Hello Park United, 
As your new minister to Park U.P. Church I hope to get to know each of you well.  For now, I will introduce myself and my family to you.  I am Reverend Paul Merrill, and for the past 4 years I have been living in Oklahoma.  My hometown is actually Mobile, Alabama where I met my beautiful wife Kimberly and where our 5 children were born until God made it clear that it was time to go to seminary.  In August 2001, we moved to Austin, TX to attend seminary at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  In 2007, I was ordained and installed as the pastor of The Journey, a new church development, in Owasso, OK.  I also served as pulpit supply for First Presbyterian Church of Chelsea, OK for almost 4 years.  In each church, God taught me more in that time than I learned at seminary.  I have learned my gifts…my strengths…and my weaknesses.  My greatest strength is my love of learning and sharing that with others.  My weaknesses, well, my wife and kids make up for that.
Kimberly and I have been married for 25 years, and she is a woman who follows God with her whole heart.  She keeps me humble and helps to keep me focused on God and His purposes.  Currently, she is seeking where God wants her to join Him in His work.  Our oldest daughter, Lacy, is married to Justin and have our 2 adorable grandsons.  Our oldest son, Matthew, is a sophomore at Ottawa University in Ottawa, KS with an interest in business.   Our middle son, Michael, is a senior at Wesleyan Christian School in Bartlesville, OK where he enjoys basketball and playing guitar.  Nicholas is our freshman at Portersville Christian School and also plays basketball, and he plays drums.  Our youngest child is Hope.  She is currently homeschooled and in the sixth grade with a love of doing crafty.
My life verse is found in Matthew 22: 37-39 NIV, ““Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”   Without these two commandments, the Great Commission cannot be accomplished in the joy and freedom that Christ offers us in His death and resurrection.