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Human Resource

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, we’re curating a series on NEXT Church resources. Members of the NEXT Church communications team, staff, and advisory team are selecting resources already on our site and sharing the ways they have (or would) use them in their ministry context. We pray these will be of use to you in your own ministry! Have other ideas for resources you’ve used from our website? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Charlene Han Powell

I’ve been involved in the NEXT Church movement since the beginning-ish. It used to be a small group of people sitting around a few tables talking about what the church could be. Fast forward to a few years later and now it is comprised of hundreds of people around a number of tables across the country talking about what the church is already becoming. Dreams have become realities. Hopes have been realized. NEXT Church is a movement that is making a difference in the church.  I can personally testify to that.

When NEXT Church was in the early stages of its ministry, so was I. Not yet ordained. Not yet called. Not yet employed. I didn’t even know what resources I needed to be a good pastor. I just knew I needed some support and fellowship for this long and often lonely journey. I have found that in the NEXT Church community. Every regional gathering I attend, every conference I go to, every workshop I participate in, I walk away feeling less crazy and less isolated in this vocation.  The most valuable resource that NEXT Church has offered me are the people I have met and the relationships I have formed.

But the human resource I have found in NEXT Church is more than just companionship. When I needed to reimagine officer training* this past year, I reached out to my network of colleagues I have met over the years at the National Gathering. When I was navigating a recent job transition, I connected with those in NEXT Church who had gone through the same thing. When I am stuck in any sort of ministry-related rut, I rely on the wisdom and experience of this amazing community of passionate and capable leaders.

The best part about utilizing this valuable resource within NEXT Church is that all YOU have to do is show up. Next time we are in your area, show up. If there is an online roundtable that piques your interest, show up. When registration for the National Gathering goes live, SIGN UP and then show up. And get ready to reap the unbelievable benefits of this fantastic movement.

*Stay tuned – we’re offering a blog series on officer training next month! 


Charlene Han Powell is the Executive Pastor at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in midtown Manhattan. Originally from California, Charlene is a proud New Yorker raising two young girls on the Upper West Side.

Journeying Through the Wilderness

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Jeff Bryan is curating a series reflecting on the 2018 National Gathering in late February. You’ll hear from clergy, lay people, community leaders, and others reflect on their experiences of the National Gathering and what’s stuck with them since. How does the “Desert in Bloom” look on the resurrection side of Easter? What are your own thoughts of your National Gathering experience, or on what these reflections spark for you? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter

by Erin Hayes-Cook

“And sometimes dying is rising. Sometimes dying sparks a new thing, becomes possibility, potential, the fallow ground where new life slowly takes root, unfurls, grows wild.” Call to worship, Tuesday, at the NEXT Church National Gathering. I’ve kept these words in my spiritual pocket for the past few weeks. They have shaped how I move about in this ministry world in which I find myself.

I came to face dying and rising in my ministry context, vocation, and life. For I feel like I am a leader in the wilderness carving meaning out of rock and claiming the God of transformation while listening to the grief of God’s people. To say it is hard work would diminish the cost of discipleship.

At the National Gathering, I named the dry and desert places with colleagues and heard from David Leong who asked us the question, “What if abandoned places of empire and other places associated with decay or neglect are actually fertile soil for renewal and rebirth?” His question stirred in my spirit and imagination. What if the leaders of the church are called to go to the abandoned and neglected places and find resurrection? To me that is a calling.

On the other hand, I heard stories from Sheri Parks and Betsy Nix about the Thread program in Baltimore who walk with young people who need a community to support them. Or the woman who stood up during the presentation and shared about her presbytery holding a racial awareness festival. Blossoms kept springing up.

John Vest presented an imaginative way to move through ministry challenges and find those blossoms with the Cultivated Ministry approach. The shared tools and rubric helped me find another way to claim the God of transformation in ministry. I look forward to using it in the future.

The final challenge for me was Jonathan Walton’s keynote speech, “Be Suspicious of Praise.” He claimed that it is easier to worship a supernatural savior than accept the challenge of a prophet. Jesus’ biggest temptation was not found in his interaction with the devil in the desert, but when surrounded by his people who gave him praise. As I try my best to listen to the Spirit in the midst of the wilderness my hope is that I may answer yes to the second question, “Are you one with the age? Or are you being what our age needs right now?”

