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Our Pastor, Tony Chance, has been "up Front" for a long time.
Even before he was a pastor, Tony was performing in a variety of locations around the world for over 40 years, entertaining folks with songs, drama and humor. Tony was still a teenager when he began singing at Al Hirt's place in the French Quarter of New Orleans... he played piano and sang in Las Vegas, London, New York, Chicago and Florida... Tony performed with stars like Don Rickles, Jackie Gleason, Mike Douglas, Frankie Ford, and the list goes on and on.
But in 1995, Tony gave up the bright lights to answer a different calling when he began the process of becoming a pastor. Tony completed his formal theological education at Duke University Divinity School and was commissioned by the United Methodist Church as a pastor in 1998. He served as the Pastor of Worship and the Arts at Christ Church United Methodist in Fort Lauderdale until his appointment July 1, 2007 as the pastor of Azalea Park United Methodist Church in Orlando.
His appointment to Azalea Park, Pastor Tony says, is a gift from God. He loves being able to know everybody in the congregation almost as much as he enjoys personally welcoming newcomers ( that, doesn't happen in a big church!). Tony is loving being a part of a motivated and active ministry team that includes folks from all walks of life... Azalea park is just an exciting place to serve God.
While you can take the pastor out of the performance, you cannot take performing out of the pastor... Tony has continued his evangelical outreach in supper clubs and other secular venues, even while he has used his gifts of preaching and teaching in his church ministry. Tony travels to churches around the state with a self-contained worship concert. The Tony Chance Music Ministry offers Tony another way to reach out to share Jesus' love, especially with folks who feel far from God. The message is simple, but life-changing-- a description of grace that can be heard and embraced by people who might never step foot into a regular church service.
On January 1, 2007, Tony married Rev. Clare Watson, the pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Orlando. The happy couple live with their two dogs in the Conway area of Orlando. Tony and Clare share four daughters. Tony is the proud father of two grown daughters; Devon, a seventh grade teacher in Rockville, Md.; and Lauren, who has completed her Master of Divinity Degree at Duke and is now serving, Park Hill United Methodist Church in Denver. Clare's daughters, Lela and Emily, are College students at F.S.U. and Wake Forest. The Chances are also obnoxiously proud grandparents of three grandsons - Lincoln, who is two years old, Miller, just born in November, and Carter, who made his entrance the first of February.
We are extremely excited to have Pastor Tony as our pastor. We believe his gifts, passions, and sense of God’s leadership will help us reach new heights, and that God has blessed us with a great pastor to help us do ministry HIS way.
You can E-mail Tony at pastortony@azaleaparkumc.org, or better yet, Come on by and get to know him at our 11 a.m. service here at Azalea Park this Sunday. Come see what the excitement is all about. We'd love to see you here.
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Past
Click here to learn more about the history of Azalea Park United Methodist Church
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