David V. Summers, Ph.D., was appointed Senior Pastor at Lakeview UMC on July 1, 2021. Prior to his appointment, he served for twelve years as senior pastor at of Paradise Valley UMC and nine years as senior pastor of Tempe First UMC, a downtown church surrounded by Arizona State University.
Pastor Dave received his Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University and worked as a management consultant for Fortune 100 companies on projects of strategic planning, innovation and organizational change. He attended seminary at Boston University School of Theology and has been a United Methodist pastor since 1986. Before returning to Arizona, Dave served churches in Boston, Santa Cruz, Salinas and Carmel, CA. He took some time off from parish ministry and served as president/CEO of United Way of Monterey County for several years and also worked for a youth violence prevention initiative as director of policy and resource development. He was president of the Interfaith Disaster Recovery Project following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 that led recovery efforts throughout northern Santa Cruz County.
Pastor Dave is well respected for his preaching skills and worship leadership. He has written and conducted numerous workshops on managing change and creating spiritual formation in the congregation. Here in Arizona, he served as chair of the Covenant Council of the Desert Southwest Conference and now chairs the Strategic Planning Team. He has been on the board of the Tempe Community Council and received their ©3 award for community leadership. His past churches have received awards for diversity, recognition from HUD for housing services for the homeless and the Conference’s Church Multiplication Award.
Pastor Dave has a strong interest in leading dynamic worship and building the church’s mission and vision to reach our secular culture. Helping people to meet and know the living God in their faith is vital to his ministry.
In his spare time, Dave enjoys gardening and making fiery chili. Dave and his wife, Kim, like to work together as partners in ministry, often leading and teaching. Kim is a registered nurse, who has spent years working in emergency rooms and home care settings. She received her medical training in the Army. She has been actively involved in teaching faith formation classes, leading Stephen Ministry, providing parish nurse activities and supporting the audio-visual ministry in the church. They have four children: (Danielle, who died in 2011), Marc (who is in the Air Force in Florida), Lindsey (who works in the banking industry in New York City) and Andrew (who works on the staff of a Christian camp in Santa Cruz, CA.). Kim and Dave are both dog lovers and especially love caring for the dogs in their household, plus the aquatic turtle and large fish in their outdoor koi pond.