I’m grateful that my experience at the NEXT Church National Gathering gave me space again to claim with joy the call to journey through the wilderness.


Erin Hayes-Cook is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Rahway, NJ. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (’05), she served two churches in the Philadelphia area. She finds community at her Crossfit Box and coffee shops nearby.

Guided by Faith

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Jeff Bryan is curating a series reflecting on the 2018 National Gathering in late February. You’ll hear from clergy, lay people, community leaders, and others reflect on their experiences of the National Gathering and what’s stuck with them since. How does the “Desert in Bloom” look on the resurrection side of Easter? What are your own thoughts of your National Gathering experience, or on what these reflections spark for you? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter

by Hope Schaefer

When our associate pastor approached me about attending the NEXT Church National Gathering, I was honestly hesitant. What was I going to gain from attending this conference? It wasn’t until I started to read the workshop descriptions that I realized how perfectly NEXT Church aligned with my career and my own personal passions. As a lay leader in my church, I registered for three workshops, from which I knew I could bring back information to apply for our congregation and my job as program manager at a non-profit food pantry.

Leading up to the conference, I had several conversations with my husband about strengthening my faith and helping it guide me in my career, but it was something I was struggling with. Once we arrived, I relinquished my hesitation and allowed myself to be open to all the National Gathering had to offer. The first service of the conference invigorated me. Internally though, I was still struggling to answer my question of career and faith: just how could I intertwine the two? I feel that faith is something I should hold close. We are not a faith based food pantry, but it’s something that I recognize daily in my work. It gives me hope and strength for social justice and the immense problems that our pantry clients face.

My first workshop, Coaching for Transformation, led me to my answer, an answer that really had been staring me in the face the whole time. With a partner in our workshop, we shared a “problem” we were facing and our partner had to respond with thought provoking questions. I explained the internal battle I had of better integrating faith into my career. Right away my partner responded with, “Why don’t you change your perspective?” Why shouldn’t faith always be a part of my career? Why would I need to separate the two? She responded, “What’s stopping you from your faith always being present in your day, especially as a woman with strong faith?” That was it. I needed to change my perspective, flip my thinking, and choose to see what was already there!

The NEXT Church National Gathering was an amazing opportunity to change perspectives and inspire us to focus on what COULD be. These perspectives can allow us to praise even while something may be dying or failing that death and failure can still bring about new life and opportunity. So, thank you, NEXT Church, for breathing new life into my passion for fighting hunger, sharing my faith and letting it guide me, and speaking up for all that I care about.


Hope Schaefer is a lay leader at First Presbyterian Church in Neenah, WI. Hope is a full-time program manager at the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry. This large non-profit food pantry provides food monthly to 2,000 households and distributes over 1.3 million pounds of food a year. Hope is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Master of Science program in Recreation Management and in her spare time she runs half marathons with her husband (and soon the Chicago Marathon!) and plays cello.

Courtrooms, Friday Mornings, and Just Being Me

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Josh Durham

The most important lesson I learned in my law school trial advocacy class was to be myself. It was a good lesson, particularly since the TV lawyers of the day from shows such as The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Law and Order did such a good job that it was natural to want to be them instead. But I have generally heeded the advice of my trial professors, and their lesson has served me well through my eighteen years of practice and through many, many cases that arise from one business dispute or another.  

josh-durham-buildingThere are still times, though, when it’s easy for this introvert to want to be one of those dramatic, bang-my-fists-on-the-table lawyers. A client gets burned by a business partner whom they’d considered a close friend, and their deep hurt and thirst for punishment become mine. Or when opposing counsel plays fast and loose with the rules of procedure, and I not just want to call them out on it, I want to bury them for it.

I know, though, that in such times my clients and I are much better served when I remain myself.  

And that’s exactly where my church comes in. Especially on Friday mornings, when I gather with a small number of men with diverse careers in one of our church classrooms for a weekly Bible study. We’ve studied Mark, Luke, Acts, Genesis, Exodus, and we are now working our way through Joshua. All one chapter at a time.

