| Like many church professionals
in this day, Shirley felt the call to ministry in mid-life. She
responded by enrolling in Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena,
California, in 2002. While attending Fuller, Shirley served as
assistant to the academic director of the Brehm Center for Worship,
Theology, and the Arts, and as a teaching assistant in homiletics
and the history of Christian worship. She did her pastoral internship
at Faith United Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California.
Prior to attending seminary, Shirley, a registered nurse, worked
at Liberty Hospital in Liberty, Missouri, as a health educator
and parish nurse coordinator (1997-2002). She taught HIV/AIDS
prevention as a volunteer for the Red Cross. As parish nurse coordinator,
she trained nurses on how to develop health ministries in local
congregations.
Shirley’s first cross-cultural experience was in Singapore,
where she lived for six months in 1995. She tells the story of
befriending a woman from India she met in an aerobics class. “One
day,” writes Shirley, “she said she was interested
in learning more about Christianity. We took walks together and,
as we did, I shared my Christian faith and she shared her Hindu
faith. I learned how much God loves all people. I learned that
at the deepest human level, we all desire to know and be known
by God. The experience affirmed my love for and curiosity about
people from different races, languages, cultures, religions, and
countries.:
Shirley holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Missouri
Western State College and a master’s of divinity with a
concentration in family pastoral care and counseling from Fuller
Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Shirley has studied
spiritual direction and is currently seeking a certificate in
spiritual direction from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur,
Georgia.
Shirley is a member of the American association of Pastoral Counselors
and Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.
Shirley was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on
February 12, 2006, at Gashland Presbyterian Church in Kansas City,
Missouri, where she had been a member and where she had also been
ordained to the office of deacon. She is a minister member of
Heartlands
Presbytery. Prior to becoming a Presbyterian in 1989, Shirley
was ordained as an elder and deacon by Eastway Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Shirley is the mother of two adult children, Greg and David.
Birthday: April 9 |
