Lori Bass-Riley

Director Children and Families

bassrileylori@gmail.com

Greetings, Friends in Christ!
My name is Reverend Lori Bass-Riley and I am grateful and excited to be your Director of Children and Families here at Newlonsburg. I am a graduate of Penn Trafford, West Virginia Wesleyan (Music Ed/Theater), and Princeton Theological Seminary. I am married to Bryan and have two wonderful adult daughters, Anna and Abby. I served as an ordained solo pastor in NJ for 11 years before moving home in 2012 to care for family. During those first few years here, I preached in local congregations as well as participated in the ministry of my home congregation, Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in Monroeville. In 2015, members of Cross Roads asked me to apply for a part time children and family director job and I began working with them shortly after. I quickly realized that God had called me away from general ministry to educational ministry. In short, I was hooked!

The spiritual formation of children and families is a holy calling that I am excited to fulfill with you. I love working to develop faith knowledge and practices within and through all generations. It is my greatest joy to see a child develop the awareness that their place within the community of Christ is vital, no matter what their age. When they recognize their power to do good through the love of Christ, their hearts open, they want to learn more about scripture and they want to be more integrated into their faith family. My hope is that through our ministry together, children and their families develop a thirst for knowing about and growing a relationship with our God as well as embrace their special callings within our congregation and in their worlds.

 I have many interests which include music, theater, nature, science, and making silly games out of unexpected objects that I regularly utilize in my work! I can’t wait to share them with all of you and get to know one another in this community of Christ!