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Alaska Missionary Conference

The United Methodist Church

Rev. Tom Telfer and his family come to Alaska with great excitement about the ministry of First United Methodist Church in Fairbanks.  They are no strangers to Alaska with Tom having served as the pastor of Anchor Park United Methodist Church for seven years before returning to the northwest Pacific area of the United States.  He returned to Alaska after having served the United Methodist Church in Madris, Oregon, in the Oregon-Idaho Conference for five years.  Tom serves the First United Methodist Church of Fairbanks with many gifts and with a rich background in ministry.

Tom grew up a big-city kid in Los Angeles playing basketball, football, and volleyball in high school. Four years after high school Tom “earned” a B.A. in Christian Education from Seattle Pacific University while continuing to play basketball and run track. The Claremont School of Theology and a Master of Divinity degree were next after 15 months as a youth and education director at the Oak Harbor Lutheran Church.

Tom started attending church regularly when he was fourteen with a neighborhood friend and his family after hearing Jesus call his  name.  The Tujunga Open Bible Standard Church was his home through high school and its Pentecostal style was a perfect match for the storms he felt in that period of his life.  The unlimited love and acceptance he found there was a tonic for his soul.  Later Tom attended a Free Methodist University, was a Junior High youth director at a Friends (Quaker) Church, served a Lutheran church.  As his journey of faith continued to grow he eventually found his way to the United Methodist Church.  Tom highly values the ecumenical background and the United Methodist Church that allowed him room to incorporate the various experiences into his faith expression.

During college it was the short-term mission experiences that allowed Tom to flesh out a sense of having a call to ministry.  There was a coffee house ministry on 1 st Ave. in Seattle, a Cambodian Refugee Church, three spring break trips to a First Nation reservation in Alberta, Canada (where Tom first met Jan), and a summer playing basketball with Sports Ambassadors in South and Central America.

Tom is a member of the Pacific Northwest Conference and served there for ten years before branching out to the Alaska Missionary Conference and then the Oregon-Idaho Conference.