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Sharon MacKenzie + Our Book Is Out! · Called to Serve

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Hello and Welcome. This is Called To Serve, a
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podcast where we share stories from women who have been
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ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada.
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We have spoken with over 100 pastors, chaplains, missionaries
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and community leaders as we learn what it's like to be a
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woman in ministry today. I am excited to share the news
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with you that Called to Serve. The book has now been published.
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Paperback and ebook copies are available for purchase through
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our website as well as on Amazon and other stores.
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This book tells 14 powerful stories of Canadian Baptist
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women who served in ministry from the 1970s to the present.
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Please head over to our website to check it out and share it
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with friends or with pastors you know.
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There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter as
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well, designed to make this a resource that you can work
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through with a small group or a book club.
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I am also pleased to announce that we have drawn for the
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winner of our free book contest. And so congratulations to
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listener Jackie, who's free copy of Called to Serve is on the
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way. Thank you to all of those who
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emailed in to enter that contest.
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Now, as I've said, normally on call to serve, we've been
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interviewing women who have been ordained by the Canadian Baptist
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of Atlantic Canada. However, we've also shared a few
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stories along the way of women who have not been ordained by
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the CBAC or have not been ordained yet, but whose ministry
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has made a significant contribution in CBAC churches.
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And so today, we'll be sharing an interview with Sharon
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McKenzie. Sharon has been serving as
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worship director and now worship pastor since 2006 at
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Charlottetown First Baptist Church on Prince Edward Island.
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She describes the significant influence youth ministry had in
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her life and the passion she now has for designing worship
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services and encouraging worship teams.
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She shares some of the challenges she's faced in this
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role, including recording worship during the pandemic and
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helping the church adapt to changing music styles and
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service structures. She also shares her heart for
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those who might be considering worship ministry as a career.
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My name is Sharon Mackenzie. I was born in Prince Edward
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Island and in a little town called O'Leary, where my dad was
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actually pastor. That was the last official
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church that he had. From then he moved into hospital
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chaplaincy and at that point it brought us to the capital,
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Charlottetown, and he was there until he retired.
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So all my life, I've really gone to First Baptist Church in
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Charlotte town. When I was in grade 5, we took a
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year and we went to the US and my dad was doing his master's.
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And I can honestly say, although all the great experiences that
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we had in being in a different country, in a different place,
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seeing new things, I was homesick.
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And I was homesick for not only Prince Edward Island, but I was
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homesick for church. I missed my friends, my
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community, my place that I could go and feel like I can be me.
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And so at that point I came back and I decided I really want to
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be a part of the family. And that was when I chose to be
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baptized. Youth group was a pivotal turn
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for me. You got to see your best
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friends. And the common thing we had was
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Jesus, and it was a place I met my husband.
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From there we went to university, and soon after I was
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there, I was one of the Chapel assistants at Manning Chapel at
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Acadia. And there the experience was
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interesting because I was purely Baptist through and through, but
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I was a Chapel assistant with a Newfoundlander who was an
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Anglican, and another guy from Cape Breton who was Roman
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Catholic. And the capital at the time was
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united. And here the four of us got
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together and we planned the services and the outreach.
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And one of the things that happened during that time is
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that we had these services at 6:15 that very few people went
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to. And we kind of talked and we
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said, you know what? 615 just isn't a great time on
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campus. People are going back to their
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studies, they're finishing off meals, or they have football
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practice or basketball practice or whatever.
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What if we did 10:00 at night? And so we introduced twice a
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week service and within about 3 months the Chapel was full.
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And it was kids needed to take a break.
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We needed to take a break from our studies.
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And we would often call students from the DIF college who were
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musical come down and lead us in worship and praise.
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And we would have a short little devotional and a talk, and then
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we would go downstairs at the Chapel and we would eat and it
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was always like bedtime snack and then go back to our
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residences. And so I've got a couple degrees
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from Acadia and I was going to be a teacher and substituting
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was where you were going to start until you could hopefully
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get a job. And so I was subbing at a lot of
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different places. After those years, married,
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started having a family, came home, we were going to have 4
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kids and we ended up having twins, the last ones.
