The Tennessee-based UMC Holston Conference appointed Chris “Bone Spur” Estus, to oversee a ministry to help those struggling with substance abuse, as their ninth Appalachian Chaplain.
Estus explained that the position involves him being “loving, listening, and [a] non-reactive presence to people along the way.”
Estus, who got his hiking nickname “Bone Spur” due to having a bone spur in the big toe of his right foot and being a San Antonio Spurs fan, began walking the trail on March 26. The Appalachian Trail is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States that runs from Georgia to Maine.
On May 22, Estus will start again on the trail, beginning at Pen Mar Park on the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania and then head North.
Estus has a history of walking long trails. He hiked the Colorado Trail in 2020, a 485-mile route from Denver to Durango.
Estus told the Christian Post that while the Colorado journey was not an official ministerial assignment, he nevertheless “was able to do ministry along the way.”
He said, “I am in 12-step recovery and have been for 21 years, and so, therefore, my entire life is sort of a walking ministry. I’m going to whoever is along the way.”
Having a traveling chaplain is not unprecedented in the UMC. The early Methodist Church of the 18th and 19th centuries was known for its itinerant preachers and circuit riders.