Passing the Torch: Brian Moss Leads Community Church

(Introducing a series of interviews with new community leaders)

–by Margie Doyle–

Brian and Stephanie Moss

In June, Orcas Island Community Church named Rev. Brian Moss as Senior Pastor. Moss and his family have been on the island for two years, serving as Associate Pastor for Congregational Life until July 2017 when he assumed leadership of the large island congregation. Faith, family, music, art, reading, and soccer inform Brian Moss’s work as Senior Pastor of Orcas Island Community Church.

Moss grew up in a Christian family and attended church regularly as “a dairy farm boy from Iowa. There was no romantic notion about farms, just hard work — and it shaped who I am.” Moss says he was most excited about music — playing it, songwriting, recording, being on the road. He earned his BA at Belmont University in Nashville in music performance, piano and voice.

But he wasn’t into the bigger “Christian Music Scene” that was growing out of Nashville. “I just wanted to be a good songwriter, and never fit in the Christian music scene. The marketability was always strange to me.” He traveled on tour with Michael Card and released several CDs. To see more about his music, go to www.prayerbookproject.com.

After touring as a musician for three years, Moss was recently married with a baby daughter when “I realized a call to pastoral work; to preach, teach and study.” He decided to further his theological studies at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., where he completed a Master of Divinity degree in 2011, and where he served as Worship and Music Coordinator.

He has a long-time connection with Orcas Island, having performed regularly at the Woodsong Music Festival. He explains his affinity for music as a spiritual practice: “I believe that part of my job is to be a steward of the mystery of God. It happens in music, evoking the deepest questions we have as human beings. It doesn’t ask much of us, yet it demands we listen.”

Moss’s tastes in music run from Bach (“Bach unwinds me.”) to Miles Davis –(“I love jazz: you just play the music, and it is what it is.”) And within church liturgy, he says, “it’s important for me as a musician we stay connected to the rich history of hymns, even while leaning forward to new styles.” He is in the process of setting each of King David’s 150 psalms to music.

Listening is a theme Moss refers to again and again. “Listening is important to faith, that we listen to God and each other and to our own life and how we resonate in the larger story,” he says.

Brian’s wife Stephanie is a professional dancer who founded the nonprofit Momentum Music and Dance Academy in Burien in 2003, teaching ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop and more. She now teaches dance on Orcas Island. Their children Haley and Levi attend Orcas Island High School while twins Ethan and Isaac attend Orcas Middle School; Ezra, age four and a half, enjoys going to Children’s House.

“We felt a deep sense of home here very quickly here, and have settled into my position with the Community Church. It’s still kind of shocking to me, but it has been confirmed to me in many ways, even as I’m surprised by it,” Moss says

Former Senior Pastor Dick Staub remains as a “preaching pastor.” Ryan Carpenter is the Associate Pastor of Care and Administration.

Moss says, “Pastoral work is very life-giving. I have a strong sense of where I’m supposed to be. It’s not easy, but it’s good. The truth is, I’m still becoming a pastor; I have a lot to learn from people. “Understand, it’s a messy business, one full of mistakes and a lot of learning. But I love being connected to the community.”

Along with music. Brian has a deep appreciation for art, reading and soccer — a “global game with a lot of improvisation, like jazz.”

He was a board member of Christians in Visual Arts in Madison Wisc., an international non-profit and says, “The visual arts have so much to teach us, awakening in us a deeper sense of the mysteries of life.” Recently he co-curated an art exhibit at the Community Church, entitled “Beautiful Orcas Island,” showing works of art that exhibit the beauty of the island and its diverse landscape. The exhibit will run through November 24.

His reading ranges across the spectrum with varied conversation partners, among varied generations. Moss says that for every new book he reads, he aspires to read at least one old book; and has 6,000 books on his laptop as a resource. “I need to hear multiple voices from different eras and first source books.”

And he returns to the value of listening when speaking of his reading habits. He says, “Reading is also listening. While still upholding our rights to freedom of speech, we’re seriously neglecting our freedom to listen and to gain some understanding of what others have experienced. He cites JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me as examples.

“There’s a time to speak up, but — AND — there’s wisdom found in listening. Think of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in the midst of the Civil War — “with charity for all and malice toward none” — I would like to see that appeal to “The better angels of our nature” rekindled.

“Yes, I’m a pastor to a diverse congregation. We face complex issues, sometimes we improvise, just like in jazz; and sometimes there’s a draw, just like in soccer.”