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Community Corner

Long-time Pastor Appointed to Regional Post

Lehman UMC Senior Pastor Tom Haugh bids good-bye after 13 years

The senior pastor at Hatboro’s will soon be leaving to take on a regional supervisory position.  

Pastor Thomas Haugh, who’s served the South York Road church since 1998, was recently appointed as the new district superintendent in the Southeast District of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church. Headquartered in West Chester, Haugh's new role will require him to oversee 70 churches in the region.

While that may seem like a daunting task to most, Haugh comes armed with nearly three decades in the ministry at churches throughout the area.

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A native of Waynesboro, Haugh was ordained as a deacon in 1984 and an elder four years later after having attained his master of divinity degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1986.

“I was asked to do a Bible study while I was in the Air Force and that went well, and then I just started putting one foot in front of the other and this is where it led me,” he said about his path in the Methodist ministry.

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Since his ordination, Haugh has served as a pastor at churches in Coatesville, Paoli and two congregations in the state’s coal region.

When he was placed at Lehman he expected he’d stay anywhere from seven to 10 years, but was pleasantly surprised by the long tenure he was afforded.

“I think all of the churches I’ve been at added something to me. I’ve worked in every size church — from small to medium to large — and they’ve all been different,” he said. “And [at Lehman] I’ve felt like I’ve really been able to work to get our goals accomplished and do that by working with all of these great people. You’re really only as good as your people and your church.”

Under his direction, Lehman launched such programs as a contemporary worship service, a Latino ministry and an outreach ministry, which helps to collect and distribute food, personal supplies and other goods to needy in the area.

"He's someone with a really great vision and someone who is very forward-thinking," Martha Malone, a member of Lehman's staff parish relations committee, said of the pastor. "He's really shown a determination to lead the church in a direction where it has been able to grow with the community."

Haugh found the Lehman congregation to be a particularly welcoming one, which he said fueled his efforts to extend the church’s outreach into all corners of the Hatboro-Horsham area.  

“I think it’s probably one of the most diverse churches in the area — we have a Spanish-speaking ministry, four different worship services, a very unique Sunday school program. There are all different types of people here, and we celebrate that diversity,” he said. “I think I built on an already very good pastoral history that the church has. The church has learned to speak for and care for the entire community of Hatboro and even the whole area.”

In addition to his impact on the church community as a whole, Malone said Haugh was also influential in the personal journeys of faith of the church members.

"He's a person with a great love of the Lord, and I think he helped the congregants find their own niche in their own walks with the Lord," Malone said. "His energy helped the congregants and the church to be stronger, and I think he's going to be able to strenghten the district and the entire United Methodist Church in his new position. But we're going to miss him."

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