ERMA – William Shelton Marsden is the new senior pastor of the Seashore Community Church of the Nazarene. His path to the pulpit, however, was anything but the traditional route, as the Lower Township native survived a horrific traffic accident that inalterably changed his career path.
Marsden, a name known locally through the electrical business his father operated with his brothers and later his sons, originally wanted to be a career fireman in Sweden. He said the parents of his best friend from church were not only from Sweden but from the same town – Gothenburg.
“I spent hours with them talking about Sweden,” he said.
“As I think about it, when you are born here you always dream of leaving a small town for something bigger.”
Marsden, 53, said he battled with dyslexia as a youth and struggled to get through high school, so he felt ill-prepared to go away to college, and there was no internet.
He decided he would become a career fireman in Sweden, but someone told him he would have to become an emergency medical technician, as well, to become a firefighter there.
With that goal in mind, he joined the Lower Township Rescue Squad while a senior in high school. Then, one night in 1989, the crew was taking a woman to Cape Regional Medical Center, and as they were making a turn at Stone Harbor Boulevard, the ambulance was struck by a car doing about 90 mph, operated by a drunk driver.
Marsden said he was ejected from the ambulance, and the woman they were transporting died. He said he had fractures in his back and neck, as well as head injuries.
The injuries ended his plans for a firefighting career, and over the next 18 months he suffered form depression and gained 40 pounds. Unable to deal with the weight gain, he started to go to the Quick Weight Loss center in Turnersville. There, he met Heather, who became his weight loss counselor, and in 1996 they married.
He ended up working for Marsden & Sons electrical contractors. He said his father’s father had been an electrician, but died when his father was just 13. His other grandfather became the groundskeeper/caretaker at the Tabernacle United Methodist Church on Seashore Road in Lower Township, which became the Marsden family church.
After getting married, the couple decided to find a church they would like as their home church and started visiting local churches. They visited Seashore Community Church of the Nazarene, also on Seashore Road, where they were greeted by then-Pastor Scott Durbin.
“He asked us if we had been there before, and we said it was our first time. He said it was his as well – his first time preaching there,” Marsden said.
Marsden said he felt that Christ was telling him to make his home at Seashore Community Church, and that he was called into the ministry even before being married. He said he was doing yardwork for his grandfather so he could go on a hunting trip to West Virginia when he felt Jesus speaking to him, saying, “Someday you will preach for me.”
He said he was willing, but to be a preacher he would need to go to college. Again, with the dyslexia and the internet not being what it is today, he would have had to go away to college.
“So, I ended up doing nothing for the better part of 20 years,” he said.
He said God was always in his ear, however, and he came to Christ through Bible studies. He said that over time Christ was revealing more to him from his word.
“I got to the point where he felt it was now or never,” Marsden said.
He enrolled in courses through Nazarene College about 10 years ago, and began to be mentored by former Pastor Tim West, who left in February 2023 to become a U.S. Navy chaplain. West is currently serving at the U.S. Marine Recruit Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina.
“He was invested in me and pouring into me years before the Navy,” he said.
Marsden said he has his district (minister) license at this time. He said the Nazarene Church has different sorts of licenses, including a lay minister license, a local license, which allows one to work under the authority of a pastor, and a district license, which assigns the title “reverend” and allows one to perform all the duties of a pastor despite not having completed the schooling. Marsden is also a registered evangelist in the Nazarene Church.
He was named interim pastor after West’s departure and became the senior pastor as of Sunday, March 10. He said he feels his main calling is in the area of evangelism, and his “dream of dreams” would be to travel to other churches, leading revivals. Otherwise, he said, “the Lord said to be available.”
He said he would continue to support the compassionate ministries that have been a part of the Seashore Community Church of the Nazarene for many years, and which he said are a traditional hallmark of the Nazarene Church.
Contact the author, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
