Finding Joy in Embracing Others
MARCH 23, 2026
Rev. Dr. Teresa Cho, St. John’s Presbyterian Church
For Rev. Dr. Teresa Cho, theology wasn’t always a source of life. Growing up, faith often felt heavy—more obligation than joy. She remembers reaching an early conclusion that “God was not fun,” and with that came the quiet frustration of trying to belong inside a story that didn’t seem to leave room for her questions, her complexity, or her delight.
Today, Cho serves as pastor of St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco—a congregation intentionally shaped to welcome people across a wide range of relationships to church and belief: the spiritually curious, the wounded, the skeptical, the interfaith, the trauma-aware, the LGBTQ community, and those who simply need a place where they can breathe. The empathy and clarity she brings to that work didn’t come from a perfect faith journey. It came from wrestling her way through it—and discovering joy on the other side.
A THEOLOGICAL PLAYGROUND
Before seminary, Cho worked as a special education teacher, an experience that trained her to recognize what many people miss: everyone arrives with different needs, different barriers, and different ways of learning and changing. That same attentiveness became pastoral wisdom when she arrived at McCormick Theological Seminary—not just to study, but to figure out who she was becoming.
“MTS was a theological playground for me,” she recalls. At McCormick, she found a community where questions weren’t punished—they were welcomed. The space felt safe enough to search without fear of judgment, and strong enough to hold the deeper work underneath the search: identity, call, and healing.
“SHE SHOWED ME WHAT WAS POSSIBLE.”
Cho credits Rev. Mary Paik, former Vice President of Student Affairs and a powerful pastor, as one of the first people who helped her imagine a different future. Introduced through a friend, Paik became living proof that a Korean American woman could lead with authority, joy, and spiritual depth. For Cho, that mattered. It challenged the doctrinal assumptions she’d absorbed about women in ministry and opened her to the possibility that faith could be expansive—not restrictive.
That initial connection led her to look more closely at McCormick, and the school’s diversity and urban setting confirmed it: this was where she needed to be.
RECOVERING JOY—THEN CREATING SPACE FOR OTHERS TO FIND IT
As she pursued Theology and Korean-American Religious Studies, Cho began to discover something she hadn’t always associated with faith: joy. Seminary didn’t erase her questions; it gave her a framework for living them with honesty, courage, and community. It helped her strip away the joylessness that had clung to belief and replace it with a grounded sense of identity as a child of God.
That experience now shapes her pastoral philosophy. Cho doesn’t try to force people into a predetermined spiritual script. Instead, she cultivates a church environment where people can discover faith at their own pace—held by love, supported by community, and invited toward joy.
At St. John’s, that posture is palpable. People who walk through the doors are met by a congregation that embraces them and walks alongside them, not as a project to fix but as a person to honor.
“I JUST SHOW UP.”
Cho’s leadership is both humble and comprehensive. Inside the life of the church, she handles everything from finances to preaching, children’s education to vision-casting. Outside the walls, she leads neighborhood engagement—though she describes it in simpler terms: “I just show up for whenever and whoever needs me.”
That “showing up” has taken tangible form. St. John’s partners with frontline immigration advocacy groups—serving coffee, offering support, connecting neighbors to legal assistance, and raising funds (including $12,000 last year). The congregation has also joined conversations with the presbytery about what it means to steward underutilized church buildings for community good—imagining possibilities like affordable housing or community centers.
A PASTOR FORMED BY THE PEOPLE SHE SERVES
From the outside, it might look like Cho carries St. John’s on her shoulders. She tells it differently.
“I know it is cliché, but I am always learning,” she says. “St. John’s teaches me what to pay attention to and where they want the church to lead and follow.” That mutuality—pastor and people shaping one another—helps explain the congregation’s impact: immigration advocacy, community development, public welcome, and a church culture where inclusion isn’t a statement but a practice.
Cho has embraced her own faith journey—its questions and turns—and uses it as a guide for how she accompanies others on theirs.
SAYING YES BECAUSE OF MCCORMICK
As she reflects on the future of St. John’s, Cho offers a simple truth: “I don’t think I would have said yes to St. John’s if it weren’t for my time at MTS.”
Pastoring, she knows, doesn’t become easy. It remains a roller coaster—full of holy highs and gut-level lows, moments that thrill you and moments that steal your breath. But because of formative friendships, deep theological grounding, and a community that taught her how to live her questions without losing her faith, Cho remains committed to what she calls her work in one phrase:
Showing up. Stepping in. And trusting God to do something extraordinary.