Through all my church involvement in my life, and through the many Sunday sermons and Sunday School classes, I have learned a lot about Christ and Scripture. But it is on these Friday mornings, in this safe haven for doubt, questions, honest conversation, and confession, when I have learned so much about myself.

  • I am a child of God, and I am neither perfect nor alone.
  • I am part of a community whose members are each uniquely imperfect, and it is from this community that God often chooses people to do amazing things.
  • I am loved.

Of course, I likely knew all of this already, but somehow it’s different hearing it on Friday mornings, and these lessons have therefore become ones that I look forward to, and carry with me, each and every week. All of us in this group feel this way.

I am so unbelievably grateful for so many things in my life, and included on the list are our Friday mornings together, that sincere invitation to attend from a fellow church member several years ago, and God’s gentle nudge toward that very first meeting. And I am thankful that through all of my figurative and literal trials, I know this:

I am someone to whom God promises this: I will be with you wherever you go.


joshua-durham-headshot-v2_0Josh Durham is an attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he helps businesses and business owners through all sorts of disputes. He’s also an aspiring screenwriter, but his real dream is to play second base for the Houston Astros. Josh is married to his law school sweetheart, Lynette Neel, and together they have three marvelously beautiful (and funny) children. They are members of Trinity Presbyterian Church. You can follow Josh on twitter: @joshdurhamlaw.

Living So God Can Use Me

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Suzanne Newsom

I am a veteran teacher in a public school. I do not recall lining up my teddy bears and baby dolls as a child and teaching them in my pink bedroom. The catalyst of my teaching career was a mission trip to Haiti sponsored by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Presbytery. As an 18 year-old recent high school graduate, I traveled there in service to a remote village with a group of 14 others. At the end of that summer, I would attend UNC-Chapel Hill with plans to obtain a degree that would more than bring me financial security. The person who applied to go on that month long trip was a feminist who saw that only young men had traveled there on missions before. I traveled to Haiti to prove that women are strong. I returned with a stronger spirit for social justice and a humbled heart. That spirit moved me to become a teacher.

img_0338“I want to live so God can use me.” These are the words to one of my favorite hymns. God uses me everyday at Olympic High School where I teach English.

My faith supports me every day, all day, helping me to make decisions that, I hope, are ordered by God’s will. Each morning as I drive to work, I turn off the radio on the final leg of my journey. When I am at a loss for words and am afraid that I will lose my usually calm composure, I set my mind right with “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” That little silent prayer is long enough that I can take a few deep breaths and then say what needs to be said in a tough situation.

While we public school teachers are not to talk about our faith or our politics, it is my hope that my students know that I am a Christian because what of what I show them. Curriculum is everything that happens in a school. Students see teachers when they are before the class and when they are not. Their eyes are watching us as we help each other and help them. I can make my faith a part of their curriculum without having a lesson plan about it.   

My life is rich as a result of teaching thousands of students in Charlotte. Their resilience is inspiring. My hope with each class is that we can build a community of people who feel welcome to share their questions and challenges as we learn together. Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church is a place where I can share myself and learn with others. I am challenged each week to apply what I glean from each sermon preached and hymn sung. I have learned that the more involved I am in church, the more the church is involved in me. So, I take my faith with me into my classroom and try to make each day an act of worship.


suzanne-newsomeSuzanne Newsom teaches English at The Renaissance School of Arts and Technology at Olympic High School in Charlotte, NC.  She was raised in the loving arms of Selwyn Avenue Presbyterian Church, where her family still worships.

Jobs Are a Holy Thing

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Tanner Pickett

I spent several years dissatisfied with the direction of my career. I was almost consumed with the idea of “doing something else” and was pretty resentful that I couldn’t find the meaning in my work. Looking back, I realize that lack of “meaning” had less to do with the actual work than it did with my frame of mind. Perhaps I was precisely where I needed to be, serving the role that I need to serve in that moment.

