intense hunger for the conversation about mental
health in the church. Two months after the book’s
release, I began working at one of our Disciples
of Christ seminaries, Christian Theological
Seminary (CTS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. CTS
is a wonderfully supportive community to live
out this calling to address the challenges of how
to best prepare pastors and community leaders
to be disciples of Jesus Christ and join with God
in the transforming of the world. The seminary’s
graduate degree programs in Clinical Mental
Health Counseling and Marriage and Family
Therapy make CTS one of the leading schools in
the nation with dual Mental Health and Master of
Divinity degree programs.
I also now serve on the leadership team for
Bethany Ecumenical Fellows, providing for
young clergy the mentoring that was invaluable
to me as I was just starting out in ministry. The
program has grown to include not only Bethany
Fellows for Disciples clergy, but an ecumenical
version, a version for bi-vocational clergy, and
other experimental models.
During my ministry serving local
congregations I became an authorized minister
with the United Church of Christ through our
ecumenical partnership with them. This opened
up the opportunity for me to serve as a UCC
Regional Minister in Florida before coming to
CTS. It also allows me to serve on the board of
the UCC Mental Health Network and the UCC
Disabilities Ministries Board. With both the UCC
and the DOC passing mental health resolutions
in summer 2015, I’m hopeful that we will find
strategic ways to work together, living into our
vision “that we might be one.”
I’M THANKFUL
I’m excited to see how sharing our stories
with one another, giving testimony to the work
6
FALL 2015 · Just Women
of God in our lives and breaking the silence
about mental illness, family, and church leads
to healing and ultimately leads to blessing the
lives of people who find their relationship to a
loving God restored. As the church, we have a
rich and beautiful tradition of testifying to the
power of God’s love to redeem the broken while