The Rev. Amos Disasa

Denomination: Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA)
Organization: Downtown Church (PCUSA), Columbia, SC

Amos Disasa was born in Ethiopia. Currently, he is the Co-Pastor at DOWNTOWN CHURCH, a new Presbyterian (USA) congregation in downtown Columbia that he launched in 2011. DOWNTOWN CHURCH chartered in December of 2014 with 250 members. Since then the church has nearly doubled in size.

In early 2018, the church will move to a newly renovated 17,000 square foot facility downtown in the BullStreet Commons development.

Before he began this most recent phase of his ministry, from 2006-2011 Amos was associate pastor at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, also in Columbia. From 2001 to 2002 he worked with former street children for Hope Unlimited for Children, in Brazil.

Amos's academic preparation includes earning a Bachelor of Arts in 2001 from Presbyterian College, Clinton, S.C., and a Master of Divinity in 2006 from Wake For” est University, Wake Forest, N.C.

Amos is committed to the well being of the people of his home city and contributes through his work with several organizations. He founded:

• The Foot Care Ministry, dedicated to easing the physical, spiritual, and emotional pain of Columbia's homeless by providing foot care in an atmosphere of respect, equality, and Christian love.

• Light the Way, a coalition of churches serving homeless men and women.

He was a founding board member of Transitions, a program designed to help people move from homelessness to permanent housing. Other boards on which he has served include Columbia Development Corporation and The River Alliance.

Amos has been a Trustee of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary since 2014 and presently serves on the Presidential Search Committee. He is also on the Board of Directors for The Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia.

Among Amos Disasa's honors are having been selected as a 2008 Participant of the Kittye Susan Trent Symposium, which assists newly ordained pastors who show promise for leading larger congregations. He was a recipient of the Collegeville Insti” tute Fellowship, a program that brings an ecumenical group of participants together with professionals from other sectors to help strengthen church leaders' sense of themselves as civic leaders and public theologians. In addition, he was a preacher at the 2011 and 2017 Montreat Summer Worship Series; 2013 Preacher at NEXT Church Conference; 2013 Preacher at Montreat Youth Conference; 2015 Preacher at the College Conference at Montreat; the preacher/lecturer at the 2016 Pace-War” ren Lecture Series in Lexington; and has been invited to preach on Day1, the nation” al ecumenical radio program and podcast

Amos writing has been published in Presbyterian Outlook magazine and he was a contributing author to the Feasting on the Gospels commentary set.

Amos and his wife Sarah have two children, Abraham (7) and Shepherd (5).