Rev. Tim Carpenter was appointed to Germantown UMC as Senior Pastor on January 1, 2017, returning to serve the church in which he was raised. He was born in Memphis and grew up in Cordova, TN. After earning his bachelors in Political Science from the University of Florida, Carpenter returned home to study at Memphis Theological Seminary. He knew that MTS was the place where he needed to train for ministry, based on the advice of his then-pastor and later interim president of MTS, Rev. David Hilliard.
While at MTS, Tim enjoyed the kindness of the faculty, the convenient location, and the spiritual guidance of former professors such as W.E. Knickerbocker, Robert Brawley, and the late Paul Brown. Of his experience, he reflected, “Though diverse in their fields of study and theological understandings, I appreciated their depth of knowledge and dedication to excellence for the cause of the Gospel of Christ.”
Prior to coming to Germantown, Tim served as the Superintendent of The METRO District, which was formed in June of 2016 with the merging of the Asbury and McKendree Districts. Previously, he was the Superintendent of the Asbury District from 2014-2016. Tim served pastorally in several churches in the Memphis Conference as well as on the Family Services Council (Chair); Conference Council of Ministries (Vice-Chair); Conference Finance and Administration (Secretary); and the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry (Conference Relations Committee Chair).
He is the co-author of two books of children’s sermons, Children’s Sermons A-Z and The Big Influence of Small Things.
His passion is teaching and preaching with an emphasis on understanding the scripture in the context of its culture that we might better apply God’s teaching to our lives today. Memphis Theological Seminary equipped him with theological education to pursue his calling to congregational ministry and denominational leadership.
