Senior Minister
brett@parkridgecommunitychurch.org

Rev. Brett W. McCleneghan, Ph.D. has served as the Senior Pastor of Park Ridge Community Church since June of 2001.

For 28 years, Dr. McCleneghan has served local churches in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has a deep-seated commitment to the vitality of the local church as a necessary center for worship and faith development, learning, outreach and service, and fellowship. That commitment is rooted in the theology, traditions, and practices of liberal, mainline Protestant Christianity. Park Ridge Community Church is a congregation which embraces similar commitments. The mutual vision of pastor and congregation is to faithfully provide a respectfully diverse community where individuals from a wide-variety of religious backgrounds and perspectives may gather to learn from one another and so grow in faith and fellowship, by the grace of God. In a time when religious differences bring increasing division and conflict, Dr. McCleneghan, the leaders, and the member of PRCC feel called to work toward a more holistic and inclusive vision of beloved community.

Raised in Evanston, Illinois, Dr. McCleneghan has served churches in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for nearly thirty years. He and his wife Lauri met during their college years. Today, Lauri, serves on the faculty of Maine South High School where she teaches Oral Communications and Drama and has recently developed a new drama curriculum for students with autism. She also serves as Costumer, Assistant V-Show Director and Director of the Winter Play. Brett and Lauri have three adult daughters and one granddaughter.

Dr. McCleneghan received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Albion College, Albion, MI, majoring in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Psychology; a Master of Divinity degree from the Andover Newton Theological School in Boston, MA, and a Ph.D. from the Center for Theology and the Human Sciences at the Chicago Theological Seminary. He is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.

Over the course of his ministry, Dr. McCleneghan has devoted time to several matters of public concern. In 2006, he was a panelist in a community forum: Life, Death, Love, Family, Faith: A Provocative Conversation…a dialogue with key religious and community leaders about the GLBT movement and the “religious middle” on fundamental human rights. The keynote speaker was The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance and Host of State of Belief Radio.

Dr. McCleneghan has also served as Co-Coordinator for two public forums: “Campaign 2000: What Price Democracy? Campaign Finance Reform In Illinois,” with keynote speaker: Senator Paul Simon, and “Race Tracks, Casinos and the Illinois Legislature: Is There a Link Between Campaign Contributions and Favorable Legislation and Subsidies?” with panelists: State Rep. Jeff Schoenberg, and the Rev. Tom Grey of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

In addition to serving Park Ridge Community Church, he will be teaching a course in Worship at the University of Chicago Divinity School during the 2008 winter quarter. He is also a member of the Governing Council and the Charitable Care Committee at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and in 2008 joined the Advisory Board for Marsh Chapel at Boston University.