GRAVETTE -- Pat Bodenhamer, new pastor at the Gravette United Methodist Church, is breaking barriers. She is the first female pastor in the church's history. Bodenhamer, who moved to Gravette the last of June, is also pastor at the Decatur United Methodist Church and held her first service at both churches on July 5.
Bodenhamer, an Arkansas native, graduated from high school in Mountain Home and attended Arkansas State University in Jonesboro where she received a bachelor's degree in social work. Later she received her master of divinity degree at Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee.
Pat has been a busy woman, holding several jobs where she tapped into her skills in social work and theology. She worked for a time in the Arkansas conference office of the United Methodist Church in Little Rock. She was employed in the bishop's office, where she was minister of mission and outreach. Her focus was on small membership churches. She coordinated all their mission activities and did training in leadership development.
Bodenhamer organized the church's conference assistance for victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. She described the response in the aftermath of those disasters as "one of the church's finest hours." Churches throughout Arkansas made donations and Arkansas was the first state to get water into New Orleans. A FEMA representative called her and said he wasn't having any luck getting bottled water for the victims and workers there. She had already stockpiled a supply and was able to send nine semi truckloads right away.
Other assistance for hurricane victims was provided by finding homes for evacuees, both in private homes and in churches and church camps. Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville became a distribution center for all the state's Methodist churches. They sent supplies there, where they were organized, palleted and trucked to the disaster area. Pat was able to get trucking firms to donate their services so all 53 semi truckloads of supplies were sent at no cost to the church.
"It was amazing to see our church rise to the occasion," she said.
Bodenhamer pastored a church at Bella Vista for a short time and then took a job with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She helped forge connections between the churches and the work of the advocates. She also worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues affecting children and families.
Bodenhamer is very active in the North Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist church. She teaches pastors to be pastors, she explains, in a course of study that some choose instead of going through seminary. She also teaches in lay speaker school at Mount Sequoyah and is a circuit elder, where she has five or six churches and works with the district superintendent to advise the pastors of those churches. She has recently started training for a ministry life coach, to train pastors to be more effective. She will be going for the next phase of that training in September.
Pat has pastored churches at Diamond City and Omaha the last five years. She is excited about her new charge in northwest Arkansas. She said she asked for a church or churches right on the cusp of something great and this is where they sent her.
"There's a real opportunity for growth here, so here I am," she said. "I enjoy small membership churches. There's definitely a place for them. They have opportunities you can't get in larger churches."
Sunday morning worship at the Gravette church, at the corner of Second and Akron, is from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., with Sunday school and study groups following from 10:45 to 11:30. Sunday morning worship at the Decatur church is at 11 a.m. Bodenhamer invites everyone in the area to attend at either location. She can be reached by phone at 479-787-5000.
General News on 07/22/2015