Assistant pastor ordained

Good Shepherd Wesleyan Church recently announced the ordination of its assistant pastor. Dr. John Yacenda was ordained July 5 at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego during the annual Pacific Southwest District Conference of the Wesleyan Church.

Pastor Yacenda will present his first sermon as an ordained minister on "The Power of Three" at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Good Shepherd.

Yacenda was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the La Crescenta foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. He attended Catholic elementary school and St. Francis High School, where he was a multi-sport athlete. Yacenda went on to earn his associate of arts and bachelor of science degrees, and then his Masters in Public Health from University of California, Los Angeles. A few years later he returned to Union Institute & University to earn his Ph.D. in psychology.

Yacenda served as the director and spiritual leader of an adolescent Teen Challenge Center for five years, before his appointment in October 2008 as assistant pastor at Good Shepherd Wesleyan Church in Carson City. He was enrolled in Wesleyan Ministerial Training for two and a half years before taking his Ministerial Board interviews.

Pastor Marvin H. Dennis Jr. has inspired Yacenda to preach the Word of God without hesitation, he said, and he looks to his many ministerial professors as the bedrock of his growth in ministry. He added that his wife, Terry, and her mother, Christine Rasner, are the most inspirational people in his life.

For more information, please call the church office at 775-885-8361.

The Wesleyan Church was founded in the late 1700s, by Methodist minister, John Wesley, and is a Bible-believing evangelical church with an International church presence.