Tim Holley, upper school history teacher, is taking on the new role as the spiritual life director next year to oversee chapel and provide counseling to students. Holley will be organizing chapel and choosing the themes. Along with the planning, he will oversee the chapel band and the spiritual life team.

“I will continue to teach two history classes and will be counseling students, but it will be more of proactive counseling. My role will involve talking, mentoring, and hanging out with students during the school day. A lot of students feel like they cannot talk about problems with people and I want to be there as someone who is willing to listen to what is going on and offer perspective when it is needed,” said Holley.

As a mentor, Holley will focus on helping the guys at Westminster because he can better relate to them, but he will be there for anyone who needs to talk.

 “I went to school at Westminster, so I know a lot of the things kids go through and it can be hard to deal with them all alone. I have observed that many students at Westminster are struggling with similar issues that my friends and I were, and I empathize with a lot of the feelings, frustrations, and doubts that students have. At the end of the day, the job is not about me, but I know that the Lord can use my brokenness and my story to relate to some of the students that are here,” said Holley.

Holley went back and forth about whether he wanted to do full-time ministry or teach, and now he has the opportunity to do both. He also sees teaching as a ministry in itself because he can show love to his students and share his biblical knowledge and stories with them about his own walk with God.

“My passion is ministry, and I feel like my gifts line up with this opportunity and will be a good fit for me and will hopefully help students in their own relationship with God. I want students to be able to walk into chapel and feel engaged in the worship, and that, to me, is more important than anything I could do,” said Holley.

 The ministry at Westminster will expand as Holley reaches out to interact with other churches in the area. Westminster focuses on the connection between home, school, and church, so making those outer connections will be an aid in increasing the spiritual foundation of the school. 

“I want to come along other students and faculty members at Westminster to help change the culture of this school. I pray that this will be a community where people can be authentic in their relationships by having honest conversations about their faith and struggles.  The administration values spiritual growth, so we want to challenge students as much as possible. I have no idea how God will use me, but that is exciting to me to see how God will work. I hope that I will be able to set up a structure and system that will continue long after I am gone,” said Holley.

The spiritual life team, chapel program, and counseling department look forward to benefiting from Holley and his desire to follow the Lord and bring others closer to Him.

“We believe that God has gifted Mr. Tim Holley for this role and called him to impact spiritual growth of students through personal relationships, discipling, counseling, and providing a dynamic, spiritually edifying chapel program,” said Jim Marsh, head of school.