Megan Culbertson, armed and ready to preach
By John Quinlan, Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, August 17, 2008
Megan Culbertson is a 19-year-old who would like to pursue ministry as a career. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
SIOUX CITY -- She's smart. She's pretty. A high school athlete, she competed in track. She was also a valedictorian and cheerleader at West High School last year, and she is a cheerleader at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where she begins her sophomore year this month.
At 19, Megan Culbertson is a young woman who is clearly going places. But unlike many ambitious college students with high-paying careers in sight, the no-less-ambitious Sioux City woman has her sights set a little higher. Heaven-ward, you might say. Megan wants to be a preacher. She plans to enter seminary as soon as she picks up her degree from Simpson with majors in religion and sociology with social work.
Her parents support her. After all, they've seen her preach on Youth Day the past few summers at Mayflower United Church of Christ. They know what she can do.
"She's dependable. She's a natural. She has an ability to handle all types of people, and she has already preached several times," said the Rev. Dan Lozer, her church pastor. "But I told her the last time that she's already at the first-year seminary level as far as how to handle scripture and all that."
Even so, Megan's Mom persuaded her to take more than one major just in case she changes her mind and chooses some other career, Megan said.
"I plan to go to seminary after I finish," she said, noting she has checked out seminaries in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Chicago.
"I'm focusing on social work so far because it's something I'm passionate about," she said.
And her commitment hasn't changed despite the challenges she faced in some of her college religion classes at the small, Methodist-affiliated school. Megan has taken three college religion classe, with two more on tap this coming semester.
After attending church Bible classes in June 2007, she thought her beliefs and the ethics of her faith were unchangeable. "And then going to Simpson totally wiped that out, and I had to rethink things," Megan said. "My teachers just really challenged how I saw things. They really opened my mind to like ... well, maybe you should read this for yourself and not listen to what other people have told you."
So she read different viewpoints about Jesus Christ and who he really was, then re-read previous books with an open mind, examining different aspects of her beliefs. Her teachers made her think for herself. She liked the challenge -- and the result.
"That was really cool. I mean sometimes I just wanted to cry, I was so frustrated because my teachers said something totally opposite of what I believed. But then it really helped me to develop my faith more fully and to really become stronger," she said.
Megan's path to the ministry began early, as she went to church with her parents.
"I don't know why but I guess it was from going to church that I always had good morals and I always said my prayers every night," she said. "And then in Lowell School, I just started getting a little deeper. I started finding Christian friends. I mean my best friend has been a Christian since middle school, and that's really helped to save that support system."
As a high school freshman, she attended the General Synod of the UCC and found it an "awesome worship experience."
She said she felt a real bond with God, and at that point she got more involved with her own church.
"That's when I started realizing how cool it was to be a Christian -- like I didn't care about the world or what its view was any more," she said. "And I realized how skewed people's visions of Christians are sometimes. That's something that I think needs to be changed."
Megan said her faith grew even stronger her senior year at West High when she helped organize a Bible Study group there with some classmates involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
This spring, she job-shadowed the various ministers who worked at the Plymouth United Church of Christ in Des Moines, the denomination's biggest church in Iowa.
Eventually, she hopes to be a church pastor, first (and maybe last) at a smaller church like Mayflower. "But I might want to start out doing more of the social work, working in the community," she said. "I really have a passion for kids and for those less fortunate -- and social justice."
Though she has yet to do any missionary work, Megan worked for Habitat for Humanity in Sioux City last summer through Americorps VISTA. And she has worked with her mother at the Soup Kitchen and WalkAmerica. Through her father, who was then church president, she even finagled an appointment as the youth representative on the church committee that selected Lozer as the new church pastor four years ago.
Lozer said he will be thrilled when Megan Culbertson finesses her own ministerial appointment.
At 19, Megan Culbertson is a young woman who is clearly going places. But unlike many ambitious college students with high-paying careers in sight, the no-less-ambitious Sioux City woman has her sights set a little higher. Heaven-ward, you might say. Megan wants to be a preacher. She plans to enter seminary as soon as she picks up her degree from Simpson with majors in religion and sociology with social work.
Her parents support her. After all, they've seen her preach on Youth Day the past few summers at Mayflower United Church of Christ. They know what she can do.
"She's dependable. She's a natural. She has an ability to handle all types of people, and she has already preached several times," said the Rev. Dan Lozer, her church pastor. "But I told her the last time that she's already at the first-year seminary level as far as how to handle scripture and all that."
Even so, Megan's Mom persuaded her to take more than one major just in case she changes her mind and chooses some other career, Megan said.
"I plan to go to seminary after I finish," she said, noting she has checked out seminaries in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Chicago.
"I'm focusing on social work so far because it's something I'm passionate about," she said.
And her commitment hasn't changed despite the challenges she faced in some of her college religion classes at the small, Methodist-affiliated school. Megan has taken three college religion classe, with two more on tap this coming semester.
After attending church Bible classes in June 2007, she thought her beliefs and the ethics of her faith were unchangeable. "And then going to Simpson totally wiped that out, and I had to rethink things," Megan said. "My teachers just really challenged how I saw things. They really opened my mind to like ... well, maybe you should read this for yourself and not listen to what other people have told you."
So she read different viewpoints about Jesus Christ and who he really was, then re-read previous books with an open mind, examining different aspects of her beliefs. Her teachers made her think for herself. She liked the challenge -- and the result.
"That was really cool. I mean sometimes I just wanted to cry, I was so frustrated because my teachers said something totally opposite of what I believed. But then it really helped me to develop my faith more fully and to really become stronger," she said.
Megan's path to the ministry began early, as she went to church with her parents.
"I don't know why but I guess it was from going to church that I always had good morals and I always said my prayers every night," she said. "And then in Lowell School, I just started getting a little deeper. I started finding Christian friends. I mean my best friend has been a Christian since middle school, and that's really helped to save that support system."
As a high school freshman, she attended the General Synod of the UCC and found it an "awesome worship experience."
She said she felt a real bond with God, and at that point she got more involved with her own church.
"That's when I started realizing how cool it was to be a Christian -- like I didn't care about the world or what its view was any more," she said. "And I realized how skewed people's visions of Christians are sometimes. That's something that I think needs to be changed."
Megan said her faith grew even stronger her senior year at West High when she helped organize a Bible Study group there with some classmates involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
This spring, she job-shadowed the various ministers who worked at the Plymouth United Church of Christ in Des Moines, the denomination's biggest church in Iowa.
Eventually, she hopes to be a church pastor, first (and maybe last) at a smaller church like Mayflower. "But I might want to start out doing more of the social work, working in the community," she said. "I really have a passion for kids and for those less fortunate -- and social justice."
Though she has yet to do any missionary work, Megan worked for Habitat for Humanity in Sioux City last summer through Americorps VISTA. And she has worked with her mother at the Soup Kitchen and WalkAmerica. Through her father, who was then church president, she even finagled an appointment as the youth representative on the church committee that selected Lozer as the new church pastor four years ago.
Lozer said he will be thrilled when Megan Culbertson finesses her own ministerial appointment.
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