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And so it meant once they got into kindergarten and so forth,
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I was working. So balancing.
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I mean, I was very fortunate in that the job that I've had has
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only been part time. I'm 20 hours a week and it's got
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a lot of flexibility. And it wasn't too many years
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after that that it was like we need some youth leaders in our
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church. And both my husband and I,
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knowing the value that it had been for us, jumped in for 25
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years as youth leaders. We were in youth ministry when
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all five of my kids at the different times went through
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youth ministry. You know, we got to know their
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friends. We did some amazing trips and
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adventures and we got to open our home a lot.
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It was probably the most positive thing we've done, to be
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truthful. But in youth ministry, my role
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sort of was led towards the worship part.
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We would do musicals and then travel with them and it was
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like, OK, we had youth group, but then we had drama and music.
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And then around 2006, there were some illnesses in the leadership
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team and especially our senior pastor and the leadership
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brought on a few extra people. Someone was brought on to do
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some visitation and they asked if I would consider coming on
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and being the worship director and organizing the services.
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And that role was fairly new in the Maritimes.
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A lot of times it had been a volunteer position where you had
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an organist and you had a choir director and, and so this was
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new and I embraced it. It was like such a privilege and
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such an honor to be asked to do that, to work alongside a senior
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pastor and really try to to create a service that was
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meaningful and encouraging and compliment whatever he was going
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to be speaking on. That sort of was the beginning.
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And here I still am many years later.
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I'm not the greatest musician. I don't play an instrument
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except for a piano in the privacy of my own home.
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But I think through the part of organizing and directing and,
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and seeing what could be, that's kind of what's drawn me to that.
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In our church, we started with some contemporary worship the
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same way many churches do, and we found it wasn't enough.
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Like so many churches, you start and you build a blended service
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and do everything, you know, the organ and the choir and the
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worship team and and so on and something for everybody.
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And then it became almost something for nobody.
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It became that tension that I think so many churches in
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Atlantic Canada have experienced where you kind of have to make a
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decision. Our senior pastor at the time
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suggested we do an evening and we did.
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That was a more open to the community and it became really
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popular. We did it once a month.
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And then shortly after that we did it twice a month.
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And it was a combination of, you know, contemporary music,
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testimonies, people sharing prayer times, speaking
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experiences of where God had LED them, and very meaningful and
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beautiful. And and so that tension of the
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morning worship became, OK, what are we going to do now?
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Because this is what we're seeing.
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And like so many churches, we went to two services and the
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contemporary one was growing and the other one was not.
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Again, even though we tried really hard and our our lead
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pastor at the time tried extremely hard to create and
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help make these two services work, there came a point where
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it's like, OK, what are we going to do?
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And, you know, we had debated in our church for a long time about
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just doing some upgrades. Do you know, pews to chairs to
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whatever. And we had a flood.
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And one morning the senior pastor came in and I was
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following along behind and there was water right up the middle
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aisle and the pews were wet and the carpet.
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And it was the quickest decision we ever made.
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Let's get rid of the pews. And, you know, we look back at
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it and at the time, of course, it was very stressful.
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But we look back and we see that, you know, God was with us
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through that. It helped us to move forward in
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remarkable speed, but remarkable unity as well.
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That very next week we were fortunate to get a space that we
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could meet in the college down the road.
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And it was a wonderful experience.
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And people who had been coming to both services came up and
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said it's so good to be together, this sense of
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community again. And it was a strong leadership
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that kind of said this is what needs to be a little bit later,
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not too long down the road, we hit COVID and it's like, OK,
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what are we going to do now? My husband and I were actually
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at a conference in Ottawa. My husband's a physician, and we
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were at a physician's conference.
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And everybody was sitting around the news.
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And it was like, tomorrow, everything's closing down.
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And it was like, OK, how did we get home?
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We went home. And that was on a Thursday.
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Things closed down on Friday. On Saturday we recorded the
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service and it was like we've got to do something.
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And so we just brought in the camera and so forth.
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And the next week kind of did the same thing.
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You know, a month later we said who can record things at their
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home from the worship team and send it in.
