The Slaughters come to Cuyahoga Falls from East Palestine, where they have lived since 1993. Ross was ordained in 1985 after graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary that same year and has served in the pastorate in Richmond, Missouri, in Findlay, Ohio, in Ottawa, Ohio as interim pastor and in East Palestine, Ohio.
            Prior to that, his ministry experience includes serving as ministry team coordinator with the Christian Ministry in the National Parks (Summer of 1980, Glacier National Park, MT), serving as a ministerial intern with the Presbyterian Church of St. Columbia-by-the-Lake in Pointe Claire, Quebec, Canada, in 1983-84) and on the chaplaincy staff of the Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA (1984).
           Ross is originally from Kansas City, Missouri and lived for a few years in Ardmore, Oklahoma.  He lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during his junior high and senior high years (Class of 1977) and graduated from Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA, in 1981 with a B.A. in Music as a piano major.
          Ross is married to Sheila, whom he met at the New Wilmington Missionary Conference.  They we       re married in July of 1985 in her home church in North Warren, PA.  They have two children:  Jessica, age 16, a junior in High School and Nathan, 13, in the eighth grade.  Sheila is a graduate of  Slippery Rock University and is a Music Therapist.  Currently she is a preschool music enrichment teacher at the St. Paul's Childcare Center in New Middletown, Ohio.
Ross also has done freelance pen and ink drawings since 1990 and is currently learning how to tune pianos.  He also enjoys listening to and playing classical music, reading, working on his church's web site, playing chess and watching good movies (albeit not all at the same time!).

Anniversary for Pastor Slaughter

March 1, Ash Wednesday was my one year anniversary here as your pastor.   A year ago, I drove from East Palestine on semi-snowy day and walked in through the doors feeling virtually like a complete stranger … which I was.

I think it has been a fantastic year in many ways.

I have gotten to know so many wonderful people. I feel really close to people in this congregation and I sincerely hope the feeling is mutual.

It has also been a really busy and challenging year.

The first three months of my ministry with you was spent going back and forth from the Falls to East Palestine. Then in early June, we moved into our Fourth Street house. We straddled two homes by faith for a while until our home in East Palestine was sold in August (PTL!). It just takes a while for the stress of all of these personal and professional transitions to somehow smooth out. I have been through all the high points of this church’s year … Lent … Easter … Men’s Retreat … Pentecost … New Wilmington Missionary Conference… All-Church Retreat … Wednesday Night Alive … Advent … Christmas … New Members’ Class … Annual Report and Meeting … and now Ash Wednesday. Most recently, I lost my mother and all of that seemed to obliterate this past February.

Now our church is looking ahead to a future together.

Right now Sue Morgan and Beth Loresch are lending their expertise to this church on organizational revitalization through Appreciative Inquiry … A process of building on our strengths as a congregation so that we can make planned and effective changes.

In the mix of all of this, I am in the process of clarifying my vision and sense of ministry here so that I can do what I was asked to do … Provide visionary leadership for this church. I feel I can do that better now that I have one year down and have a much better sense of this congregation. The second year in will be a time of active exploration and formation of those visionary and guiding principles… so that by the third year in we are able to build constructively together.  This is a process that does take time, because it is a process based on relationship-building and trust.

In subsequent months I will be sharing my heart and vision

– a process I started with the Session last October and want to continue to broaden the base of awareness and support during this crucial second year …!

Ross