Twenty Five Years

I will celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination about the time I begin serving Capital. Last night I was reflecting on where I was and what I was doing 25 years ago. I had been looking for a call for close to a year. I had begun the search before I graduated from seminary in December. Women ministers were still somewhat rare in those days, and churches reluctant to call us. Regional overseers, in an attempt to encourage more churches to call women, were requiring search committees to interview at least one woman in their search process. As a result, I was getting lots of interviews with committees seeking to meet the requirement, but not with committees interested in calling me.

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I was living in my bedroom in the basement of my parents' home. Brother, who was preparing to move into it, had already covered the cheery yellow paint with a dreary tan. Far Away Sister was graduating from college and getting married that summer, so we were both supposed to be moving away. I was helping out at my home church for pocket money. Among the positions for which I was interviewed: associate pastor in a suburban church, pastor of a small town church in New England, associate pastor of a church in a college town out west, and the position to which I was called: pastor of an inner city church in a crime ridden steel town. When I accepted that call, one of the regional overseers informed me that I fit the pattern, about every 5 years a church in that region called a woman to serve as pastor.

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I was remembering all of that last night. I had a conversation yesterday with the interim pastor at Capital. He had some good insights into the congregation, and confessed he had known more about the search process than he should have. One of the things he had known was that in the end they were deciding between two individuals, and both of us were women. This was the second church in a row where I was one of the last two, and both of the final candidates were women. He did tell me there were a few people who would have trouble with the fact that I was a woman, but as I reflected, I was amazed by how much things have changed in 25 years. Women are no longer getting token interviews to meet a quota, churches are now narrowing their search down to a final decision between two women who have risen to the top. When I was called to Inner City 25 years ago, I was one of very few women in that region. Yesterday my predecessor was naming all the women who serve in the area of Capital.

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Other things have changed, as well. I remember a classmate in seminary doing an evening program on the use of computers in the church. I didn't waste my time going, because there wasn't any use for computers in the church. The big discussion on campus was whether professors could force him to type papers rather than submitting papers he had printed out from his computer. Back then, dot matrix computers were the latest in technology. Now, I would have a difficult time functioning without my computer. Now, I am going to learn how to use PowerPoint in conjunction with my sermons.

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So today I find myself looking back on 25 years of ministry. I'm grateful for all I've learned in Inner City and Tiny Village, and I'm looking forward to ministry with Capital. I'm excited about this new world, and am glad I am a part of it.