Reverend finds new home at Bloomfield church

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — United Park Methodist is thriving under the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Korkuch, 57, a New Jersey native who assumed his current duties as lead pastor on July 1, 2021.
Korkuch grew up in the borough of Chatham, having lived for a short time as a child in Irvington. His father was a 35-year veteran for Prudential Insurance Co., and his mother worked for Kemper Insurance Co. He is the first person in his family to enter the clergy.

“My mother was a devoted Roman Catholic,” he said in a Jan. 25 telephone interview. “So was my grandmother, who was a big influence on my religious upbringing. But certain things in Roman Catholicism didn’t agree with me, and I drifted away. But there are a lot of good things in Catholic roots.”

Korkuch worked part- and full-time at Bloomingdale’s at the Short Hills Mall for 12 years. This paid his tuition at the County College of Morris and at Rutgers University, where he majored in history and religion. He has an associate’s degree from CCM and a bachelor’s degree in history and religion from Rutgers.

While at the state university, he came under the influence of two educators, Mahlon H. Smith and Bart D. Ehrman. Ehrman is now a well-known scriptural and biblical writer whom Korkuch said he knew before he became famous. Smith was an ordained pastor.

“Professor Smith identified me for potential parish ministry, a pastor of a church,” Korkuch said. “He encouraged me to go to graduate school for biblical studies from a scholarly point of view, not a faith-based point of view.”

After Rutgers, Korkuch was accepted to Drew University, where he received a Master of Divinity. It was at Drew that his calling to the ministry became clear.

He considers himself a good match for Park United Methodist because he and the congregants share common concerns for social justice, the diversity of the church and its community outreach programs.

“I’m a people person,” Korkuch said.
His first worship at Park United was July 4, 2021.
“We had to scramble to figure out how to do virtual worship,” he said. “You need to figure out the protocols. It’s hard in a church. People want to be close.”

Korkuch’s family lived in a house built in 1867 after they moved to Chatham from Irvington when Korkuch was 4 years old. He recently purchased the residence from his brothers and is restoring it.
“I keep a lot of it the way my mother kept it. I’ve had the house for over a year,” he said.

Korkuch also enjoys Eastern European cooking and reading biographies, military histories and books on rock ’n’ roll. Although he has not done it yet at Park United Methodist, he has at other postings given sermons based on music by the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

“There’s a lot of good secular music,” he said. “You can take the Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’ or ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys and tie in a God theme. That’s what I did with eight of their songs.”

He has also read extensively about John Lennon and Adm. Horatio Nelson.
“I only read nonfiction,” he said. “People give me a lot of grief for that.”
For church sermons, Korkuch said he is following the lectionary, which provides him with weekly readings. A theme will jump out at him, he said.

“I’m a storyteller,” he said. “Stories connect with people. You’re not teaching a class; you’re offering a ray of hope.”
Korkuch begins his sermon preparation a week ahead, on the preceding Monday, and he tries to be finished by Thursday.

Prior to coming to Bloomfield, Korkuch was the lead pastor at Westwood UMC, Archer UMC in Allendale and First UMC in Moorestown. He has two adult sons.