AMERICUS — AMERICUS — David Omerod doesn’t fit the mold of small town minister at first glance. Dressed in blue jeans, a green plaid shirt and pristine white tennis shoes he sits across the table, looking more like a builder than a preacher. The funny thing is that is what Omerod does for churches in the area. Omerod serve as a “head of the construction team” if you will, for churches to build on their faith.

Omerod is the interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Americus and he serves, as he puts it, “as a bridge between the old pastor and the new one coming in.” Typically in the Presbyterian Church pastors rotate every two to three years from different churches, leading to the need for interim pastors. Omerod has been leading the congregation in Americus since November and it is a job he loves.

“There are a lot of great things about this town and about this congregation,” Omerod said. “It’s a great mix of people. We have students from both the university and technical school, people from Koinonia, the Fuller Center, Habitat for Humanity and regular professionals.” Besides leading Sunday worship, Omerod said that he is involved in every aspect of church life. “I do a lot of listening,” Omerod said with a slight chuckle. “I also do a lot of home visitations, as well as help with the pastor care team, which is gearing up for whoever the new pastor will be. It is my main job to make sure that nobody is left out of the worship.”

This assignment in Americus is the third for Omerod, with his two previous interim assignments being in Monroe, N.C., and Thomaston, Ga.

Previous to his work as an interim pastor, Omerod served as a church builder for the Presbyterian faith, involved in new church development for 25 years, and in that time he helped to start four new churches around the nation. Omerod describes the experience as “very, very hard work, but also very satisfying.”

Omerod would receive a call about a town that wanted to start a new church from the presbytery. “There is a package,” said Omerod. “They have applied for money from the denomination, and they have money themselves, and it’s my job to go in there and create a congregation where there is nothing.” Omerod went on to say that he usually does not start worship at these places from six months to a year of him starting work. “I go in and find a place to worship, find staff and do a lot of advertising,” he said. “There will be a few people to join the church from other Presbyterian congregations, but not a whole lot. Most of the people who come into the church are non-church people or people who haven’t been to church for a long time. It’s very unique work, and very exciting work, but you have to gather a congregation, you have to build the building, you have to start stewardship, you have to build up every single program in the church from scratch, so it takes an awful lot of energy.”

Even though the work was very taxing for Omerod, it was something he had always been interested in since graduating from seminary in 1981 in Pittsburgh. “Right out of seminary I went to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., to do new church work,” said Omerod. “I applied for a new congregation in Ocala, but they were looking for somebody with more experience. Well, they couldn’t find somebody with more experience in what they were paying. After a year in New Smyrna I got a call, asking me if I was interested in doing it, and I said yes, so they told me to come over and have a look. My wife and my family were there for nine years before we moved to Jacksonville, and then to Huntersville, N.C.”

When Omerod is not working in the church, he said he enjoys lifting weights, working in the garden, reading, and being a “Trekkie.” “I love ‘Star Trek,’” he said. “I also enjoy reading all the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books.”