Every Friday, Baptist Women in Ministry features an interview with an amazing minister on this blog. Today, we are thrilled to interview, Mallory Homeyer Herridge . Mallory IS what a minister looks like!
Mallory, tell us about your ministry journey and the places and ways you have served and are serving.
My ministry journey, like many, starts in childhood. I grew up at First Baptist Kenedy, TX. I loved helping people and loved being at church, often receiving the nickname, “Missionary Mal” from family and older WMU ladies (Truthfully, I also really loved praise, HA!). My personality thrived in GAs, known to many Southern Baptists as, “Girls in Action,” as we earned badges based on scripture memory, money-raised for missions and service to our community. I proudly boasted about the many missionary autographs in my Bible and the wooden music note necklace that adorned my neck because of perfect attendance earned in church choir. By 3rd grade, it was clear by my GA sash full of badges that I was headed for big things (insert *wink*). During this time, as my parents, teachers, Sunday school teachers and the village of Kenedy, TX worked hard to shape my personality, I spent time writing poems and journaling to God. I do believe I had a relationship with our creator, even at that young, sassy age.
At the age of 9, I “walked the aisle” and made a profession of faith as we do in the Baptist world and was soon Baptized before my church family. Through a conversation with Ms. Cox, I’m reminded that from a young age, relationships were very important to me. Ms. Cox was a retired teacher of many years and traveled the world (often by oil barge! She was no joke!). After I was baptized, I remember her hugging me and saying something to the effect of “Mallory, I remember when your dad professed his faith in Christ and was Baptized. I’m so proud of you. This is a big deal.” I was always so intrigued by her and for some reason I feel like God used her to awaken a yearning for the mystery of God in my life in that moment.
Fast-forward to the summer of my junior year of high school when we were debating where we should go on a mission trip. I talked with my Pastor’s wife about the need in our own community and what it would look like to take a “mission trip” to our own town. I would not use that language now to describe the experience but what took place over the course of a summer of backyard Bible clubs throughout our predominantly lower socio-economic community included the building of intergenerational, cross-cultural relationships, listening, learning, laughter and lots of play! I remember reflecting throughout the summer and realizing that something transformational was happening to our Church and God saying, “This is what I want you to do with your life.”
Our church’s approach to ministry was definitely not perfect and since then, I have learned so much more about cultural humility and collaboration with people instead of a colonialism model of mission. However, we did what we knew with pure hearts and we did it together, not just the youth but together as an entire church body. God opened my eyes in many ways but one situation in particular we realized that a young girl had not been attending for several days. We soon found out she had been hospitalized due to severe abuse that she had experienced. Having grown up in a loving family and privileged situation, this shook me. At the age of 17, my questions and wrestling with God became more real, “How could a God of love let this happen? Why not me? Why her? What could we have done?” I felt like God was simultaneously affirming my call but also putting upon my heart a deep sense of compassion and social justice.
The fall of my sophomore year at Baylor, I attended a BGCT meeting and heard Dr. Gaynor Yancey being honored with an award. I had no idea who she was, but as she shared her life-story as a home missionary in inner-city Philadelphia for 30+ years, Food Bank Executive Director, Social Worker and Minister, I felt like God said, “That’s it – that’s what I’m calling you to.” After meeting with her, I soon declared social work as my major. Little did I know, she would become a life-long friend and mentor. This is where I fell in love and called to congregational social work.
After my BSW, I could not wait to pursue my dual MSW/MDiv. It was the degree combination I had been waiting for to equip me with the skills I needed to do what God had called me to do with my life. Throughout seminary and graduate school, God opened up many doors for me to live out my call while also helping me to pay the bills, i.e. PT Benevolence Director through Buckner / FBC Waco, PT Consultant with the Congregational Communities Grant through Baylor School of Social Work, PT Urban Missions Coordinator through Baylor Spiritual Life, Community Organizer through the Texas Hunger Initiative and Amercorps VISTA. With Dr. Diana Garland and Dr. Gaynor Yancey’s support and guidance, I chose to do my seminary mentoring and social work internship with a Dr. Ken Huggins and Elkins Lake Baptist of Huntsville, TX. My desire was to learn how to walk alongside a congregation desiring to better serve the needs of its community.
If I’m honest, I left seminary with more experience than many of my male peers, but I did not see a role for me in a Church; definitely not in Texas. I was thrilled to be called to serve PT as the Community Missions Minister at Calvary Baptist Church and I served in that capacity for a year while my husband completed seminary. I believe God called me to do what he needed through me that year but when Blake (my husband) received a call to pastor in a nearby, rural community we both sensed it was where God was leading. I took a position as a school social worker and I felt like if God was calling me to be a bridge between the community and the Church. What better way to get to know the community than serving children and families in the local school district?
