By Cheryl Kuck

Scott Lingle was recently ordained as a minister at Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Plant City, FL. The church is a part of the EPC denomination.

Lingle had been the church’s director of youth and young adult ministries since June 2008 but he wasn’t ordained until after he spent a year in additional studies in the Presbyterian system. His new title is pastor of youth and young adult ministries at the church.

Lingle, who excelled in basketball and track in high school in his hometown of Baltimore, has an extensive background in religious education. He attended Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton, Ill., where he majored in literature and received his bachelor’s degree. After graduating from Wheaton he attended Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. In 1999 he graduated with a master’s degree in biblical studies.

Shortly after graduation from seminary his dad, Russ Lingle, suffered a stroke and Lingle returned to Maryland to help his parents. He became staff youth leader at his family’s home church, Liberty Presbyterian, where he worked for five years. While on a trip to attend a wedding in Dallas, he took time to visit a friend in Oklahoma City.

“That stop on the way to the wedding changed my life. I was introduced to April Andretta. She was a sixth grade middle school teacher. We tried to continue a long-distance relationship for a while but it wasn’t long before we both realized it wouldn’t work,” he said.

The couple married and lived in Oklahoma City, where he worked for a homebuilder as a neighborhood supervisor. The Lingles then moved to St. Louis so he could attend Covenant Theological Seminary, a denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America.

He received a master’s of divinity degree in spring 2008, and the couple were invited to Plant City to meet Evangelical Presbyterian’s pastor, the Rev. Don Mason, and church elders. He was offered a position, and the two moved to Walden Lake. Their son, Luke, was born in June 2008.

Officials from the EPC’s Florida Presbytery were present for the ordination, and the Rev. David Lingle, Scott’s uncle, gave the ordination sermon.
Editor’s note: Correspondent Cheryl Kuck is a member of Evangelical Presbyterian Church.