Ministry

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be a woman in ministry. My first aspiration was to the Supreme Court. Most second graders like Barbies. I had a signed picture of Sandra Day O’Conner above my dresser.

Ministry and women seemed mutually exclusive to me. The things I loved: leading, teaching, counseling, well, they seemed like pastoring gifts. And I’d seen few women even on staff at a church, much less a woman doing what I loved–and doing it well.

So I went into fitness, the next logical choice. I taught group classes and created and led programs. I counseled women individually and in groups. The topics were strength and body image and health. But other than that, the gifts were the same. Yet something was missing.

So I went into business, the next logical choice. But as much as I loved my cube with its fuzzy gray walls and fake privacy, corporate life felt constraining.

Back to fitness, and this time I led the whole thing. I managed people. I raised money.  And yet something was still missing. I had big job, doing something that felt meaningful and important. And yet… 

About that time, Dave and I had found an awesome little church called Hope.  Hope was six months old. The church met in an elementary school, in a dimly lit lunch room we dubbed the “cafetorium”. We put our chairs away after the service and read lyrics from an overhead projector. It was that small, but it was so real.

One of the pastors began to pursue Dave and me. He took us to lunch. He asked questions. And he seemed to be genuinely interested in our lives. A few weeks later, that pastor and I met on my back porch to talk about starting a little bible study with some girls at the church. And I was hooked.

Many prayers and a lot of struggling later, I realized that a masters’ in exercise behavior and motivation, although a fully funded and intriguing next step for me, was actually not what God had in store. He really told me that, but that’s another story. So I applied, and off to seminary I went, still laughing at the utter foolishness of thinking I could find my place in the conservative evangelical church as a woman in ministry.

That was ten years ago, and it’s been a wild trip since then. Here’s  a postcard version:

• counseling experience in a psychiatric crisis care unit for adolescents.
• youth ministry intern for Hope Church.
• internship at a private upper school in Richmond (where I learned that hospital or fancy school, girls’ problems are often the same)
• Private Practice counseling with Thompson Counseling, specializing in adolescent girls and womens’ issues.
• Co-founder of Thrive, a women’s ministry through Hope devoted to authentic connections and biblical teaching.
• Director of Women’s Ministries at Hope, along with an awesome team of women who want to be real with God, with each other, and with their circles of influence
• Contributing Editor and regular columnist for Gifted for Leadership, a Christianity Today publication for women in ministry
• Regular Columnist for Fullfill Magazine, a publication for women who lead
• Regular woman and mom of three, who has a passion for women to find their place and exercise their influence in the church and in the world.