We served a local church for 3-years before moving back to Waco. I missed being in a leadership position with a Church and we both realized that we were lacking mentors and connection to fellow ministers. Our departure involved us taking a brief respite from ministry and eventually re-joining Calvary Baptist in Waco, TX. In the last 10 years, I have served as a FT elementary school social worker, PT Children’s Minister, Community Organizer, a Nonprofit Director, Social Work Adjunct Professor, Grant manager and now Assistant Director for the Center for Church and Community Impact at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. It’s amazing how God puts opportunities before us to teach us about ourselves and grow confidence in us. Through each experience, God provided opportunities to connect with congregations. Whether it its providing education and training about the realities of hunger and poverty, organizing hunger coalitions, seeking volunteers or resources, providing pastoral care to justice-involved individuals or supervising social worker interns serving in congregations, God has used me in various ways to continue to live out my Call to be a bridge between the Church and individuals and groups often marginalized and oppressed. I am continually grateful.
What have been your greatest sources of joy in ministry?
Some of my greatest sources of pure joy in ministry have been when amidst seemingly impossible situations, congregations allow for the creative work of the Holy Spirit to find a solution rather than acting in fear and haste. I’ve witnessed this in small benevolence committee situations and in large-scale congregational finance concerns. Inevitably, when we are seeking God’s counsel as a church, there’s a moment where an individual or a group creates a unique but possible solution. In those moments, I’m in awe of the creativity of the Spirit and God’s goodness.
I also experience incredible joy walking alongside congregations as they discover their changing contexts both internally and externally and where God may be leading them next. Helping congregations identify their gifts and talents but also discovering and building relationships with their community is extremely rewarding! Strengths and ideas emerge that existed all along but needed “reframing” as we say in the social work profession. The asset-based, strengths lens through which we as social workers view our clients, is the same lens Jesus views each one of us. When whole congregations, not just a missions committee or specific set of volunteers, begin to position themselves as learners in their communities, exercising cultural humility with neighboring religious and cultures, weeping alongside the community but also celebrating and rejoicing with them, God begins to do a mighty, transformative work. The line between who is the giver and who is the receiver becomes blurred.
Finally, I believe I notice who is on the margins and not included in situations. One of my greatest joys in ministry has been when God uses me to remind someone that they are deeply loved, not forgotten and enough just as they are…habits, hang-ups, wounds and failures. Whether I’m visiting with an individual re-entering into society after serving time in the justice system, someone struggling with addiction or a fellow mom struggling with post-partem, it is such an honor to be present when God enters our space.
What have been the greatest challenges you have encountered in ministry?
Throughout my MSW/MDiv and the last 10 years of ministry, I have noticed a pattern of burn out due to lack of balance in my life. My helper-achiever personality combo thrives in doing the work that I love; however, no matter the role, the work is never done. It has taken me a while to discover a more balanced pace for myself and to recognize my realistic margins and capacity for each day. Having two small children and working full-time means I have to say “no” to some opportunities of service I love at my church. I’ve had to reframe what my Call looks like during this season of toddler/preschool life, but I have also looked for ways to live out that call through the eyes and understanding of my little ones. For example, how can we as a family engage in being the hands and feet of Christ alongside our church? How can I begin teaching and modeling for my little ones how God’s love is for ALL people and how God desires us to use our voices alongside those experiencing injustice? I will admit that I am still trying to live into this fully. I think God’s gentle, loving message for me is often, “Mallory, I asked you to THAT. Not, that and that and that too. Please let go and rest.”
Finally, I think fear has been a big challenge for me in ministry. I come from a family of male ministers and deacons that all support me but my approach to ministry does not look or sound at all like them. While attending both the BWIM retreat and TX-BWIM conferences this year, I was overcome with a feeling of “belonging.” No matter my “title” in ministry, I just knew God was affirming a part of my vocational identity to ministry and calming my fears. I listened to a panel of women share their call stories and saw myself in pieces of each of their stories. God has placed the word “surrender” on my heart for quite some time, but this was even more clear at the BWIM retreat. I’m now thinking, if God was speaking to me and calling me at a young age, what other compassionate, sassy, emotional yet powerfully-confident little girl is watching me?
What is the best ministry advice you have received?
I do not have one significant moment that stands out but I’m continuing to learn from my mentor, Dr. Gaynor Yancey, that giving people your time and non-anxious presence can be transformational. In order to find fulfillment in my professional and personal life, this has to be an intentional practice for me as I tend to be a task-oriented person.
I also had a therapist one time ask me what the greatest commandment was, so I repeated Mark 12:30-31. He then asked me to read vs. 31 again and said, “Oh, love your neighbor as your SELF. We often skip over the “as yourself” part in ministry, don’t we?” That has stayed with me. Finally, I would say that social work education is a powerful lens and skillset to have in ministry because the core values of our profession remind us that we are called to serve with our whole selves and to walk alongside others’ whole selves, recognizing that we are all wounded and fighting our own daily battles: congregants, fellow ministers, entire congregations, individual neighbors, communities and even ourselves. Within this framework, there’s not an expectation to fix, but rather to listen, be present and provide guidance that unlocks the strengths and solutions already present within. This reminder