SVMC Shares Calling Stories

Planting Seeds for Ministry

Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

The Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center (SVMC) continues our Calling Essay series throughout 2023.

Throughout this year, various persons will share their call stories and unique perspective on our theme Planting the Seeds. We base this theme on the scripture I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. 1 Cor. 3:6 (CEB)

Our denomination needs people who are answering the call to set apart ministry. We encourage you to think of others in whom you see the gifts for ministry. Who can you encourage? How can you plant the seeds for ministry? Many ministers answered their call to ministry due to the encouragement of others naming gifts that were seen in them.

Or are you feeling a call to ministry or a change in your ministry? How is the seed being planted in you? Your district office or the SVMC office are sources of information on ministry credentialing or ministry education.

Please pray that seeds for ministry may fall upon hearts open to the call, and pray for those who are not yet ready to answer the call. May all of us be open to the call God places upon our lives.

Kaitlyn Coughenour contributes this current issue -- January 2023

I was extremely shy, so becoming a pastor was never one of my childhood aspirations. It was Curtis “Smitty” Smith who first planted that “seed” in 2013. He turned in the pew in front of me one Sunday and said, "I think you can give the sermon sometime!" My immediate response was: "You have got to be kidding me!" He insisted that I think about it and persistently brought it up numerous times until I agreed. I was a member of a United Church of Christ (UCC) Church at the time. I started feeling God's call to ministry after that but did not pursue it.

In 2015 Pastors Hal and Connie Garlick nourished that “seed” by requesting I become a Certified Speaker at Amity Reformed UCC. I completed that course but that was it. Until the fall of 2019, when Amity UCC called me to fill in one Sunday. A few days later I ran into Dwayne Hay, a UCC Licensed Minister and my former Sunday School teacher. He mentioned "I hear you preached at Amity and did a good job. What are you doing with your calling?" I did not have an answer for him. By this point, I was attending the Hostetler Church of the Brethren and of course, Pastor Irv Ernst heard about me filling in at Amity too. So, he asked me to speak at church occasionally and began mentioning SVMC.

I knew God was calling me and I kept avoiding it. God kept impressing on my heart that I needed to pursue his calling. One night I could not sleep! I prayed for God’s help. Instantly I felt God's presence sitting on the edge of my bed. I heard him tell me "Just do what I am asking you to do." Then he left. I prayed "I hear you, Lord!”

These are just a few people who God placed in my life to help plant seeds and nurture growth in me so that I would respond to God’s call to ministry! Now I am a Licensed Minister and attending SVMC classes.

- Kaitlyn Coughenour

Kaitlyn is a licensed minister and member of the Hostetler Church of the Brethren in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. She serves in many capacities within the church and district. She is currently completing the ACTS course of study through SVMC. She also works as Borough Secretary at the Garrett Borough Office in Garrett, Pennsylvania.

SVMC's mission is to equip leaders for ministry in a regionally based, Christ centered, culturally relevant context in ways that bear witness to the beliefs, heritages and practices of the Church of the Brethren.

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