By William Smith
Community Editor
For the parishioners of First United Methodist Church in Burlington, the Rev. Melanie Greengo’s perpetual smile has become a source of comfort.
The church’s previous pastor, Melisa Bracht-Wagner, died on March 14 at the age of 45. Greengo was assigned to start at the church in February by the Council of Bishops and has already made her home at the parsonage.
“Normally, us Methodists move in July,” Greengo said, noting that she was brought in after the council briefly considered an interim pastor.
Greengo moved to Burlington from Columbus Junction after serving as pastor for United Methodist churches in Columbus Junction and Columbus City. But she hails from much farther north: all the way in southern Minnesota, near the city of Albert Lea. Greengo grew up on a hobby farm full of pigs, sheep, and chickens.
“All of my family is still up in that area. I’ve kind of been the wanderer. I married a Navy man after I got my nursing degree,” she said, noting that she and her husband later divorced.
“We had a couple of kids, lived in Hawaii, Washington state, and Virginia.”
Greengo and her family moved to Iowa in 2007 after her ex-husband retired, and it was there she began to rediscover her faith.
“I grew up Christian Reformed (a Protestant Christian denomination),” she said.
“I had been out of the church since I was 18, so probably 10 or 15 years. The church I grew up in was very fire and brimstone, ‘you’re going to hell’ kind of preaching. It never felt like that was very helpful.”
Despite her initial disconnect from the church, Greengo wanted her children to grow up with faith. They visited four or five churches until they found the right one in Osage.
“We sat down in the pew, and my youngest looked at me, and she said, ‘This is the one.’ ”
To which Greengo replied: “It is, I think.”
So Greengo started getting more involved. She joined the personnel committee and taught Sunday school.
Finally, Greengo entered a school for lay ministry. But even that wasn’t enough to satisfy her calling for religion, which had returned stronger than ever.
“I did a year of it, and I realized I wanted way more than that. So, we packed up the family, and we went to seminary at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities,” she said.
“That was a big jump, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do with that. I didn’t see myself as a pastor yet.”
But her path was already laid before her. Though Greengo never imagined she would become a pastor, looking back, her passion for religion manifested at a young age. She had just never seen it quite so clearly before.
“I went to a very conservative church growing up, and I went to catechism every Wednesday night for four years through high school,” she said. “I remember arguing with the pastor specifically about some verses in Second Timothy and women as pastors and the head of the church.”
The passion and intellectual mind for theology were already there. But after four years of seminary, one thing was still missing for Greengo: a knack for public speaking.
“I was petrified of speaking in public,” Greengo said.
So, the pastor at the Methodist church Greengo attended in Osage gave her a simple job, to help with Ash Wednesday.
“She didn’t need help. I learned that later,” Greengo said with a laugh.
Eventually, Greengo became comfortable with speaking in front of people, even though she’s still a natural introvert.
“It’s not as terrifying anymore,” she said. “I can eat breakfast on Sundays now.”
As the new pastor of First UMC, Greengo has two goals right now: absorb the history and culture of the church and help the congregation heal.
“They (the congregation) have been wonderful. There’s a lot of grief for them and a lot going on right now. They have still gone a long way to make me feel welcome,” she said. “The staff has been great.”
Greengo is also a spiritual director and is delighted by the working relationship with the Building Bridges program, which has office space at The Loft (an event space also run by the church).
Building Bridges is a charity program designed to lift people out of poverty by giving them the resources and knowledge to do it themselves.
As a former hospice worker, Greengo isn’t afraid of tough, emotional issues. She cherishes the opportunity to help people through tough times.
“That’s what I love about this job, too,” she said.
“I celebrate people’s lives through baptisms and weddings, but I also get the benefit of sitting with people through the hard stuff. I’ve always said it was an honor to sit with people in hospice and be that reminder that God is in the room.”