Rev. Gary Heimbach, District Superintendent
Rev. Gary Heimbach is a native of Wheelersburg, Ohio, and grew up in the Cedar Street Church of Christ in Christian Union in New Boston, Ohio. At nine years old, Gary accepted Jesus as Savior at the altar of our Nipgen Junior Camp.
A 1989 graduate of Wheelersburg High School, Gary enrolled in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering. Not long afterward, following years of struggling and running, Gary accepted the call of God to a life of ministry and was entirely sanctified October 29, 1989. Gary enrolled at Ohio Christian University in January 1990, graduated in 1993 and was ordained in the old tabernacle on the Mount of Praise Campground in August 1993. During his years at OCU, Gary traveled with the college quartet in our churches and youth camps and worked in the enrollment department and student services.
Gary and his wife, the former Rae Cunningham, were married July 3, 1993, and began their married life in Wilmore, Kentucky, where Gary began studies at Asbury Theological Seminary, and from which he graduated in 1996 with a Master of Arts in Christian Education.
From 1994 to 2001 Gary served as pastor of Faith Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, the Gospel Tabernacle of Oak Hill, West Virginia, and the Belle Avenue CCCU in Delaware, Ohio. In July 2001, Gary received the great honor of a being called as Senior Pastor of his home church, Cedar Street Church of Christ in Christian Union in New Boston, Ohio, where he has now served for seventeen years.
Gary has served the denomination on several boards over the years including the SCD Board of Trustees, nineteen years as an Ohio Christian University trustee and as an adjunct faculty member in the college of Adult and Graduate Studies. Most recently, Gary was elected by the 2018 General Council to serve as Assistant General Superintendent.
Gary takes seriously Jesus’ call to be salt and light in the world and has served community organizations during his pastorate at Cedar Street Church including the board of the Southern Ohio Task Force on Domestic Violence and has been volunteer chaplain for Southern Ohio Medical Center. Gary currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for The Counseling Center, Inc., of Portsmouth, Ohio, a drug and alcohol treatment agency that serves clients in 58 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Gary and Rae, an RN employed by Compass Community Health of Portsmouth, have three children: Hannah, Abraham and Elizabeth. Hannah is a fourth year student at The Ohio State University and has recently married Joe Weaver. Hannah and Joe reside in Columbus and attend our Daybreak CCCU in Etna, Ohio. Abraham is a senior at Minford High School and Elizabeth is a junior. Both Abe and Elizabeth are fulltime students at Shawnee State University in the College Credit Plus program and are active in the youth ministry at Cedar Street Church.
Gary and Rae are deeply humbled to be asked to serve the district and the denomination in this way. Gary’s family roots in the CCCU go back more than 60 years and he counts the greatest influences in ministry to be his grandfather, Rev. Roy Heimbach, his pastor, Rev. Robert Barth but most of all his parents, Gary and Sharon Heimbach, who have modelled a relationship with Jesus and service to the Church and the Kingdom for all of his life.
