New minister finds you can’t argue with God
By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer
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Lori Stevens
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Lori Stevens, Ottawa, describes her path to becoming an ordained minister as a calling.
“I just felt called,” she said. “I argued with God for 10 years about it.”
Stevens, who received a master’s in divinity from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in May, began her journey toward God nearly four years ago.
After graduating from Ottawa High School and Johnson County Community College, Stevens was devastated when she failed her dental hygiene boards — twice.
Dealing with disappointment and confusion, a counselor suggested Stevens attend church, which she highly doubted would help.
“When I went, I felt like I was home,” she remembered. “I thought, this is what I’ve been missing.”
Stevens said she argued with God about whether she would be able to complete the steps required to join the ministry.
“I didn’t think I was that smart, and I had always struggled in school,” she said.
She pushed her doubt aside and began her journey of night and weekend classes — a journey that would take her only 3½ years to complete.
“The longest person in my class took 24 years,” she said, adding that she graduated with 16 others. “I was the shortest with 3½. I’d say the average was about five or six years.”
Unlike many of her classmates, Stevens continued to work full time in a dentist office in Olathe while taking classes full time.
“It’s pretty unusual to do both work and go to school full time,” she said.
Stevens, who is the associate pastor at First Christian Church in Ottawa, said she considers herself a non-traditional pastor because of her desire to be involved with social justice issues.
She said issues like AIDS, hospice, homeless, battered women, impoverished families, addictions and homosexual acceptance in the church are important to her. Instead of working in a church, she’d like to work in a place where she can be involved with those issues, like a homeless or battered women shelter.
“A lot of people are still in shock,” she said of people’s reaction to her decision to become a pastor. “Some people even said they knew I was called before even I knew I was called.”
Stevens said she doesn’t have a preference as to where her new career will lead her.
“I’ll go wherever I’m called to be,” she said.
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