Every Friday, Baptist Women in Ministry features a fabulous minister on this blog. Today, we are pleased to introduce Jillian Hankamer. Jillian IS what a minister looks like!
Jillian, tell us about your ministry journey and the places and ways you have served and are serving.
My ministry journey started with my parents and my home church, Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, who ingrained in me the belief that women can be leaders in the church. My ability to be in ministry was never something I questioned, so when I experienced my call any hesitations I had came from how best to follow God’s call not if I was allowed to follow God’s call. I served at Kirkwood Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri as the associate pastor of youth for five years. During that time I was on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s ministries board and a member of the planning committee for the 2016 Alliance of Baptists Gathering.
I’m now the pastor of First Baptist Church of Lewisburg in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and am the church’s first female pastor in its 175-year history. In addition, I’m part of Baptist Women in Ministry’s 2019 mentoring program and a 2019 Baptist Joint Committee Fellow.
What have been your greatest sources of joy in ministry?
I take great joy in the “presence” of being a pastor. Perhaps that isn’t the right word, but people want and expect me to be around in a way that’s a bit surprising (in the best way) and very humbling. I’m still amazed at how much something as simple as a hand-written note means to my folks. Earlier in my ministry, I was invited to school plays and field hockey games. There’s less of that now as most of my pastoral care involves visiting hospital or seeing folks in their homes, and while there’s a sweetness to both, it’s a joyful thing to know I’m the exception when the person I’m seeing has had it up to here with visitors, flowers, and food being dropped off. It’s an incredible gift when someone says, “I want you to do my funeral” or “Thanks for sitting with me while my wife was I in surgery.”
What have been the greatest challenges you have encountered in ministry?
My greatest and most persistent challenge is not getting bogged down in fear. I’m an Enneagram 6 and am capable of being scared of anything! I also live with daily anxiety. Looking back I can clearly see choices I made and ways that I handled situations in my ministry that were motivated by fear. I can also see that I’ve been dealing with anxiety, though I didn’t know it, since I was a little girl. Seeking professional mental health help and learning about the Enneagram has been hugely helpful in learning how not to get into that repetitious, anxiety-driven loop. It’s made me a better pastor and a healthier person.
What is the best ministry advice you have received?
The best ministry advice I’ve received is to know who you are, know where your limitations are, and don’t pretend to know things. I have given up the lie that I have to be good at all the things and that I know all the stuff. I don’t know anything about air conditioning compressors and have said so in a property committee meeting, which gave a church member the opportunity to educate me. So I think the flip side of the not-knowing-everything-coin is being willing to continually learn from whoever is willing to teach. I also know that it is important to have a personal identity, but one that’s permeable and constantly evolving around the edges.