so.

When their pastor and shepherd, Gregory Horn, decided that his calling was with another church in 2010, the FPCC searched and, in 2011, found Reverend John “Chris” Christian Kile, a native of Kingsville, Texas.

Kile’s father’s job with a major chemical company required that the family move from time to time, from Texas to Connecticut to Missouri, finally settling down in Chadds Ford, Pa.

“It wasn’t bad for me,” Kile explains. “You always had to get used to new friends.” However, Kile had an older brother, which helped him from feeling lonely in the new towns.

The stability of the church was also helpful, Kile said. “Church was non-negotiable. We did that every week.”

When Kile was 9-years old, he knew that he would be a pastor.

“It wasn’t really a decision,” he said. However, he wanted to try and make “millions of dollars” before entering a life which he viewed as demanding and poor-paying.

Kile attended Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. and graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1990. While there, he hit a hard patch in his religion.

“That was my church,” he explained about his church in Pennsylvania.

Finding a church by himself, he said, was a daunting task. Religion experienced a charismatic movement in the 1960s, he explained, and Kile was turned off by the religions that claimed to be right and true and even better than others.

“It was (also) a social liability to be religious,” he said. With colleges having a work hard/play hard mentality, it was not “cool” to be religious and Kile fell out with his old spirituality.

He then went on to attend a church in order to participate in its a cappella choir. Little by little, he came to be more tolerant of charismatic churches, though he still resisted the call of being a pastor.

After college, he received a job in sales and marketing. One day, he said, “This isn’t what I really wanted to do… I knew if I was going to do it, I had to go and take that leap.” He attended Princeton Theological Seminary and completed his Masters of Divinity in May 2001.

“I haven’t regretted it,” he comments. Kile does note that the job is demanding. But “there are some wonderful aspects that make up for it.” Attending sacred ceremonies and being part of life-altering events like marriage, birth and even death, he says, is an honor.

After working at churches in Hopewell, N.J. and Ivyland, Pa., Kile decided that he had to move in order to be closer to his 7-year-old son, John Jameson “Jamie” Kile, who lives in Brooklyn. “I always try to remind him that Jesus loves him… that was the first thing that I told him when he was born.”

He then found Cranford. “The people are very warm, very friendly, vibrant,” he explains. He started to minister regularly shortly after Hurricane Irene.

“I was… impressed by the outpouring of love from Cranford and the church,” he said. “They (the church) want to be active Christians… they want to live out their faith.”

As of right now, Kile does not know what he wants to do with the church.

“I don’t have a very well laid-out game plan yet.” He said that for the first two or three years, he will be listening to what the congregation wants and needs, then will proceed to try and help.

In the meantime, he comments how his sermons will be about real-world issues rather than “esoteric” concepts. He wishes to use these sermons to help in everyday lives. With his wedding coming up on Oct. 8, moving into his home and learning more about the ministry, Kile said that he was worn out but excited by the newest part of his life.