Hobby Outten '85, Renaissance Pastor
by Alex Richardson '85

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Hobby Outten has traveled a unique and fruitful road in becoming Pastor at the King of Glory Lutheran Church in North Myrtle Beach. This road was no direct line, and one would have a difficult time locating it on a map, much less navigating it. One would have to possess the kind of enthusiasm for experience and determination to accomplish goals that Hobby has demonstrated for as long as I have known him.

Hobby attended CCES for 13 years, but is perhaps best remembered as the ferocious middle linebacker who led the Cavaliers into battle every Friday night in autumn. His success on the gridiron earned him the opportunity to play college football at Hampden-Sydney. After a year, he transferred to the University of Georgia where he studied cultural anthropology. Later he earned a master's degree in Environmental Science from Washington State University, not exactly the customary course of study for a young pastor, especially when you throw in successful stints as organic farmer and celebrated story-teller.

However, Hobby recognizes a distinct progression. As a candidate for the Lutheran Seminary in Columbia, Hobby was asked to write an autobiography, a project he would continue to develop throughout his years as a seminary student. In it, he defines his academic path; first at the University of Georgia, studying man's relationship to man, then at Washington State studying man's relationship to Nature, and finally completing the trinity, studying man's relationship to God.

I asked Hobby how he reconciled his scientific background with his faith. He explained that he was "never on a mission to disprove God, but rather to study Nature as God's creation." He added, "to read the Bible as a literalist is to miss the point: that we're alienated from God and seeking reconciliation." As a cultural anthropologist, Hobby faced the same question that every congregation faces: "How do we organize ourselves as a community?"

It was the community of CCES that provided Hobby with his academic and spiritual foundation. He readily acknowledges that he took more communion at chapel services during the school week than he did at his family's church. "The whole rhythm of being in a Christian school shapes you, whether you understand it at the time or not." Christian education courses allowed Hobby's inquisitive nature to develop. He recalls in particular a class with Father John Westcott, marked by lively discussion and what Hobby calls "sparring." He appreciates the patience and respect he received in the classroom, that regardless of his opinions, he was never belittled for expressing them.

The "rhythm" of life at CCES shaped Hobby to such a degree that in his first performance of the Eucharist, he lapsed into the language of the Episcopal liturgy, offering his congregation the "cup of salvation" rather than the preferred nomenclature of his Lutheran church. It is a story Hobby tells effectively and with a slight chuckle. After all, storytelling is yet another of Hobby's accomplishments that serves him well in the pulpit.

Of all the stories I've heard Hobby recite, the one I remember most he delivered to a group of children suffering with chronic blood disorders and cancer at Camp Courage. The children ranged in ages from 8 to 18, and not a one of them stirred or lost focus by the campfire as Hobby rendered a Rudyard Kipling classic along the banks of Lake Summit. Afterward, campers, counselors and chaperones alike approached Hobby, thanked him and asked for more. He engaged them and laughed with them and ministered to them all with the most valuable asset he has: his personality.

What Hobby has is Hobby's own. It's a story that makes perfect sense, in retrospect. Not many of us could have predicted the path from middle linebacker to pastor, but Hobby saw it, and looking back now, every step along the way seems essential to fulfilling Hobby's mission.

So the next time you're close enough to smell Myrtle Beach, drop in to the King of Glory Lutheran Church. They have a great young pastor.

About the Author: Inducted into the 2002 Sports Hall of Fame, Alex Richardson '85 graduated from CCES (along with Hobby) in '85. He lives in Spartanburg with Farrar Bishop '87 and children, Zelle, 7, and Bishop, 4.