Mad City Church Pastor Resigns to Become Madison Police Officer

Saying he wants to serve the city in a new way, the senior pastor of one of Madison’s largest congregations has announced he’s stepping down to join the Madison Police Department.

Read more of this story at The Capital Times.

Audio interview with Shane Holden

Audio interview with David Couper

Shane Holden’s sermons at Mad City Church

April 29, 2007 Sermon, "Is that really You, God?"  Quotes:

I have a heart for the city of Madison, this (new job) is a good fit for me. I feel called to the City of madison. As far as I know I will die in the city of Madison; hopefully not in the next five years.

If something is growing it will change. If God is in it, change is a good thing. Mad City Church needs more than a pioneering preacher. Mad City Church needs someone to be a full-blown, full-time, Ephesians 4 (v. 12) type pastor.

When you live your life for God, what you do on-the-job 40 hours a week is holy and it’s ministry. The job of the church is to equip people for ministry. Out there (outside the church) is where ministry usually happens.

(Material left out of the Capital Times story) 

  David Couper says he’s never regretted leaving his police career for the pastorate. “Absolutely not, it’s been a great life,” he said. “However, I don’t think I would’ve been a great pastor at age 30. I needed some aging.”

   Even though he loved being a police officer, he says it can’t compare with being a pastor. “I really think God prepared me to be a pastor by putting me in the police department for so long,” he said. “It taught me a lot of lessons that help me be a pastor when everyone else is going crazy.”

   Couper says that because of his police training it takes a lot to shock or rattle him and that comes in handy when he needs to deal with people who are in personal crises.

   His congregation at North Lake is small. “On a good Sunday we might see 30 souls there.” Having a small congregation frees him up for other activities, including a course on marriage that he teaches with his wife Sabine. Before North Lake he was pastor of the Portage Episcopal Church.

   He’s a fan of the style of informal faith known as the emerging church, which is practiced at churches like Mad City Church.

   “It seems to me to be a direction we need to go,” he said. “I am like many of my brothers and sisters, am weary of denominationalism. I’m not much into denominations as long as Christ is central.”

   One of the things he enjoys about being an Anglican, he said, was the ability to worship together despite theological disagreements. However he expressed concern about the current level of disagreement over contentious issues within the Episcopal Church USA, which is threatening to pull the church apart.