First Presbyterian church has two pastors and an interim director of congregational care on staff. John Sowers is our Senior pastor and head of staff. Jeremy Sanderson is our Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries. Mary Beth McSwain is our interim director of congregational care.
John Sowers was raised in Southern California and first came to Spokane as a student at Whitworth University. After graduating from Whitworth, John stayed and worked in Whitworth’s admissions department before becoming their Director of Church Relations. While in Spokane, John married Jennifer and they had Kate (now 18) and Emilie (15).
While a member of Whitworth Presbyterian Church, John felt a call to ministry that was confirmed by his family and the church. John attended Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, graduating in 1996. From APTS John began his ministry at Woodland Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN. During his time at Woodland, the church grew in number and in spirit.
John brings a passion for Christ, having known in his own life what it means to be redeemed and blessed by the grace of Jesus. He brings a great love of preaching with a desire to connect the people of God to God’s Word and to the world that God created. He sees in First Presbyterian a wonderful heritage of service in the community, a great wellspring of giftedness in the congregation, and an opportunity for the church to be a blessing to many.
John loves being a husband and a dad. He’s a huge fan of Johnny Cash, C.S. Lewis, the Lord of the Rings and his hometown San Diego Padres. He loves to cook and to play golf (he’s a better cook than he is a golfer).
Jeremy began his ministry at First Pres in January of 2010. He is a graduate of Wheaton College (IL) and Princeton Theological Seminary, and served as an associate pastor for three years at a church in south New Jersey before coming west. He is married to Sarah, a native Washingtonian, and together they have three children: Abby, Josiah and Levi.
Jeremy brings to his ministry a passion for people, a sense of the vitality of God’s Word, and a desire to see the church equipped to live out its calling as Christ’s body on earth. He is grateful to serve a church that seeks to be both “internally strong” and “externally focused.”
As a new resident of Spokane, Jeremy looks forward to getting to know his neighbors and neighborhood, exploring the music scene, and spending time in the beautiful outdoors with his wife and kids.
Mary Beth began serving at First Pres. in August 2011 after moving to Spokane in June. Mary Beth is a native of Winter Haven, Florida and graduated in 2010 with her Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. She is with First Pres. for a year while her husband Billy completes his transitional year of residency at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Mary Beth is in the ordination process to become a Minister of the Word and Sacrament and is passionate about sharing the love of Christ in the trenches of people’s lives. She has served both in and outside of the church ministering to families involved with disability, teaching and counseling people in prison, and as a hospital chaplain intern for palliative care and bereavement. She bears an excitement and energy for organizing God’s people around caring for one another and loves equipping others to bear the light of Christ in the dark times of people’s lives.
When not in the office or visiting folks, Mary Beth enjoys playing the piano and writing music. She also enjoys arts and crafts, reading, and more recently cooking. She and her husband Billy also continue to find adventures in the Northwest and are learning mountain biking and skiing.