A Higher Calling

By Nancy Alexander

Originally appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of Butler Magazine. Posted with permission from Butler University. Click Here for a Adobe PDF of the original publication.

As an economics major at Butler, Sharon Watkins '75 received a B on a project that she believed in her heart should have been an A. More than three decades later, she still winces as she recalls the admonition her paper provoked from Professor Janos Horvath: "You have ignored one of the first rules of economics," he told her. "You didn't take account of all your resources. You didn't use me."

Watkins calls the experience a life lesson. Today, she is tapping all her resources as the newly elected general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, which is headquartered in Indianapolis. She is the seventh individual to lead the 750,000- member denomination, and acknowledges with typical good humor that yes, her selection surprised some in the church - and perhaps Sharon Watkins most of all.

Watkins grew up near Butler University; her father was a professor at Christian Theological Seminary (formerly Butler's School of Religion and since 1958, an independent seminary affiliated with the Disciples). Her childhood memories include walking through Holcomb Gardens, sledding down Butler Hill and cheering for the Butler football and basketball squads.

Still, Watkins started her collegiate career at another university. When she looked into transferring to Butler, the admissions staff and departmental advisers who reviewed her transcript were generous in crediting her prior courses, especially in French, she says: "They made it too good not to come back home." To save money, Watkins lived first with her parents and then with a friend while attending Butler. "Mine was not a typical experience," she says, but adds that her earlier contacts created a great affinity for the Butler campus that she still enjoys today.

Watkins intended to study political science as early preparation for a career in diplomacy. She ended up double majoring in French and economics. "I discovered in my political sciences classes that the economic entities are the big players in the world," she says. "You'd better understand economics to understand how societies function."

She again cites Horvath's influence: "He understood economics as a factor in how the world works - not just cold models, but how economics affect the lives of real people."

Watkins completed her Butler degree in December 1975 but was unsure about how to spend her "extra" semester. She didn't feel ready for graduate school, even after pondering her future on a cycling trip from Portland, Ore., to Indianapolis. Her fluency in French and her parents' connections led her to explore a short-term opportunity in French-speaking Congo (Zaire) through the Christian Church's Division of Overseas Ministry. She accepted an assignment in adult literacy.

Watkins envisioned stepping into well-oiled culture-to-culture exchange. The reality was nothing like she imagined. At age 22 and newly transplanted to Africa, she found herself in charge of creating an adult literacy program where none existed.

Watkins recalled Horvath's advice: Use your resources, all of them. She found a missionary in Kenya, who provided a quick how-to course. She observed adult literacy programs in Togo, Ghana and Kenya. She contacted the United Nations and Zairean government officials for networking and training. She designed a project from square-one and wrote grants that put her economics training to work.

When Watkins left more than two years later - "and with the help of so many others," she is quick to add - the program was up and running. The experience changed her life, she says: "Sometimes things that seem impossible are possible. This is just one example of the Holy Spirit working through an amazing set of circumstances."

Watkins returned to Indianapolis to work in the church administrative offices. Her personal call to ministry, she says, was articulated during Coffee Hour one morning under the wagging finger of the Division of Overseas Ministry president, who told Watkins that it was time for her to attend seminary. "It was so obvious, even I could no longer resist," Watkins says, laughing. In addition to her Butler degree, Watkins holds a master of divinity from Yale Divinity School and a doctor of ministry degree from Phillips Theological Seminary.

Watkins' journey then led her to parish ministry. "I loved the way that people invited you into their lives at critical moments - births, baptisms, weddings, the transition from this life to the next. It is such a privilege," she says with heartfelt emotion. She was enjoying her seventh year as senior minister of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Okla., when she learned she was being considered for the denomination's top spot.

The church selects its president through procedures that Watkins calls "a process of discernment in which we as a church must discern who is right and ready for the job." When the search committee asked her to submit papers for consideration, she didn't take the idea seriously at first. But gathering references, talking over the possibilities with other people and completing the required paperwork began a period of intense introspection, Watkins says: "I came to understand my skills and gifts. By the time the call actually came, I was ready to accept it. But I was also ready to rejoice for whomever they selected."

Much of her reflection and writing took place during the Lenten season. "It was incredible," she says. "It was a thoroughly spiritual experience for me, with a surprising outcome."

She was elected and installed at the denomination's General Assembly in July 2005. In announcing Watkins to the meeting representatives, LaTaunya Bynum, chair of the search committee said, "Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins exemplifies the faithful leadership we seek. She is thoughtful, gentle and clear in her convictions."

Watkins brings a new look to the church's hierarchy. Although her predecessors also had parish ministry experience, it was nearly unheard of for the denomination's president and general minister to move directly from a church to the administrative offices in Indianapolis.

Watkins also is the first female head of her church and the first woman to lead a mainline Protestant denomination. "I tried to deflect questions [of gender] because it was hardly raised at all out loud during the process," she says. "I didn't want that to be the whole story. We bring who we are. That is a combination of factors - skills, experience and identity, which includes gender. But that's just a part of it."

At the same time, Watkins acknowledges the importance of role models in the church. She recalls being moved to tears the first time she saw a female professor in academic regalia - one of only three women on her seminary's faculty. And she treasures a card drawn by 4-year-old Bartlesville parishioner: "I'm glad you're a girl president," the card said. "Maybe someday I can be a girl president, too."

The move from Oklahoma back to her hometown took some adjustment, although Watkins' best friend from high school still lives in Indianapolis, which helped to ease the transition. Watkins' husband, Rick Lowery, is a tenured professor at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa. His academic schedule permits the couple to spend long weekends together, but they maintain two households. They have two college-age children.

"I tell people I hit the ground scrambling," says the new president, who readily admits she didn't realize the magnitude of the job until she stepped into it. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) operates from a governance document called The Design, which dates to 1968. The General Assembly this summer passed amendments to The Design that, among other things, more sharply define Watkins' dual role as president and general minister. "There is a bit more of a job description now," she explains.

"The church has a fairly well-articulated vision, mission statement and goals," she says. For example, a commitment to start new churches is well underway, so Watkins' next focus will be on revitalizing established churches. "My sense is that my calling is to step into the trajectory and help us keep going in this direction, at least in the short term. But it is a dynamic vision, open to change in the future."

Her job, she told the General Assembly, is to "hold our vision before us and make us long for it enough that we will roll our shirt sleeves up and work for it." In pragmatic terms, she believes her tasks include operating on a balanced budget, helping to build consensus and moving resources (there's that word again) more nimbly to support the growing edges of ministry.

Perhaps the most intriguing characteristic Watkins brings to the job, however, is a conviction that she is simply meant to be in it, with her own particular skills and resources, at this time in history.