My seminary experience comes after a rich chapter serving the non-profit sector as well as my first stint in graduate school to study social work. Most recently, I served in many roles at VOX ATL, a holistic youth-development organization with a focus on uncensored self-expression. It was through my time at VOX that I honed a passion for community organizing, including stakeholder engagement and facilitation. These skills and passions are central to my call to ministry because I see church as holy community – a group of people working together to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading us, guided by the values of Jesus’s gospel and held in the promise of God’s creative imagination.
I entered seminary with the desire and goal to seek ordination as a Minister of Word & Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in order to serve a congregation. I am currently a Candidate with the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. I serve as the Director of Christian Formation & Congregational Life at Central Presbyterian Church, and weave together what I am learning at seminary with my experience in youth development. This has revealed a love of nourishing the spiritual life of people in formative stages of their development. I am building educational experiences, including confirmation, fellowship opportunities, and service engagement. I am supporting children and youth in worship as well, paying attention to how our youngest worshipers experience God in our midst.
Speaking of worship, I served as the Office of Worship Life (OWL) Coordinator at Columbia for the spring semester of 2024. In this role, I worked with student groups and guest preachers to facilitate chapel services for our community. I supported the OWL team in both the logistics and theological reflection surrounding our chapel experience. It was an enlivening and profound experience, expanding my understanding of my call. In any context I serve, I bring creative energy for exploring how worship functions as a site of divine and communal belonging and how we can build worship services that are collaborative, authentic, and accessible.
This past year, I completed my Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Emory University Hospital, Midtown. Through Emory Spiritual Health, I was able to offer spiritual care to a diverse, interfaith group of care seekers alongside a diverse, interfaith group of providers. It was a transformative experience! With every knock on a hospital room door, I learned more about the power of presence and ministry of belonging in life’s most tender moments.
In weaving my past experiences, current joys, and possible futures together, I feel called to support the Christian spiritual formation of a community across age, stage, and life story. I see how worship, pedagogy, and pastoral care can work holistically to build bridges in people’s lives towards knowing God’s presence in their lives. Ultimately, my vocational goals relate to my desire for all people to know that they are beloved and that they belong – to God and to one another. My ministry will reflect this central value through pastoral care, community organizing, spiritual formation and facilitated worship experiences.
Susan Landrum 