Meet the DLTs: Derek Hansen

August 20, 2019 / By Derek Hansen

My name is Derek Hansen. I’m the pastor at Adirondack Community Church in Lake Placid, and I have been serving on the Adirondack District Leadership Team since 2017. In my 10 years of pastoral ministry, I have also served under appointment at Rochester: Aldersgate, Adams Basin, Glens Falls: Christ Church, and Hudson Falls. My wife, Becky, and I have been married for 10 years and we have three children - Liam (7), Sam (5), and Hollis (3).

I first responded to a call to ministry when I was a senior in high school and was asked to teach the first-grade Sunday School class at my home church in Barker, NY. Then, after my freshman year of college, I served as a counselor at Asbury Camp & Retreat Center and continued on staff for five more summers. It was there - where our camp groups were always small - that I experienced how God uses intentional community and meaningful Christian relationships to change lives and form lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. I carried that understanding with me into my ministry with local churches.      

Now I am passionate about helping people go deeper in their faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ - the life of discipleship. The opportunity to serve on the District Leadership Team fits with my gifts and interests in ministry which are about helping congregations reconnect with the call to partner with God to form disciples through the fellowship of the church. In my experience, Christian fellowship is one of the most powerful means of grace.

I am excited about the work we are starting together as a District Leadership Team. I hope to be a source of encouragement and support to pastors, lay leaders, and whole congregations as, together, we discern how God is calling us to make disciples of Jesus Christ in our time and place.