Rev. Apelu Poe, Ph.D

Bethel-Woodlawn United Methodist Church is a 2-church charge in the Clarksville and Woodlawn area. It is part of the Red River District of the United Methodist Church. Bishop William McAlilly and the Cabinet of Tennessee Conference appointed me to serve as pastor of this 2-church charge from June 2015 to July 2021. My main pastoral responsibilities include church administration, Sunday worship leadership, and congregational care. My other pastoral duties include community outreach and future strategic investment planning.

Martin's Chapel is a local church in the Springfield area, about 8.5 miles from Nashville. It is a closely-knit small congregation that takes pride in its Sunday worship tradition and congregational care. I was appointed pastor here by the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church from June 2013 to June 2015. My main pastoral duties involve church administration and meeting the spiritual needs of the congregation.

The Nashville Korean English Ministry is one of the most innovative ministries of the Nashville Korean United Methodist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. It offers a relaxed, contemporary-style service each Sunday from 11 AM in the English chapel, followed by a time of casual fellowship, refreshments, and thoughtful discussions of the Bible and Christian books in their EM room. I enjoyed serving as pastor here in charge of worship leadership, Bible study, and congregational care from July 2012 to June 2013.

Located in the countryside, Fairfield United Methodist Church is a beautiful church in Westmoreland, Tennessee, about 2 and a half hour's drive from Nashville. I had the honour of being appointed to serve as pastor here by the Tennessee Conference immediately after my return from the overseas missionary field. This was from August 2008 to June 2012. I was in charge of several pastoral responsibilities, for example, church administration, worship leadership, congregational care, and future strategic planning.

The Pacific Theological College in Fiji and the Charles Sturt University in Australia have entered into a working together partnership. While teaching full-time at the Pacific Theological College in Fiji, I also served as a Senior Academic Advisor for Charles Sturt Univerity in Australia on a part-time basis from September 2004 to August 2006.

As a lecturer in Old Testament Studies at the Pacific Theological College in Fiji from July 2003 to August 2006, my main faculty responsibilities involve academic teaching, research, and student advising. My other leadership roles include conducting faculty meetings, leading worship services, and facilitating sports and extracurricular activities for the students.

From July 2000 to March 2003, I served as pastor of the Samoan Community Church of Carson. This request for my pastoral leadership came while finishing up my pastoral duties at the Fetu Ao Samoan United Methodist Church in Torrence, California. My main pastoral responsibilities here include church administration, Sunday worship leadership, and congregational development. My other pastoral duties involve future church strategic planning and community outreach.

The Board of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee recruited me to help teach a Summer Course of Study Program for Pacific Island students at Claremont Graduate School of Theology. These Pacific Island students come from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji and need further academic and ministry training so they can serve full-time appointments in the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The Fetu Ao Samoan United Methodist Church in Torrence, California is the first Samoan Methodist church ever established on US soil. All the other Samoan Methodist churches that are now spreading here on the Mainland and in Hawaii spring forth as an outgrowth of this one legendary church. Unfortunately, in 1996 the church suffered a deep plunge in church membership and was at the risk of being closed. While teaching on a part-time assignment at Claremont Graduate Department of Theology, in Pomona, California, from July 1996 to July 2001, the District Superintendent of the Los Angeles area asked me if I could help with the above church. I agreed and after 2 years of complete ministry overhaul and being given a new revitalized vision/mission statement the church came back to life. It was truly God's miracle.

I taught the Samoan language course at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute in Nashville from July to June 1997. This was part of the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute program for American PhD students majoring in Pacific Island Literature.

Established in 1962, Founders Congregational Church in Harwinton, Connecticut is a tight-knit community sharing an active fellowship in Christ. The church is historic in that it links its founding with the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620. The people here look to these early Pilgrims for their heritage of historic religious freedom as members of the Congregational Way, recognizing always that, “The Lord hath more truth and light to break forth out of His Holy Word.” I, myself, ended up serving as an assistant pastor in this church while studying at Yale Divinity School from September 2005 to May 1996.

How I ended up as a pastor in this Samoan Congregational Christian Church in San Francisco was an act of Divine intervention. I was a full-time ministry student at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California from September 2002 to May 2005. And I had no intention of pursuing any pastoral opportunity at this time. But as they say, God works in mysterious ways and I ended up serving here as an interim pastor from September 1984 to May 1985. Glory to God.