Meet The Pastor
Lead Pastor Rev Melissa Ashmore
Melissa completed her MDiv from a distance of over 1,700 miles from her degree granting institution, Andover Newton Seminary. Along the way, she was able to interact in online classrooms from 5 different theological schools. Melissa is the lead pastor at First Community UCC Dallas. She maintains ordained standing in the North Texas Association of the UCC where she serves in leadership roles and in outreach/community ministry. Prior to ministry, her industry was healthcare administration where she worked primarily on the technology side in clinical research, quality, reporting and data warehousing. She is passionate about interfaith and environmental advocacy. She is known in her community as Running Reverend from serving the running and cycling community while training for the Chicago and Boston marathons. That ministry has now been transformed into serving people of all faiths or no faith as a wedding officiant. She and her wife Lora have two children that are active in the church/