I recently heard Rob Bell speak about ways to find spirituality in nearly anything. He said, “Faith is doing what you do really well. Ordinary work, interacting in our common life together, that’s the ‘Holy’ thing.” Bell uses this presentation to illustrate the deep connection between our faith and every other part of our lives. The more that I think about this concept, the more that I love it. Have you ever seen someone who is really passionate about their work? They seem to find incredible joy and pride in what they’re doing. It’s a calling. It’s beautiful. Bell is suggesting that this is worship. This is one way that we can live out our faith. The ironic thing about my previous work is that I failed to experience the “holy” because I was spent so much energy being resentful at the lack of meaning in that role.

tanner-workI am happy to say that I am in a role that I feel I was called to and am much happier. I get to promote Montreat Conference Center to people all over country. I have been able to have amazing conversations about faith with people from all walks of life. I get to work with a great team and they are teaching me so much about my own faith and service.

So, how does our faith inform our daily lives? The answer seems simple enough, yet many of us struggle to understand how to do that in a practical way. The Bible is full of examples of God using those in the margins to make an impact on others. I wonder if our “everyday” talents can be used in the same way. Can God use the seemingly unimportant, rote parts of our lives as the instruments to minister to others? I think so. The majority of my career has been in some type of leadership role. So how does my faith influence my role as a leader and manager? Here are a couple of ways:

  1. I think of my faith journey as a form of constant self-development and that is something that I am learning to try to reflect in my work. Isn’t that a recurring theme throughout the Bible? We learn something, we pat ourselves on the back, we screw it up, and we get another chance. With every new thing we try, we have a chance to learn something new – even in failure. I think about this in my role as a leader. Do I create space for growth, messing up, and learning? Do I encourage others into that space?
  2. Faith is a form of appreciation. Thinking about my job as a calling helps me have a much different perspective on how those around me do their jobs. Am I supportive or oppositional?

The lesson that I have learned from all of this: The “meaning” in our jobs is less about where we work and more about the way that we view what we are doing. When we view our job as a “holy thing,” we are suddenly able to find joy in our conversations, coworkers, and our daily work. How will you celebrate the “holy” in your life?


tanner pickettTanner Pickett is the vice president for Sales, Marketing, and Communication at Montreat Conference Center. He also serves on the Strategy Team for NEXT Church and a member of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church. His most important work is being a husband and a dad.

Our Greatest Passions

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Sarah-Dianne Jones

As a student at Maryville College, I found myself engaged in groups and activities that I never imagined I would be a part of. My days were full of classes, homework, meetings, and events. Two of the groups I became a part of were a women’s issues group and a committee called Peace and World Concerns Committee. Neither of these groups were focused on matters of faith, but I found it increasingly hard to distinguish the work I was doing with those groups from my faith.

screen-shot-2016-10-17-at-7-51-01-amAs I worked with a statewide campaign against an amendment so that women facing the difficult matter of abortion would be guaranteed the same privacy that Tennessee guaranteed to others, I could not separate the idea that the equal treatment of women and men in society from the idea that every person is a child of God, loved unconditionally and fully by God. As I worked a tailgate with Peace and World Concerns to raise awareness of gun violence and ask for common sense laws surrounding guns, I could not separate it from the idea that no child of God should be shot down for walking down the street.

As Sisters in Spirit planned a week of events focused on violence against women, my mind was constantly thinking about the ways that our society has turned from the society that I imagine God’s society would be like, a society in which men and women are equal, children aren’t being killed by guns, and women aren’t afraid to go home. These things were not church work, but it was work that stemmed from the faith formed in me from years of being a part of the church.

screen-shot-2016-10-17-at-7-51-07-amVocation is a word used often at Maryville, and the experiences I had in these organizations shaped my sense of vocation tremendously. As I continue to explore the idea of vocation and the ways that it can change, I think the church is missing out on an opportunity to have conversations about vocation as something that doesn’t necessarily happen inside the walls of the church. I often heard vocation defined using Frederick Buechner’s words: “vocation is where your greatest passion meets the world’s greatest needs.”

