About Eric

Rev. Dr. Eric Atcheson is an ordained pastor in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the author of two books: Oregon Trail Theology: The Frontier Millennial Christians Face—And How We’re Ready (Church Publishing, 2018) and On Earth as it is in Heaven: A Faith-Based Toolkit for Economic Justice (Church Publishing, 2020). Eric is a church minister by training who has dedicated himself through his preaching, speaking, and writing to his calling as a prophetic and pastoral voice rooted in the Scriptures. A wordsmith and storyteller, Eric believes in the grace and truth found in the logos, the Word. His preaching and teaching on God’s Word aims to reflect that grace and truth. And as a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, Eric's ethnic identity is woven into his passion for social justice and human rights.

A “basket-to-casket” Disciple of Christ, Eric’s life is a modern-day Oregon Trail story (minus the dysentery and requisite background in banking, farming, or carpentry). Eric was born and raised in Kansas before enrolling at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies. He then moved to Berkeley, California, to earn a Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion and a post-baccalaureate certificate in Jewish studies from the Graduate Theological Union. He subsequently returned to the Pacific Northwest and earned a Doctor of Ministry from Seattle University, with his doctoral thesis about the intersection of Christian values and labor union activism in southwest Washington state.

Eric currently serves as an associate chaplain for the Ascension St. Vincent's hospital system. As a church minister, he served as the minister of Valley Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Birmingham, Alabama, from 2020 to 2022, the interim director of family ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Washington, from 2018 to 2020, and the minister of the historic First Christian Church in Longview, Washington, from 2011 to 2018. While completing his seminary studies in California, Eric spent two years as a student associate minister at First Christian Church in Concord, California, and he completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Eric lives in Hoover, Alabama, with his wife, daughter, and their two dogs, and he loves exploring the Birmingham area's many parks, trails, and other outdoor spaces with them. As a Jayhawker from Kansas married to a North Carolina Tar Heel, he is an avowed agnostic in the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.

Primary photo by Ryan Erlandsen.

Ministry photos by Don and Lori Powell.