Choosing the ministry over law in order to be closer with the people she wanted to serve, Michelle Erickson Waters found that she was using a very large skill set to manage and attend to her congregation side by side with her husband. When they expanded their personal flock to six, she decided she’d take a different role within the church and expand her skillset in other ways to tend to the family. Find out how faith and flexibility are often the best guideposts.
Guest Michelle Erickson Waters, Dartmouth '96, had originally thought she’d be a lawyer, but after she spent a fellowship term with a legal aid organization at the border doing more grant-writing and bureaucratic stuff and less helping people, she listened more carefully to the call to the ministry. A path to divinity school took a slightly different turn than expected when she chose to attend the same school as non-Christian-boyfriend-turned-Christian-fiancé. They have now served together as a pastoral couple for over twenty years.
When their family expanded to four children—later six—she took an early retirement from the church and devoted her time to homeschool the flock. With one now out of the house at college and others in public school now, Michelle has found many other ways to exercise all of the skills required by a pastor—public speaking, counseling, celebrating, and business management. She writes a blog and co-hosts a podcast and continues to work side-by-side with her husband in various ways at the church. In this episode, find out from Michelle how faith and flexibility are often the best guideposts…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley
About This Episode's Guest
Michelle Erickson Waters is a retired pastor who continues to do pastoral work in a number of ways, including through her writing and the podcast Pastors Confidential, which she co-hosts with husband Eric Waters, Dartmouth ’95. Find her writing and the podcast at Michellejoywaters.com.
Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley
Music: Brian Burrows