Meet our Priest -
The Reverend John B. Musgrave

John was born January 29, 1952 in the city of Goiania, state of Goias, Brazil, where his parents were Baptist missionaries who served for 36 years in Brazil.

He is married to Nannette, a native of Perryville, Missouri, and they have two boys living at home: Will is a senior and Michael is a junior at Parkway North High School. John has a daughter, Vanessa, who is married to Jason Lemons and practices law in Knoxville, Tennessee.

After getting his BA in Psychology from Baylor University, John did 36 hours of postgraduate work in Psychology at the University of New Orleans, and then headed off to be an account executive - sequentially -- in Louisiana and Texas branches of Xerox, Merrill Lynch, and Shearson-Lehman.

In 1989, John made a career change and entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest where he received his Master of Divinity degree in 1992. Since then, he has attended the Seabury Institute in Evanston, IL, where he he undertook doctoral-level studies in congregational development - the ideal training for the needs of Good Shepherd!

John comes to us from our parent congregation, St. Peter's, Ladue, where he has been Senior Associate since 2004. Before then, he had served in three Texas congregations, the last being 1300-member St. Thomas the Apostle in Houston, where he was rector.

He lists his hobbies and interests as "travel, reading (all sorts of literature), movies, snow skiing, golf, handyman projects, regular exercise" but failed to answer the all-important question of whether he has become a True Believer in the Cardinals or whether he suffers from lingering Astro-apostasy.

In October 2006, our vestry voted unanimously to call John as Rector; at John's suggestion and encouragement, the vestry modified the title and he will serve for three years as Priest-in-Charge for Congregational Development, at which time the contract, terms, and title can all be modified. (For those who find, as this editor does, the modified title a bit much to use frequently, the term Pastor will serve quite well.)