Dave McGinley

Senior Pastor

Pastor Dave was born in Milwaukee, grew up in Chesterfield, MO, until middle school, and then lived in Woodbury, MN, until college. Pastor Dave was raised in the Lutheran church, getting baptized at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, WI, at just a few weeks old and then confirmed at Woodbury Lutheran Church in Woodbury, MN, as a teenager. His family attended church regularly and enjoyed finding ways to serve and put their faith into action, which opened Dave’s eyes at a young age to how the church is unique in its servant attitude:  We are called not to just think of ourselves but to focus on others as Jesus did.  Pastor Dave married his wife Gretchen in 2008 and has three awesome kids, Malachi, Raelynn, and Romy.  As a family, the McGinleys like to be active. The family tries to eat dinner together every night and answer these questions: Where did you see God today? What was your favorite part of the day?

Pastor Dave developed a strong relationship with Jesus during his college years. Encouraged by a mentor, he felt called to pursue ministry as a full-time career, and subsequently transferred to CUC, where he studied to be a Director of Christian Education (DCE). Pastor Dave served his DCE internship and first call at St. John Lutheran Church and School in Defiance, IL, for a total of 2.5 years. His next call took him to be Youth Leader at Grace Lutheran Church in Knoxville, TN, where he served for 2.5 years. While Pastor Dave enjoyed youth ministry, he always felt called to ultimately be a pastor and moved to St. Louis in the summer of 2012 to attend Concordia Seminary. While at the seminary, Pastor Dave and Gretchen went through the Church Planter Assessment Course and ultimately felt led to pursue church planting with Pastor Dave’s first pastoral call. 

Pastor Dave’s first call as a pastor was to serve as an Associate Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago, a multi-site church with four locations serving the greater Chicago area. Pastor Dave served on the multi-site Leadership Team and was the Lead Pastor at the Trinity Galewood location. Pastor Dave’s call to Trinity was specifically to start a new church location in an old building that had closed two years earlier, and by the grace of God and through lots of prayer, he focused on community connections, wise strategic moves, creativity, and building relationships while he was there.  In July 2021 Pastor Dave accepted the call to be the next Senior Pastor at Webster Gardens, and we are excited to see how God will work through Pastor Dave as he leads and partners with our community to shape WG ministries into the future.