Kelly Chatman

I love showing people about God. I love loving people, I love making people smile. I love making people know that people care about them. It doesn’t matter what your religion is. It doesn’t matter what your background is, if we can connect with that love for other people, for your classmates, for your community, you can make a tremendous difference.

Kelly Chatman

My name is Pastor Kelly Chatman. I was born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1951. In my family there are seven brothers and five sisters. When I was four years old my parents moved to Detroit, Michigan. My father was a mailman and also worked at the Tiger Baseball stadium.

Growing up in the 60's I listened to the great Motown musicians like The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. In college I listened to music of James Taylor and Carol King. They wrote many songs about peace. Music is very important because it brings people together.

After I graduated from High School I went to college in Minnesota. I didn't even know where Minnesota was. I started my college career at Concordia University in St. Paul. I then went to Seminary, which was like graduate School. After I graduated I spent 10 years in Washington DC and then moved to Portland, Oregon.

When I was your age one of my teachers had us read a book about the mountains and the ocean. When I closed that book I thought to myself that I would like to see all the stuff in that book. As an adult, when I lived to Portland Oregon I discovered the mountains and oceans.

I have visited all 50 states. I’ve traveled all over the world. Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany. Israel, Jordan. In 2010 my wife and me traveled to Israel and Jordan. On that trip we could see how big the world really was. My wife and I never had any children of our own, but we have many children in our church and neighborhood.

As a young man I stood up to a bully who was bothering my friend. What I learned was sometimes I have more power and less fear when I love somebody else, when I care about somebody else. Love is really powerful force. Sometimes what we won’t do for ourselves, we’ll do for other people because there’s a love that we have in us for people that we care about. I use to watch Martin Luther King Jr. on T.V. and loved the way Martin stood up against things that were really wrong. Martin did that because he loved people.

In my life I have been a teacher, a chaplain and now a Pastor. I love being a Pastor because it brings wonderful people into my life. As a Pastor at Redeemer Church I get to welcome people into the church and community.

I’d like to tell you 5th graders about both the hard times and the easy times. The easy times are the fun times, but the hard times are very important because they make you learn, become stronger and closer to other people. As a kid when I got in trouble I would sit on the steps of the house and pray. I would ask God to get me out of trouble.

I love the North Side. The people are resilient and diverse. We might not have very much, but the blessings flow from the north side.