Rev. Shandon Klein, Senior Pastor
Pastor Shandon is a commissioned Elder in the United Methodist Church serving as senior pastor of Breckenridge United Methodist Church (Breckenridge, MN) and Fairmount United Methodist Church (Fairmount, ND) starting July 2024. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate at Southern Methodist University studying Religious Ethics in the Graduate Program for Religious Studies. In addition to having served as a lay delegate to General Conference in the UMC for the North Texas Annual Conference, she currently serves as student representative for the Board of the Society of Christian Ethics. Her research involves studying how lived theology may shape the conception of resistance and control for those who self-identify as political activists, alongside the ethical frameworks that surround those conceptions. As a womanist theological ethicist, she has a passion for bridging the gap between the “ivory towers” of the Academy and the living out of faith in Christian communities, a passion she continues to nurture in her doctoral studies.
Family
I am married to the love of my life, Shane Klein. Believe it or not, we have been together for over 24 years. We were high school sweethearts! Shane and I live with our three wonderful fur babies: Jax, our sweet 8-year-old Rottweiler son; Harley, our goofy 7-year-old Great Dane daughter; and Doug, our oldest 12-year-old tabby cat son who rules the roost. I also consider my congregants, my friends, and my colleagues to be a part of my extended family and look forward to adding you all to that number!
I am married to the love of my life, Shane Klein. Believe it or not, we have been together for over 24 years. We were high school sweethearts! Shane and I live with our three wonderful fur babies: Jax, our sweet 8-year-old Rottweiler son; Harley, our goofy 7-year-old Great Dane daughter; and Doug, our oldest 12-year-old tabby cat son who rules the roost. I also consider my congregants, my friends, and my colleagues to be a part of my extended family and look forward to adding you all to that number!
We are called as Christ’s holy church to focus not only on our own personal relationship with God, but also on social holiness: rejecting evil, injustice, and oppression wherever and whenever it presents itself.
My Vision for the Church
From antiquity to the present, the nature of the church has been much more than a building, a place, or a time. The church is the body of Christ encompassing the multitude of Jesus’s followers empowered by the Holy Spirit. As a collective people, led by Christ as its savior, redeemer, and leader, I envision a Revelation 7:9 church that reflects the world’s diversity and helps the world towards healing, love, and wholeness instead of its current division.
This vision of the church leads me to be in spaces that may have differing theological or demographic backgrounds than my own in efforts to help facilitate such healing and reconciliation towards that end. I believe the church is ultimately a lab where we can practice loving God, each other, and ourselves to share that love with the world around us in bold, radical ways! In his journals, John Wesley spoke of a “serious man’s” reminder to him, “You wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember you cannot serve [God] alone. You must, therefore, find companions or make them. The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” We are called as Christ’s holy church to focus not only on our own personal relationship with God, but also on social holiness: rejecting evil, injustice, and oppression wherever and whenever it presents itself. We cannot do this by ourselves alone, but together, with the grace and power of God, we can move mountains!
From antiquity to the present, the nature of the church has been much more than a building, a place, or a time. The church is the body of Christ encompassing the multitude of Jesus’s followers empowered by the Holy Spirit. As a collective people, led by Christ as its savior, redeemer, and leader, I envision a Revelation 7:9 church that reflects the world’s diversity and helps the world towards healing, love, and wholeness instead of its current division.
This vision of the church leads me to be in spaces that may have differing theological or demographic backgrounds than my own in efforts to help facilitate such healing and reconciliation towards that end. I believe the church is ultimately a lab where we can practice loving God, each other, and ourselves to share that love with the world around us in bold, radical ways! In his journals, John Wesley spoke of a “serious man’s” reminder to him, “You wish to serve God and go to heaven. Remember you cannot serve [God] alone. You must, therefore, find companions or make them. The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” We are called as Christ’s holy church to focus not only on our own personal relationship with God, but also on social holiness: rejecting evil, injustice, and oppression wherever and whenever it presents itself. We cannot do this by ourselves alone, but together, with the grace and power of God, we can move mountains!
Have faith questions? Are you curious about a deeper relationship with Christ or what joining a church is like? Contact Pastor Shandon at pastorshandonklein(at)gmail.com.