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Eldon Fry returns to Messiah College as new college pastor

	Eldon Fry Click on image to download print-quality version

GRANTHAM, Pa. (June 27, 2005) — Messiah College has appointed Eldon Fry to serve as its new college pastor. Fry comes from St. Paul, Minn., where he was the college pastor at Bethel College. Fry previously worked at Messiah College from 1984 to 1997 as the director of campus ministries and then college chaplain. He has also served as the senior pastor at Pine Creek Community Church and manager of pastoral care for Focus on the Family, both in Colorado.

Fry was selected by an eight-member committee from a large pool of applicants and he will begin his new role on July 1.

Fry has always had a heart for students and is excited to reach out to the marginalized, lend a listening ear and encourage the college to grow in its spiritual walk, he said.

“I think Messiah is a very valid institution in the Christian world and has a lot to offer,” Fry said. “Our students will go and do wonderful things that I could never dream of, and I get to come alongside them now and that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.”

“I was always impressed with the spirit of his heart,” said Dwight Thomas, assistant professor of music who worked with Fry at Messiah College in the late 1990’s. “He is a wonderfully gentle man with a strong sensitivity to people’s needs, a very caring and pastoral person.”

Fry received a bachelor of arts degree from Oklahoma Wesleyan University, a master of science degree in family life education from Kansas State University and a doctor of ministry degree in pastoral counseling from the Graduate Theological Foundation.

Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,900 undergraduate students in 50 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.

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ARTICLE DATE: MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005
ARTICLE NUMBER: MC-076-05