The world doesn’t need everyone to be a pastor or an associate pastor or a youth director, and neither does the church. What the church needs is for all of us to take the aspects of our faith that have shaped and formed us and use those in our work in the world. Our passions are not an accident—they are a part of us that can be used to do incredible work that the world needs, that our communities need, and that our churches need. My passions for women’s rights and for safer communities led me to organizations that I never would have imagined being a part of, but they were the perfect place for me to continue discerning where my sense of vocation is leading me.


sdj-square-smSarah-Dianne Jones is a Birmingham, Alabama native who graduated from Maryville College in 2016. She is currently serving as a Young Adult Volunteer in Washington, DC, where she works with NEXT Church and New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Connecting in Our Vocations

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Suzanne Davis

The hardest question I have to answer in polite conversation is, “What do you do?” The answer for me is a struggle because I have no satisfactory answer that is immediately understood. So I sometimes answer, “Just a housewife” or “professional volunteer.” My husband’s career in the military was launched because of our desire to have a family. My career then became the care and feeding of two children, a husband and most times a dog. Being a “stay at home” wife has to be one of the loneliest vocations there is — especially when you move 13 times in 25 years!

When my husband was assigned to Korea, our family was one of 200 that was permitted to move and live with our military member on a base that had over 5,000 people. While this was the first time in a while that my husband actually got to come home most evenings, we were all aware that we were very lucky to be together. It was very unusual to have most of the people around you without their families!

osan-food-court-3One night in particular stands out — a random weeknight that I did not want to cook. As a family, we went to the food court on base. We are sitting and having normal family banter between two parents, a five-year-old and 2-year-old. I looked up beyond our table only to catch the teary eyes of an airman sitting alone. Of course, he looked away quickly, but I saw him. I gave him a minute, then I excused myself from our table. I did not know him, but I asked how he was doing. He told me he was missing his family that was back in the US and seeing my family eating dinner together made him miss his own family more. I asked to see pictures of his children. It was a delightful, meaningful conversation.

I realized later that when we held hands as we prayed (which is something that I balked at!) in the worship service on Sunday that this was the one opportunity for most people around me to be touched by another human during the week. Can you imagine being far away from your loved ones and friends and not being touched? Is it possible that even in our church right now, on any Sunday, that there are many sitting in the congregation that feel the same; searching and achy for a personal connection? And for those not in our congregation, do they know where to get that connection?

In my small circle of influence, I try to connect with others around me and truly be present with them. Is that not what we all should do whatever our vocation? Reassuring others that they are not alone in the world. They are loved. They are seen. They are heard. Anyone, with any profession, call or vocation can show others the love of God.


suzanne_davis_06_webSuzanne Cannon Davis is a mother of two beautiful grown children, Caroline and Jackson, and wife of a wonderful retired Air Force colonel, Ted (or T.O. to his AF buddies). She has had the honor of serving on two sessions in two different churches and is currently worshipping at Hopewell Presbyterian in Huntersville, NC, where her mother, aunt and uncle all share a pew.  She volunteers her time on several committees at Hopewell, the Bi-Lingual Preschool La Escuelita San Marcos, and NEXT Church. 

The Angels of the World are the Volunteers

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Robert Hay, Jr.

I remember a car ride home from youth group Bible study one Wednesday night with my dad. I was a freshman in high school and my dad was the youth pastor.  For some reason we were talking about call. As a preacher’s kid (or PK as we are affectionately known), everyone assumes you will go to seminary. My dad understood that pressure too since he was a PK as well. That evening my dad said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said that “the angels of the world are the volunteers.”

Now, my family business is church work. Six generations of my family are Presbyterian pastors. So, paid “ministry” is what we know. But what I learned from my dad then and over the years since is that ministry happens not because of paid pastors and paid staff, but it happens because faithful people (paid and volunteer) work together to glorify God.

tsr_4405_webAs a typical PK I rejected the idea that I would have a career in the ministry. So, after receiving a business degree from Auburn University, I started my career as an analyst working for a large business and technology consulting firm. My work days were spent taking business requirements and transforming them into technical solutions. The work was good and I was good at it, but God had other plans for me. God led me to a faith-based nonprofit and showed me how I could use my business skills for ministry.

It was through this experience that I gained a better appreciation of how we are all called to use our unique skills to glorify God. We are all called to serve and love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. And we are all given many different gifts that can be used to glorify God in many different ways. Yes, some people are “called” to ministry in a paid capacity. But I believe we are all called to ministry in our own unique ways.

