C4SO celebrates the sending of the Rev. Kristen Yates to serve a church in the Diocese of the Great Lakes. Kristen, a church planter and spiritual director in our diocese, is joining a year-old church plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, as their Associate Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Care. We asked Kristen to share how God is bringing together her skills, talents and experience, and what this exciting new role will look like for her.
Q. Kristen, can you tell us about your ministry journey over the last few years?
Kristen Yates: Since 2011, I have been on two simultaneous ministry journeys. The first has been church planting. I have helped with church planting efforts in Washington State, Massachusetts, and most recently in Northern California where I was the lead planter of Community of the Way, as well as the interim pastor of two other church plants in the Bay Area.
The second journey has been in pastoral care, spiritual formation, and spiritual direction. As I have faced and overcome some life challenges in recent years, I have grown in my own relationship with the Lord and come to desire that others would go deep with the Lord, as well. This experience led me to seek out training as a spiritual director, serve as the spiritual director of several InterVarsity staff workers, participate in a spiritual formation group with other C4SO pastors, and begin creating a comprehensive website on the topic of spiritual formation.
These two journeys have been challenging, enriching, and full of blessings, and all along the way, they have interacted with each other to prepare me well for the role I am about to take on.
Q. What will this new role involve?
KY: In this new year, I am heading to the Diocese of the Great Lakes to join a wonderful team that is planting The Mission Cincinnati—a year-old church plant in Evanston, Cincinnati, Ohio—an under-resourced, predominantly African-American neighborhood in the urban core of the city. I will be going on staff as their Associate Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Care.
Additionally, I will be spending a small amount of my time each week working as a volunteer staff worker with InterVarsity Graduate Faculty Ministries at the University of Cincinnati, as well as volunteering with the Parish Farming School of Eucharistic Discipleship in nearby Norwood, Ohio. I am looking forward to moving to Cincinnati just as soon as I can raise support for my position at The Mission.
Q. What are you most looking forward to about working at The Mission?
KY: There are many aspects of this new ministry adventure that excite me. First of all, I am immensely excited to join a wonderful team of passionate, dedicated, men and women who see themselves as a fellowship of missionaries. After having done a church plant on my own, I am thrilled to work with a team again.
Secondly, I love that our church is aiming at becoming a multi-ethnic expression of the church and that it has a heart for its neighborhood, for racial reconciliation, and for developing relationships with local churches, key leaders in the neighborhood, high school and university campus Christian organizations, and local children and families. I love the heart of this church and its desire to serve others and come alongside them.
Finally, I love that my role at the church will capitalize on the ministry areas where I most excel—teaching, spiritual formation, pastoral care, leading occasional retreats, helping plan and lead weekly liturgical services, and using my artistic skills in the creation of our worship space. My time as a church planter and my training in spiritual direction have prepared me well for this ministry because I understand the challenges and opportunities of church planting, as well as the unique pastoral care needs that arise in church planting situations. Also, after 15 years of ministry in general, I feel as if I have a good grasp of the broader pastoral care and spiritual formation needs that arise in any congregation, so I am very am excited to be able to give these needs the necessary attention that they require.
Q. What do you think will be challenging about this role?
KY: I think the Mission Cincinnati will deal with the sorts of challenges that all parachute church plants encounter. For example, we’ll face the challenge of growing the church both in number of members and in financial sustainability. As for the latter, this could especially be true given the fact that the church location is in a poor-to-middle-class neighborhood and that quite a few of the current members are graduate students and local children from the neighborhood who come to church without their parents. Nevertheless, despite these realities, the church is making great strides in both areas of growth.
Another challenge is that I will need to raise full support for my particular work for the next 1-3 years. Over the next few months, I will be working to raise full support for my work at The Mission. My hope is that I will be able to move to Cincinnati by the Spring or Summer of 2018.
Q. How can C4SO support you in this new call?
KY: Due to the nature of my work and the context where it will be taking place, I’ll be looking for three kinds of partnerships over the next few years.
- Prayer partners. I believe that all pastors and ministries should have people who regularly intercede for them, so I am looking for people who would be part of a special intercession team for me as I enter into this exciting work.
- Ministry incubators. These are people who are willing to give one-time gifts right now, which will help me move to Cincinnati and get started with this ministry for my first few months there.
- Regular financial partners. These are people who are willing to give monthly financial gifts to The Mission Cincinnati over the next 1-3 years on my behalf. For my first year of work at the Mission, I need to raise $50,000.00 for my salary and for InterVarsity training.
Support Kristen’s work with The Mission Cincinnati.
Learn more about The Mission Cincinnati.
