Staff and Leadership

Pastor Paul was born and raised in the Winston-Salem area and currently resides in Walkertown, NC. His involvement in the church and community causes began long before becoming a minister. Growing up in the Methodist Church, he helped found a feeding program for the food insecure of East Winston, serving thousands of hot meals a year.

While there, he became involved in anti-racism work and LGBTQ rights, serving as the chair of Reconciling Ministries for 9 years. He attended Greensboro College and majored in American History, concentrating on “Slavery, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights”. After graduating in 2017, he took part in the International Peace Commission’s mission to the Middle East, spending time in Israel fact finding and researching in hopes of preventing conflict.

During that time, he began discerning a call to vocational ministry. That call slowly turned into a nudge and then a shove. After he finally got the hint, he enrolled in The Wake Forest School of Divinity, graduating in 2022. While a student there, he helped with Covid emergency response, and spent two years interning as a chaplain at Greensboro College.

After graduating, he began pastoring at St. Timothy’s UMC and helped lead a merger between them and another local congregation. Paul is now at Open Hearts Community, excited and ready to co-lead the church into a new era of justice, compassion, and love. Paul has a heart for community organizing, social justice, and crafting spaces where folks can find their voice and feel affirmed that they are loved by God. When not at church, Paul is often playing with his puppy, Eleanor, watching classic movies, working in the garden, baking, tap dancing, or just getting into trouble.