GLENVIEW, Ill.—Kory Wilcoxson wants to appear welcoming and open to people. That's why the 33-year-old senior pastor of Community Christian Church dresses casually and doesn't think of himself as anything other than a regular guy, according to the Lincolnshire Review.

"I'm certainly not my picture of what a pastor is like," Wilcoxson said. "My image of a pastor growing up was the white-haired man in the flowing robe who you never saw at Jewel or never saw in the bathroom. You only saw him on Sunday morning in the robe. That's not me, that's not me at all."

Wilcoxson became senior pastor June 1. He said his warm and friendly congregation sets a good example for him.

"I want to try to model that myself, so I'm going to try to be very welcoming and open to people," he said.

Church members say he relates well to people.

"It's probably one of his greatest skills," said Kim Sylvan of Buffalo Grove, who became a church member in 2001.

Wilcoxson worked in the youth ministry before becoming senior minister. Now his duties include more visits to hospitalized church members, more counseling, more leadership and more preaching.

His background in newspaper journalism helps him craft sermons in time for his Sunday morning deadline, he said.

But Wilcoxson sees his life as the real message for the congregation. Although he is now the senior pastor, Wilcoxson said it's important for people to know that he is not finished learning and growing in Christ.

"I'm not this person up on the mountain top spewing down words of wisdom," he said. "I'm someone who is right along there with them, going through some of the same struggles and having the same questions and looking for the same answers as they are. I think that helps us build a relationship and an affinity for each other because they see me as one of them, someone who is working to grow in faith just like they are."