Every Friday, Baptist Women in Ministry features an interview with an amazing minister on this blog. Today, we are thrilled to interview Mera Corlett. Mera IS what a minister looks like!
Mera, tell us about your ministry journey and the places and ways you have served and are serving.
My mother often told me that she enrolled me in the Sunday School Cradle Roll at Canton Baptist Church when I was six weeks old. She said she regretted I couldn’t have started earlier, but “folks in those days kept babies in until they were six weeks old!”
Growing up in a small rural church in Western Kentucky meant I was nurtured into faith and leadership. Nearly every member served in one role or another to make sure that our small congregation could grow in faith and bring others to Christ. By the sixth grade, I was serving as Sunday School secretary and Treasurer. Later, I assisted in Bible School and directed church pageants. As a teen and part of a youth group at a sister church, leadership opportunities came to me during mission trips, backyard Bible clubs, and church recreation. And, along the way on more than a few occasions, I reported to adult leaders that I was experiencing a call to ministry.
As a college student at Western Kentucky University, I double-majored in religion and recreation. (All the makings of a youth minister, right?) However, shortly after I began seminary, I was drawn to ministering to persons who were in crisis or suffering. After completing a M.Div. degree with an emphasis in pastoral dare and counseling, I sought ACPE accreditation as a professional chaplain. What followed was nearly twenty-five years of chaplaincy in various hospitals around Louisville; more than twenty years were spent as a chaplain at Central State Hospital (CSH), a public-funded psychiatric facility. After I retired as CSH director of pastoral services, I served briefly as interim director of The Wayne Oates Institute and provided other ministries as invited—including preaching.
About three years ago, a colleague asked if I was available to preach one Sunday at Okolona Baptist Church, a Louisville church without a pastor. After preaching at OBC a few times, I was approached by the pastor search committee who asked me to consider a call from the congregation. At first, I was uncertain. After all, my ministry trajectory had never included being a senior pastor. However, after a period of discernment on both our parts, we came to the conclusion that we were a “good fit” and that God must, indeed, be working within the decision. In April, I will have been their senior pastor for three years.
What have been your greatest sources of joy in ministry?
One of my favorite quotations comes from author, E. M. Forster who said, “Only connect.” As a pastor and chaplain, I have been given many significant and sacred ways to connect with individuals, families, congregations, and institutions. My role has gifted me with the chance to minister with persons during some of the holiest of times in their lives. I grew up surrounded by storytellers who taught me the importance of story in our lives and how our own stories intersect with God’s story. I take seriously Christ’s call to see the traces of the Divine in everyone we meet and have been fortunate to meet Jesus in the lives of many—particularly in the faces of those who are poor and vulnerable. There’s great joy that comes in sharing the journey with Jesus in that way.
What have been the greatest challenges you have encountered in ministry?
Early on, I struggled with the heaviness of heart that comes from being present and sharing the burdens of persons who are suffering. Day in and day out, we ministers saw the most difficult situations anyone could imagine, did whatever we could do to be the face of compassion within those circumstances, and went home feeling inadequate to the task. I was fortunate to have supervisors who taught the importance of setting appropriate boundaries and taking care of one’s self as minister. Stepping into the realm of being senior pastor of a congregation brought new and different ways to be challenged in the area of self-care. That being said, I confess than even though it has been thirty-five years since my ordination, those continue to be growing edges.
What is the best ministry advice you have been given?
This is a question worth pondering because it takes me back to so many times when I have been given such wonderful advice. I often find it restorative to draw persons to mind who have given us counsel and guidance. One person who stands out is Helen Barnette, a member of my ordination council at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. Helen was a schoolteacher who happened to be married to another of my mentors, Baptist ethicist, Henlee Barnette. Helen told me that as a minister, I must never attempt to copy others, that I should always be honest and authentically myself. “Never forget that God called you.” She said there would be days when I would lose confidence and be tempted to model myself after who someone else thought I should be. At such times, she said to remind myself to be myself and to trust God’s choice in me. Her words have given me courage during tough times in my vocation. They are words I often share with others as they begin new endeavors.