I am part of that group of ministers who are entering ministry later in life. I have found that the years of experience I bring to ministry serve to deepen and enrich the way I serve.<\/p>\n
Raising, schooling, and mentoring eight children has helped me learn to prioritize my time, listen before I form judgments or offer solutions, discipline myself to do what it takes for a task to be completed, and the importance of play and joy as well as work and concentration. I learned how important it is to form a plan together, and how to roll with it when events turn out differently than expected. As my children have matured, left home, and established lives of their own, I have learned to let go and to trust them to follow their own moral compasses. As a result, they feel free to ask for help or advice when they need to. These skills have translated into congregational ministry as I have been learning to be a pastoral, facilitative, and mentoring leader.<\/p>\n
Running a family business taught me managerial skills: bookkeeping, advertising, forging strong business relationships in the surrounding community, and workforce training and management. My bookkeeping and office management skills were strengthened through subsequent work environments. My undergraduate degree in Women and Gender Studies allowed me to gain valuable insight into systems of oppression, as well as rich community and academic intern experiences.<\/p>\n
When I attended my first Prairie Star District UUA workshop in November, 2011, and talked with three second-career ministers about their challenges and joys, I felt the first conscious stirrings of a personal call to ministry. Since that time, I have taken advantage of every possible opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge that can equip me for parish ministry. I look forward to finding where this path will lead me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am part of that group of ministers who are entering ministry later in life. I have found that the years of experience I bring to ministry serve to deepen and enrich the way I serve. Raising, schooling, and mentoring eight children has helped me learn to prioritize my time, listen before I form judgments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":18,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions\/53"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revlyndasutherland.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}