David S. Kessler has been called as bivocational pastor of Pelion Baptist Church. A graduate of Fruitland Baptist Bible College and Wingate University with additional studies at Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity, Kessler comes to Pelion after 12 years of pastoring North Carolina churches and 10 years as director of religious education for the U.S. Army Chaplaincy in Europe as well as Fort Drum and West Point, N.Y. He and his wife, Gloria, are the parents of five children. Kessler succeeds Matthew K. Boyle, who served as transitional pastor for the past two and a half years.