Ryan LaRock
Director & Campus Minister - Wesley Foundation
Office: (757) 229-6832
The Reverend Ryan LaRock is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and has pastored in the Virginia Conference since 2016. A native of Virginia Beach and a lifelong United Methodist, Ryan responded to God’s call on his life as a first-year at the University of Virginia, where he was a worship leader at the Wesley Foundation and lived in their residential community for two years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in both religious studies and French. His call led him to Duke Divinity School, where he earned his Master’s of Divinity and experienced God’s abundant grace in learning in the classroom. He served as a youth pastor at a new church start and a pediatric oncology chaplain at Duke University Hospital. For four years, he served as the Associate Pastor at Christ UMC in Fairfax County, VA, providing pastoral care and counseling, preaching, leading Pub Theology, and helping co-launch a ministry for persons with disabilities. In the height of pandemic lockdowns, Ryan left Northern Virginia to shepherd a medium-sized congregation, Deep Creek UMC, through a difficult rebuilding season. Amid the pandemic, Ryan started and is almost finished with his Doctor of Ministry degree from Duke, and he is planning to submit his dissertation in March 2025.
Ryan is passionate about campus ministry because of his roots. He most recently chaired the Virginia Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry, where he focused on fostering a renewed narrative around the vitality of campus ministries as an extension of our wider church. Ryan is thrilled to be in Williamsburg as the campus minister and Wesley Foundation director at William and Mary. Ryan will also be partnering with Conference leadership to envision the future missional purpose of the space at New Town UMC and its vibrant preschool. When not around the church, you can find Pastor Ryan running and lifting at Orange Theory Fitness, tickling the ivories, strumming the ukulele, scouting his next local coffee or brewery hotspot, watching UVA Basketball, or venturing to his two favorite places: Charlottesville and Durham.