Our Pastor
John Heeckt

John was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, on August 21, 1962, the first of three children. With his parents and sister he moved to the East Coast when he was three, and grew up in rural New Jersey (yes, such a thing exists). A product of that state’s public schools, John took his undergraduate degree in history with minors in English and education from Rutgers University, intending to follow in both of his parents’ footsteps and build a career in education. After teaching for a time, he entered the business world, working for a number of years in management in the foodservice industry.

Following a period of vocational and spiritual discernment, John entered seminary in 1992, studying for a year at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in his native New Jersey before going off to Yale Divinity School, from which he received his Master of Divinity. During his time at Yale, John served for two years as parish associate at the First Congregational Church of Branford.

Following his graduation from Yale, John headed north to Boston, where he served in campus ministry, most notably on the campuses of Boston University and Boston College. Also while in Boston, John completed a master's degree in history at Harvard University, with a thesis that examined social, constitutional and political change during the New Deal era, a topic on which he is willing to hold forth at great length at the slightest provocation. (You have been warned!) Shortly after coming to Ridgefield, John completed a Master of Sacred Theology at Boston University.

His family was Lutheran, and John worshipped in that denomination until his high school years, when he came to personal faith thanks to several friends who worshipped in a local Assemblies of God church. After attending that church for several years, John returned to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America briefly at the outset of his seminary years, before finding a spiritual home in the United Church of Christ. Though a latecomer compared to some to the UCC, John has come to appreciate his denominational home for both its rich spiritual and liturgical heritage and its continuing dedication to congregationalism.

Since coming to Ridgebury, John has become involved in a number of Ridgefield civic organizations, most notably the Ridgefield Historical Society. John is a member of the Historical Society's board of directors and has delivered a series of lectures on American and Ridgefield religious history, which may be found on the Historical Society's website. John has also recently begun a Doctor of Ministry program at Regent University, and anticipates receiving his DMin in 2013.

John is single, and when free time permits enjoys music, art and architecture, camping and hiking, animals, swimming, rowing, drawing, and the occasional nap. Despite the twin handicaps of being born in the Midwest and raised in the Middle Atlantic states, John has come to love New England during his graduate school years, and hopes that at some point during next couple of decades he will come to be thought of as, at least, a naturalized immigrant.