My name is Rustin Comer. I’m the lead Pastor of Saint Matthew Church (ELCA) in Walnut Creek California. Being a third generation clergy person my first experiences of the church were in utero(and I loved it.)

I’ve been in love with Jesus since I was a child and many of my greatest memories are wrapped around the community of Christ. That being said some of my most painful memories have been at the hands of the church. This paradox has been at the center of my ministry For 20+ years. Yet no matter beauty or pain one of the centralities I keep coming back to is that even before I love Jesus, God loved me. This truth has kept me rooted and grounded in the church.

Over the past 20 years I have served multiple communities from Boston, to Los Angeles, to Mineapolis to our home in the East bay. Most of this work has been in redeveloping and rerooting congregations. I love helping communities dream new dreams, expand their views of God, their neighbor, and themselves. I love innovation, creativity, change, community building, and walking out life authentically with others.One of my core beliefs is that the church is God’s plan for creating the kin-dom on earth as it is in heaven. The church can and should make a difference in the world.

Over the years Ive discerned my vocation is helping people to tear down the walls they have placed God, themselves, and others within. We need a more loving and just world and it begins with us being more just and loving. To do this we have to change the tapes playing in our minds about who we are, who our neighbor is, and who God might be. I believe the church is the way forward. But To lead forward we need to be better at creating healthy and healing processes, strategies, and systems that lead to stronger, more kind, and just communities that are open and inclusive for all.

These past 40 years of life have taken me through a multitude of expressions of faith. From Baptist, to Non-denomenational, to Catholic, to my home of 15 years the ELCA. I have learned so much from each of these traditions and consider it an honor to have learned from each of them. Simultaneous so much of what I have learned and continue to learn comes from outside the walls of the church…from people who have been hurt by the church…and people who have never considered the church home.

I did his undergraduate in Theology and Theatre at Oklahoma Baptist University, MTS in Moral Theology and THM In Systematic Theology from Weston Jesuit (now Boston College) and I’m completing my PhD at Claremont Graduate University in Theology, Ethics, and Culture.

I love leadership and faith development. I’m spent the last 10 years studying the enneagram. I have found it to be a useful tool for faith and growth. I am an 8, who has done a lot of therapy. ‘Strength Finders’ is another favorite of mine. My top 5 strengths include Strategic, Futurist, Learner, Activator, and Achiever

Beyond these tidbits I enjoy storytelling, speaking, writing, reading, painting, cooking, traveling, and sharing great wine and whiskey with family and friends. However my greatest achievement and value in life is being married to Heather, and a dad to my two beautiful kids Jackson (8.5), and Hazel (5). These two make my life worth living everyday.