Fast forward many years and I now find myself working for the Presbyterian Foundation as a Ministry Relations Officer. One of the joys of this calling is that I get to work with a lot of church volunteers. My work mainly focuses on helping churches with their stewardship programs (annual stewardship and planned giving stewardship) as well as helping churches with their investments and endowments. To some, this work may not seem like ministry. This work seems to be about money; how to get more money and how to manage money. But I see things very differently.

The members of the finance committee who struggle with income and expenditures and the balance sheet have been called to use their gifts of finance and administration to make sure that God’s church is financially viable and is maximizing ministry.

The members of the stewardship and generosity teams who share how the church is being the hands of feet of Christ in the community and then invite other church members to give of their time, talent, and treasure are called to use their gifts to help build energy and excitement about God’s church.

The members of the endowment committee who are encouraging church members to leave their faith legacy through a planned gift to the church and who are managing the endowment investment are called to use their gifts to ensure that God’s church continues for generations.

These volunteer jobs in the church may not seem like ministry, but I can assure you that these folks are called to this and see it as a ministry. Many times they are the “angels” of the church that get overlooked.

God calls us all in unique ways. Be on the lookout for the “angels” among us and affirm their calling. And listen with an open heart for the opportunities you are being called to by God.


hay-casual-2016Robert Hay, Jr. is the Ministry Relations Officer covering the southeast region (MS, AL, GA, FL, TN, and Puerto Rico) from the Presbyterian Foundation. Robert is a Ruling Elder and has volunteered in many different roles within the PCUSA. He lives in Peachtree City, GA with his wife, Morgan Hay (who serves as the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church Peachtree City), and their two children. Robert enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, and watching college football (War Eagle!).

Legal Work, Emotional Work, Faith Work

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, our blog features reflections on vocation, offered by people who are engaged in ministry and work outside the church. What is God’s calling on our lives outside of the church? What is difficult about being Christian in the working world? How do our churches nurture a sense of Christian vocation? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Deni Pifer

I am an estate attorney. This means I help folks plan for their death. Sometimes they know the end is near. Sometimes it’s the distant future– like menopause or old age – though they know it is inevitable, it’s not really applicable to them in their minds, not any time soon anyway. On the other side, after someone dies, I remove the burden of paper from the desks of those left behind and lay it heavily on mine – so the living can sleep a little less fretful at night knowing assets will go to their rightful owners. While there is legal work involved, there is also much emotional work. They call attorneys “Counselors at Law” and I find myself wishing I’d had more psychology classes. I also wish I’d paid better attention during the time spent in childhood squirming in the pew while my grandfather rained Bible verses upon his Baptist congregation.

good-pen-writingI have clients of many religions and though some speak to me of their God, some do not. I listen when they do but I don’t offer advice about God – I just don’t have the expertise there. When a client asks me, because they’ve read my website bio, of my mother dying at the young age of fifty-one from cancer, I answer that my mother knew where she was going, though I am certain she was still afraid. Her death lead me to this role and the ability to provide not just expertise but a strong heart to know when a hug is needed, or simply an understanding nod. They ask me if I’m Christian and I reply yes, though I’ve had my faith tested and haven’t been nor am I now the most faithful.

My faith plays into what I do in ways that surprise me. At times clients fight – often about trivial things: the cuckoo clock that hung over their parents’ table growing up or great-grandmother Bertha’s silver tray. It’s not the monetary value but rather the emotion the object represents which can grow heated, angry and raw. I try to still their anger and show them reason, and I am certain there have been times when only the power of Jesus and Heaven have given me the right words. When they leave the office, I pray and sometimes I cry.

One evening after a particularly contentious day when I knew the next day was going to be just as rough if not worse, while the sun was setting through my daughter’s bedroom window, my sweet nine-year-old took my hand and said “Mommy, let’s read the Bible together.” She promptly and expertly turned her bible to Matthew 6:25-34 and read to me what just happened to be the exact same verses my late mother had highlighted in her old Bible, ending in:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Amazing Grace… don’t you think?


deni-piferDeni C. Pifer is an attorney who practices in estate planning and estate administration in Charlotte, NC. She is a member of both the NC and SC bars. She is also a wife and mother to a son and a daughter.