SOUTHAMPTON — After years of interim pastors, the First Congregational Church of Southampton has welcomed Rosemary Dawson to serve as its designated term pastor. Dawson is bringing her years of experience and enthusiasm to Southampton with hopes of leading the church into its future as a hub of community support.

“We have been searching for this person and position for going on four years,” said Susan Teece, one of four search team members at the church tasked with finding a new pastor. “What sparked us was her energy and her ability to listen, and also her ability to give feedback.”

Teece said that she and her fellow search team members believe in Dawson’s ability to help the church evolve and grow with the times, making its message more appealing to the younger generations and its mission even more ingrained in the community.

Dawson, originally from South Windsor, Connecticut, currently lives in Agawam and was ordained more than 30 years ago. She transitioned into the United Church of Christ around the year 2000, and has served in many interim positions since then. Throughout her years of service, she has gained experience in helping churches transition between pastors and also evolve their methods and missions to meet modern needs.

Most recently, Dawson served at the Trinitarian Congregational Church in Northfield.

“My primary role with them was to help them understand and establish their mission, which I’ll probably be doing something similar here,” said Dawson. “I’m looking forward to helping this church move into the future, whatever that looks like.”

Though she has only been in her new position in Southampton for a handful of days, Dawson said she already has been “stunned” by how involved the First Congregational Church of Southampton is in the community. She noted that she looks forward to bolstering that community involvement and getting to stay with the Southampton congregation to see their work come to fruition.

In particular, Dawson has enjoyed the church’s regular “At-Table Worships,” where the group sings hymns and listens to scripture, but also gets to discuss their responses openly over refreshments.

“I’ve enjoyed hearing what other people believe,” Dawson said, explaining that her style has always been about engaging the congregation. “I like the congregation to be involved instead of just listening to me talk the whole time,” she laughed.

Some of the main goals Dawson said the church presented her with were establishing it as a center for the community and expanding its congregation, especially among younger people. Dawson believes that “finding a focus” will be key to achieving these goals. Personally, addressing poverty in the community has been an interest of Dawson’s. She noted that by expanding some of the church’s existing community programs like its clothing donations and food pantry, they could make a real difference.

“There’s a lot of poverty around us. The food bank is great, I wish more people utilized that,” she said. “I think that would be a great gift by the church to the community.”

Dawson also said that bringing in community members across generations will require a balance between preserving what the older generations know and love about their church while also evolving to make the church more appealing to younger community members.

“Getting the church to incorporate things that younger people would be interested in will be very important,” Dawson said. “You have to know how to speak to that younger group.”

She said that engaging members of the church in meaningful discussions, like those at the “At-Table Worships,” as well as engaging deeply with the community through service will be key to continuing its work.

“I think the future of the church is it’s not going to be the old white building on the hill,” said Dawson. “Instead we’ll go out in the community, doing God’s work, and from there drawing people into this community of faith.”

Dawson encourages community members to “explore spirituality in whatever way it happens for you.”

“It’s hard work, but it’s fun, and it makes a difference in the world,” she said.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.