After Trinity Oaks Chaplain Pastor Brenda Bynum retired, the community began its search for someone to fill her shoes. That person was Pastor Jill King.
Pastor King’s move to Trinity Oaks was all about timing. After she was recommended for the position by Bishop Tim Smith from the North Carolina Synod, Trinity Oaks Executive Director Bill Johnson called her just as she was considering making a career move.
“I was very interested because I had been at my parish for 24 years and for various reasons, I was feeling a need to take on something new,” King said. “I was ready for a new challenge, new opportunities, and a new place.”
Pastor King is from Asheboro, North Carolina. She attended Western Carolina University and seminary at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Before her ordination, she was a teacher and assistant principal in Cumberland County Schools.
It was during her time as an assistant principal that she started to struggle with God’s call.
“I’d gone down to visit seminary and I liked the feeling there,” she said. “It was just like God has opened up a window and said ‘Go.’”
So, she went to seminary and continued to follow the call, which she said took her to some exciting places. She had an internship in New Mexico, worked as chaplain in two hospitals, and then spent 24 years at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Durham, North Carolina.
In her new role at Trinity Oaks, she will tend to the spiritual needs of residents as well as participants at Trinity Living Center.
“I’m looking forward to continuing the work that Brenda had done over the years she was here, but also branching into some other areas of service and care,” King said. “I’m really excited to be here.”