ROCHELLE — Rochelle United Methodist Church, located at 709 4th St. in Rochelle, announced the arrival of its new pastor, Katherine Thomas Paisley.

Pastor Katherine follows Pastor Rob Hamilton who is now appointed to Geneva UMC in Geneva. Pastor Katherine was born in Chicago at Wesleyan Memorial Hospital and grew up in a series of methodist parsonages across Northern Illinois.

She met her husband Randy in Dixon at a youth lock in. They married during Katherine’s sophomore year in college and proceeded to have three children, Meg, Carol and Donny.

She started out her ministry career in Christian education and children’s choir. She resisted the call to ministry until the pastor at the Presbyterian church she was working at persuaded her to preach.

Her first sermon, “People in Need of a Pentecost,”convinced her that seminary was the next step.

She completed seminary in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She served at over nine different United Methodist Churches in the Nashville area and had an internship at the General Board of Discipleship in the Worship Section.

While pastoring in Tennessee, she completed her Masters of Divinity and a Doctoral program at Vanderbilt, where she also taught. They then moved back to Illinois, serving at First UMC in Freeport, Irving Park UMC and most recently Oak Park First UMC.

This long and winding journey has taken the Paisley family places they never would have imagined. Katherine believes that each step of the journey teaches us and challenges us, and we meet people who inspire us! God is in the journey — and with us along the way!

Katherine still loves preaching and Bible study, and exploring where God is at work already reaching out to folks. And the journey continues!

Pastor Katherine’s first Sunday preaching will be on July 4 at RUMC’s Worship at Lake Sule at 10 a.m. in the shelter. The new sermon series, Wandering with Abraham and Sarah, starts July 11 back in the sanctuary at 709 4th Ave. at 10 a.m.

The church welcomes residents to worship either in person, online at rochelleumc.com/live-stream or on YouTube or on the Radio at 93.5 FM WRHL at 9 a.m.