When I was six years old, I felt called to the ministry. I’d stand on our back porch and “preach” to my cats.

However, I went to church with my mother who attended a denomination that does not allow women in leadership (lay or clergy). As a child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say that I wanted to be a preacher. First, it was laughed at—it’s cute, this little girl wants to be a preacher—then I was told that I should not say that because it wasn’t something that women could do.

I still loved God and His Word and continued attending church faithfully through college years.

But as a 30-something adult, I made bad choices and decided God didn’t want me. Too many people told me that God didn’t love me. Who wants to serve a God who doesn’t love them? So, I rebelled. It’s a cop-out, yes, but that’s how I felt at the time.

My life took a detour. I married L. J. and we raised our three children, Scott, Andy, and Lynette. I became a registered nurse/psychiatric nurse, sold real estate, and owned card shops.

Over time, I stopped going to church because all I felt there was guilt and that I didn’t belong.

I never denied that God existed, but I was lost and felt there was nothing I could do about it. Nor did I believe God wanted to do anything about it.

An eight-year-old neighbor girl, Lauren, brought me back to God. One day her mother told me, “Lauren looked at me last night and said with open arms, ‘I’m so happy, I just invited Jesus into my heart.’” As much as I loved Lauren, as her mother shared I replied, “How nice.” But I was thinking, Lauren will grow up and get over that.

Two weeks later while the family was on a vacation trip, a logging truck broadsided their van and Lauren was killed.

It was standing-room-only at her funeral held at the largest church in town because this child touched so many lives in so many ways. If you’d known Lauren, you’d understand the impact of her life in our community.

Listening to the pastor talk about the witness of Lauren’s life, three things came to mind. 1) I realized that there wouldn’t be even 15 people at my funeral if I died that day, 2) They couldn’t say those things about me in any way, and 3) I thought, they wouldn’t be able to find a pastor to do my funeral.

A couple of weeks later on Easter Sunday, when everyone in the Christian world goes to church, and not having attended a church in this town, we decided to attend church. We found a church where we were flooded with the love of God and never went to another church in that community.

My husband, L. J., went with me even though he had been feeling the same way as I. The people in that church, Vista Ridge United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas, loved us back to God. That’s where I started my journey back to faith. I attended “Walk to Emmaus” where I really committed myself to God. This experience reminded me again how much I had loved Jesus and the Word.

In 2002 after moving to Whitney, Texas, we joined the Church of the Nazarene there. In that congregation, we found the same holiness, missional, outward-reaching church we had left in Lewisville.

When I went on a Work and Witness trip to Juarez, Mexico, in 2003, the call to ministry returned. It was so strong; it was being renewed. But let’s face it, I was “old” and all those opportunities had passed me by.

When I returned home, I was talking with my pastor, Greg Johnson, and he said to me, purposefully, “You know ‘the call’ is not supposed to come from me, but have you ever felt called to preach, called to the ministry?

My response was, “Do you know how old I am?!” He said, “No, but what difference does that make?” He was the first person to tell me that.

He never questioned age or gender in the role of a pastor.

So I began the course of study for ministry. I took courses everywhere I could. At the same time, my dear friend, Denise Rogers, was pursuing her call to ministry in the United Methodist Church.

I had been so jealous of her because she could do what I wanted to do and thought I couldn’t do, and now we were sisters on the journey together. We had been in an accountability group together, and I had never told her I was jealous, neither had I mentioned my call. I assumed I had my chance and the time had come and gone for that.

Greg mentored me for two years while I served as the associate minister there before I was called to pastor Mineral Wells, Texas, First Church of the Nazarene.

In April 2011, I was ordained on the West Texas District. That was unforgettable. I was the only one up there crying like crazy. It was such a joy to have that call finally affirmed. Some people complain about the lengthy process in becoming ordained. My path to ordination only took 60 years. I was beaming. It was so worth it!

What brings me joy as a pastor? What doesn’t bring me joy as a pastor! I love preaching, and I especially enjoy working with youth.

To other women on this journey I say, “Listen to God and don’t let anyone hold you back. Trust Him. Trust His plan. Get some good traveling companions.” Denise and I find that although we do not pastor in the same denomination or even in the same town, being able to share about our ministry journeys is helpful and encouraging.

I took a detour but I heard God’s call to come back and I’m not leaving the road again.

Carmen Ringhiser is managing editor of Holiness Today.

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.