Saturday, April 25, 1998

Abilene duo prepare to enter ministry as local pastors

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

As Janice Kahl stood at the pulpit in the chapel of McMurry University, her husband's presence was undeniable.

For 20 years, before his death in 1995, the Rev. Johnnie Kahl served as chaplain at Methodist-affiliated McMurry. For many of those years, he talked to students from that same pulpit or over the phone in the middle of the night.

His ministry wasn't lost on his wife, who for some time has felt her own call to preach.

"In a big way he's going to be a part of what I'm doing," Kahl said.

Kahl and Dr. Doris Miller, chair of the English department at McMurry, both have felt the same call to ministry and both are on the same path to fulfilling that dream.

Both women will continue in their present jobs, Miller teaching at McMurry, and Kahl teaching third grade at Taylor Elementary School.

"We see ourselves as staying with the ministry we have in education," Kahl said.

The added responsibility of being a pulpit minister will take its toll on the women's volunteer church work at St. Paul United Methodist, however.

"I'll have to give up singing in the choir," Miller said.

Both women have gone through a process to become "local pastors," a designation in the Methodist church that does not require seminary training.

On April 16, both women were approved for certification by the District Committee on Ministry. The next step is to attend eight days of "license to preach" school in the church's Ceta Canyon camp in the Panhandle. Beginning in the summer of 1999, they will be required to take courses at a seminary each summer for five years.

In June, they expect to be given an appointment by the Northwest Texas Conference during its annual meeting. They hope to be appointed to a co-pastorate in a small church in or near Abilene.

"That would allow us both to have more freedom," Kahl said, if they could share a pastorate.

Even though local pastors are not ordained in the same sense that seminary-trained ministers are in the Methodist church, they have the same rights. The difference is they are confined to carrying those responsibilities in their appointed church only.

Local pastors may preach, perform marriage and funeral services and preside over Holy Communion at their church.

"It allows someone to be their pastor who would be on call to come" when needed in addition to preaching on Sundays, Kahl said.

Both women said they have felt the call to ministry for some time. Miller, who retired in 1990 from the Air Force, including a stint as a professor at the Air Force Academy, said her interest picked up after a mission trip to Kenya.

"I think the tug got a little stronger after that experience," she said. Miller came to McMurry in August 1993 and has been chairman of the English department since last August.

Kahl's life with her late husband had an influence on her decision, but she said she wouldn't be pursuing a life in the pulpit if he were still alive. And, she said she waited this long to answer the call because she wanted to be sure her decision wasn't a grief reaction to his death.

"He's been my inspiration," she said, "but I would never, ever try to replace my husband."

Even though the women won't have a seminary degree, both feel they will be well trained to handle the job. Kahl still remembers typing her husband's papers when he was in seminary in Dallas.

"I went to seminary with him," she said.

Miller is used to preparing lectures for her students every day, so one more "paper" shouldn't be too hard.

And, besides, as she pointed out, "Your best statement of your belief is who you are. Your best sermon is yourself."