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So during that time, Thursday afternoons became recording
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times. We sat, you know, you come in
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for this long, you come in for this time.
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And the greatest one was it was going to be Christmas.
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We were going to do 2 services because at that point you could
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only have so many in the building.
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And they came in and said, we're going to put everything in
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lockdown for a period of time. And we thought, what are we
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going to do? Because we were all set.
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so-called everybody on the worship team and said, OK, come
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on in, bring a change of clothes because we're going to record a
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Christmas Eve service and we're going to record Christmas Day.
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And it was just fun. And we look back at that now,
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but again, you know, yes, we did pivot.
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We got together and we had talked about live stream before.
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But again, it was one of those things like, oh, are we going to
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do it? Is it too much work and, and all
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of that. And then all of a sudden it's
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just, no, this is what we're doing.
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And technology was not really my thing either, but I can surround
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myself with people who can do it.
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And, you know, as soon as COVID hit, there were five people that
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came to mind. You know, one's in computer
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science and one's this and one's this.
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Pull them together and say I'll facilitate and I'll encourage
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and I'll, through the budget, help you to do what you need to
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do. But you are the experts in that.
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And I feel that we do that in worship ministry too.
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And I do find within my own ministry, it's that ability to
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come out and say, I see this in you rather than, you know, put
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the notice on the website of the notice and say, anybody want to
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come and play this or anybody want to do that, That's OK.
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But when you really truly identify a gifting in someone
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and go to them and affirm that in someone, they're much more
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likely to say, well, we'll see, as was done with me.
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And I just feel that's so valuable for all of us to learn
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that when we see something in someone, whatever their age is,
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to see this passion in them. And you sort of say, I see this
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in you. Would you prayerfully consider
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whether this is something that for some reason, God's told me
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to tell you? So right now, and this has only
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been for the last couple years, I'm worship pastor at First
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Baptist. And I have to admit that when
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that was given to me, I was like, whoa.
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And I think part of that is because both my father and my
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grandfather were ordained pastors that had, you know,
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theology degrees And I, I had this, I'm not worthy.
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I had total, total respect for my dad and my grandfather, who
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was more of your pretty strict Baptist pastor, but total
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respect for who he was and for his heart and his love for the
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Lord. And I probably in a way thought
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I didn't measure up, you know, at that time, it was kind of a
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man's world. And if you were a female, it was
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you're going into, you know, Christian education.
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And I really had to do some searching.
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What does it mean biblically to be a pastor?
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I do organize and I do direct, but I have a team of probably
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about 35 people between what we do technology wise and our
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worship teams and so forth. And we do life together.
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And you know, if there's a crisis or even a good thing or
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just a challenge, whatever, I hope that I'm a pastor to them
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and to others in the congregation.
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But those people are the ones that I'm closest to because
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we're like brothers and sisters. This relationship building is
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just such an important part of why we gather.
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In terms of worship ministry, I had the opportunity to go to a
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number of different conferences to sit down with some pretty
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iconic women and men, But women at, you know, sessions and hear
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their story, hear their passion, hear how they juggled life and
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kids and what that meant in being a leader in the church,
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how they they led and how it has become a really respected and
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accepted role, especially in the world of worship leading.
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I don't know if there's anyone that I could say I followed in
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their footsteps because I'm not sure even as I started that
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there were that many people doing what I was doing.
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As we raise up worship leaders in our churches, and I mean,
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ultimately that's the goal, to raise up that next generation.
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I would love to see a little bit more available for people who
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are interested in leading worship as a career.
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We see lots of conferences for youth or for family or for
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children's or for intergenerational things for
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pastors and not as much that I've noticed anyway for this
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idea of this would be a career that you would want to be in in
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that whole area of worship. As worship leaders, what
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opportunities do we have, especially in the Maritimes?
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And maybe it's not to go to division school and be ordained
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in that, but what opportunities do we have to go and experience
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that to learn from one another? We have great, you know, times
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of worship at Oasis and at at different events.
