Peter Castles
Peter Castles has been pastor of Cedar Park First UMC since June, 2010. He served as pastor of three other Austin-area United Methodist churches before coming to Cedar Park. Peter and his wife Pam, who is a Wesley Nurse in Austin, have two daughters, a son-in-law, and a grandson.
Interesting tidbits about Peter:
- Dream vacation: Traveling through Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
- What’s your regular order at Starbucks: tall Caffe Latte (in fact, at one point the church youth group called me “Pastor Latte”)
- Favorite movie: King of Hearts
- Life motto: Love is all you need.
- Favorite scripture: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
- Previous jobs: Youth minister (right out of college) and after that, a commercial architect in Houston, Texas for 17 years
- Music that moves me: Anything Jodi Blount plays on Sunday
- Favorite book: The Bible (duh!)
- In my spare time I . . . read a lot; also, my wife and I enjoy watching any good British TV show mystery
- Least favorite food: For some reason, I’m not all that crazy about sweet potatoes
- What makes you laugh: Church people can be pretty hilarious a lot of the time.
- What’s weird about you: I can act like a complete goof-ball sometimes
- Least favorite thing to do: I absolutely hate cleaning out the cat litter box!
- Least known thing about you: My father, my wife, both our daughters, and I are or will be graduates of the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em!)
Suzette Thorpe Johnson
Suzette Thorpe Johnson joined our church in July 2019 serving as Associate Pastor. She is primarily focused on BE LIGHT YOUTH ministry along with congregational care. Suzette led the BE LIGHT YOUTH to the Holy Land in 2022 and Methodist Roots: England 2025 exploring the ministry of the founders of Methodist faith tradition. Suzette has served as Senior Pastor at Fentress UMC, College ministry at Texas State (Eat ‘Em Up Cats!), and Pastor of Intergenerational Ministry at Buda UMC. Suzette graduated with her Masters of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2015.
Currently serves as a full-time Biology teacher at Rouse High School in Leander ISD. Her teaching career has spanned middle and high school science to at-risk youth in Lockhart, East Austin and Hays CISD. In addition, she home-schooled all three children.
Tidbits about Suzette:
- Eldest son graduated from UTSA biomedical engineering, UT LONG medical school and is currently in residency at Emory University specializing in pediatrics. My bonus daughter serves as a police woman in their community
- My second son graduated from U of Houston with a business degree. He owes his own real estate and insurance companies. He is engaged to my other bonus daughter, who is in management for Panda Express.
- My daughter M, graduated high school at 16 and is currently pursuing her associate degree in dance at ACC. She plans to study her art in Europe next.
- Favorite non-biblical book: To Kill a Mockingbird BUT I read a TON of BOOKS and I might just have a ton of books in my collection but it is nothing compared to Peter’s book repository.
- Travels include: 42 of the 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii as well as Ireland, Guatemala, France, England, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Lichtenstein, Austria, and my all-time favorite: The Holy Lands!!
- One of my favorite foods: For some reason, I really like sweet potatoes.
Jodi Blount
Jodi Blount has an amazing heart both for music and for children. She has been the church’s pianist and choir director since 2000, and she was the founding director of A Child’s Haven, the church’s Mother’s Day Out program. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. After serving as director of A Child’s Haven for seven years, Jodi now teaches piano and music at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin.
Stephanie Talley
Stephanie Talley, our office manager, edits the weekly Happenings and takes care of the church office. She also teaches piano lessons at the church.
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