MEET OUR PASTOR

Joe Tarpley joined the Skyland Church Family on July 1, 2022. Joe is a native
of Rome, Georgia. He attended (and loved his years at) Young Harris College, Kennesaw State University
and Emory University (Atlanta). Joe is also a product of Clinical Pastoral Education having served in
several hospital chaplaincy roles in Atlanta and throughout North Carolina. He is married to Veranita
Alvord, the lead pastor of the Brevard First United Methodist Church. Together, they have 2 remarkable
children: Olivia and Ivan. Olivia is the Leadership Alliances Coordinator for the Americans for the Arts
located in Washington, DC. Ivan is a very successful sophomore at the University of North Carolina,
Greensboro. Veranita and Joe have a small Yorkie named Nico. Nico provides a lot of “off-time” fun and
entertainment.

Joe has served churches in both the North Georgia and Western North Carolina areas of the United
Methodist Church. He has served in rural, urban and suburban settings. He has been a part of a large
church staff, a pastor of multiple church “charges,” as well as a county seat church. Joe has worked with
all levels of children’s, youth and adult ministries. He has been active in larger denominational work
(particularly youth ministry). He has been active in town government, a brewery start-up and in service
organizations.

Joe has a passion for the Sunday morning worship experience. He is a lover of rich liturgy and has deep
affection for sacramental and historical theology. At the same time Joe understands the emerging need
for worship that is relevant, and for worship that connects all ages of persons who seek God. Joe has a
strong desire to see the community of faith find their place within bible studies/spiritual formation
groups, missional engagements, and in ministries that touch the lives of those who find themselves on
the margins of society.

Apart from church, Joe enjoys his family. He enjoys travelling with his family; he enjoys living in the
mountains and the activity that “mountain life” has to offer. Joe enjoys theatre, opera, and classical
music. He is particularly fond of the organ. “The organ has the power to evoke the widest range of
emotions in an individual or in a crowd of those at worship. It can lift those who hear it to tremendous
heights.” For Joe, music is very special whether traditional hymnody or Elevation Worship or Gospel.

Joe struggles with the apostle Paul. Yet, Joe has found even greater insights from the apostle’s writings.
A particular verse that speaks to Joe is Romans 8:38, 39—“For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.”