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There's there's times of worship, but how does the person
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learn? Like, what does it mean to
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create a flow to really work closely with the other members
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of your team so that, you know, you know what the pastor is
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trying to get across and what God has placed on his or her
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heart? So that you're giving those
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moments for people to really absorb that, you know, if
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someone wants to come to me and say you're a worship leader,
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well, I'm like, I'm not the lead singer.
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I don't even stand up at the top of a stage because I'm an
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introvert. I prefer to be here and sort of
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organized and then directing. And most people don't even
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really know what I do. I mean, I've done this for a
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number of years, and there's not a Sunday morning that I'm not
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nervous and considering what silly words are going to come
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out of my mouth. And sometimes my prayer is like,
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it's been a crazy week. And Lord forgive me that I
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haven't given more time to be as prepared as I want to be.
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It's not about, you know, being out and being the lead singer or
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the lead guitar or the keyboardist.
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It's about trying to put together a whole service or an
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opportunity for people to gather, to open their eyes,
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their hearts, their ears to the message of God.
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Sometimes it'll be through a message.
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Sometimes it'll be through prayers, through a testimony.
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It may be through music. So all of those elements of
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trying to add creativity so that people walk in.
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And it's not like, oh, this is the same every, every week, you
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know, and we're just, we have to come here.
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But it's like this is a good place to come.
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I become encouraged, I become hopeful.
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I become more drawn to God. I grow in my faith so that I can
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leave this place and go out and be into this world.
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I've always felt very supported by whether it was a lead pastor
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or a senior pastor. And I've always kind of felt a
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little protected by them because, you know, people would
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complain the drums are too loud or this or that or we're doing
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something or why are we doing, you know, more contemporary.
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Why did we move the pulpit? But quite often it didn't come
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to me. I mean, I've gotten some nasty
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emails and some things like that, but it's been more about
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change. It's been more about, you know,
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why are we doing this And, and we don't particularly like
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contemporary music or why don't we have this anymore?
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I like things the way they were and we're doing things
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different. But when people are critical
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about the ministry that I do, part of it is because they're
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passionate about the church and about worship and about God.
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So if it didn't matter to them, they probably wouldn't make a
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fuss. The mentor that I have that is a
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famous person I won't mention, but she said if you have a
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passion that is given to you from God, you can't not do it.
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And I found over the years, like, OK, maybe this is actually
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from God, you know, and I, I would like to encourage women to
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follow their passions and, and seek, you know, their giftings.
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And if you're not sure what those are to ask those questions
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of those that you trust the most, don't do it alone.
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You know, develop A-Team around you that you can rely on and
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make it fun. Sometimes the most meaningful
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worship times that you have are the ones that are not on Sunday
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morning. We have this one line in our in
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our vision statement that says we will be a Church of many
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pastors. And I consider every person on
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my team is a pastor. The challenges are real.
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Scheduling is a nightmare. These are volunteers and you
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have to respect that. So seek people that are going to
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not just be there because they may be a great drummer, but
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they're a person who really truly cares about their gifts
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and about the church. I love the church, and I think
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it has a huge role in today's society.
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And I think there's nothing else like it.
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You can't come together, you know, at a hockey rink or
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somewhere else where you have this one little thing in common
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and you may not see each other as a church.
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I think you get to go deeper than that, and you get to be
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there in those tough times and those good times.
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And maybe one of the advantages of being older in this role is
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having gone through some of those things with the people in
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our congregation, you know, so often in ministry, and I've
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heard this for years, like how tough it is to be in ministry
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and so forth. And I mean, there's a lot of
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hard things, but there's hard things in every job.
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It's a privilege to be called pastor, to grow, to deepen our
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faith, to build community. It's about building each other
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up in order that we can go out and serve in our neighborhood
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and not just keep it within the laws of the church.
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Thank you to Sharon for sharing her story with us.
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If you've enjoyed this episode, head over to our website and
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check out Called to Serve the book.
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We need people to read and spread the word and share their
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honest reviews on Amazon or Goodreads.
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You can follow Called to Serve on Facebook and Instagram and
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keep up to date with our latest news at Called to serve.ca.
20:47
We'll be back in two more weeks with another woman's story of
20:51
being called to serve.