About Our Minister in Residence Program
The Community Church does not have a permanent minister. Rather, it has developed a unique program whereby retired clergy from the US are typically invited for a period of two months to lead our worship service on Sundays and assist in the spiritual and other short term needs of the congregation during their stay. We provide round trip transportation between San Miguel and the minister and his/her spouse's closest to home international airport, and we provide an apartment for them to live in while they are here.
Currently we have several ministers who have returned one or more times. Our ministers are ordained in various denominations such as: Presbyterian, United Methodist, ELCA (Lutheran), United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalian and others.
We are currently accepting inquiries from potential minister-in-residence for 2027. If you are interested, please click on the Contact Tab to send an inquiry for more information.
Our Current & Future Ministers-in-Residence
The Rev. Steve Winkler
Returning for January & February 2026
In early February 2016, Steve retired from his position as Senior Pastor of the Protestant Community Church of Medford Lakes, New Jersey, and Heather “retired” from her volunteer work as an elementary school guidance counselor working with young people from the mean streets of Camden, New Jersey. Three weeks later the Winklers were on their way to San Miguel de Allende. Fast forward eight years, we find ourselves packing for our sixth trip to San Miguel, and a seventh stint as Minister-in-Residence (once, preaching during the pandemic, from our home in Vermont).
Since our last MIR experience, I have had a wonderful opportunity to share a bridge ministry with a colleague, whose 30-year pastorate overlapped the 20 years I was the pastor of South Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. As the Spirit would have it, our work ended with the arrival of a settled pastor on October 13. During this year, Heather immersed herself in volunteer work at the church and throughout the community. And God’s timing for our impending visit seems impeccable.
We could not have anticipated the blessings our time with the Community Church of SMA would be for the two of us! Four parsonages, two worship sites, a fiftieth wedding anniversary, and countless cherished relationships later…Here we come, again!
Steve is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ. Steve and Heather have been married for 54 years, and have lived and served in S. Royalton, Vermont, and Lima, Ohio, in addition to the aforementioned parishes. They have three children (Jeremiah, Gabriel, and Zoe), and four grandchildren.
The Rev. Brian K. Blount
President Emeritus, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Residence for March and April 2026
Brian K. Blount is President Emeritus of Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC. He was called to this position in 2007, after serving for 15 years as the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Princeton Theological Seminary. He retired in 2023 after 16 years of service.
An M.Div. graduate of Princeton Seminary in 1981, he obtained his B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1978. After graduating from Princeton Seminary, he went on to become the pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia from 1982-1988. William and Mary’s first African-American to receive membership in the Alpha Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society received his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Emory University in 1992. He returned to teach at Princeton Seminary the same year. He served as the president of the Society of Biblical Literature from 2017-2018. He served as the president of the Association of Theological Schools from 2018-2020.
Professor Blount’s primary work has been in the Gospel of Mark, the Book of Revelation and in the area of cultural studies and hermeneutics. He is the sole author of six books.
He lectures widely. He was the 2011 Beecher Lecturer at the Yale Divinity School, Yale University. The author of numerous articles, he also preaches and directs adult education classes in local congregations. He is married, and he and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Joshua and Kaylin.
