Rev. Emily Chapman
Missions and Outreach
Room S-306. Extension 25
Ministry Assistant: Kathryn (Kat) Jordan Denton
A lifelong United Methodist, Rev. Emily Chapmen grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area until she moved to Abilene, Texas, to attend McMurry University, a United Methodist liberal arts college. After dabbling in a religion major, then sociology, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in communication in 2005, with plans to work in the non-profit sector. From there, she moved to Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, to study some theology and watch a lot of Duke Basketball.
Despite all of her efforts to go into ministry outside the church, while at Duke Emily fell in love with pastoral ministry, and her seminary internships helped her discern her calling to ministry in the church. Many people along the journey made this possible:
- The congregation at Cashiers UMC in Western North Carolina gave her a first glimpse at what parish ministry was really like, in addition to showing her the beauty of the land and people of Western North Carolina.
- Her co-workers and clients at Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network opened her eyes to the need for the Church to think more radically about hospitality to strangers as she worked with homeless families with children.
- The young men at a correctional facility in the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice taught her the ways that the Church must respond to issues of poverty, racism, classism, lack of education, addiction, and gang activity that lead to incarceration.
- The friends she made in her travel to Uganda and Rwanda during seminary gave her a passion for connecting brothers and sisters in Christ from all parts of the world to learn one another’s stories and to share in the story of God together.
All of these experiences led to a deep passion for serving the Church by making connections between parts of the body of Christ that might not normally encounter one another and to find a place in the church for all people to serve in ways that use their own enthusiasm and talent. Emily was appointed to St. Paul’s in May 2008 and is excited to be using those passions to work with Outreach Ministries and Young Adults.
Rev. Chapman delivered the
sermon for the Service of Sending Forth and Celebration of Appointments at the Texas Annual Conference 2011.
Contact Emily regarding
