Latest / Called to Serve / Sheila Cummings

Transcript

Sheila Cummings · Called to Serve

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  Hello and welcome to Call to Serve.
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  Each week on this podcast, we share stories from women who
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  have been ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic
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  Canada. We have spoken with almost 100
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  pastors, chaplains, missionaries, and community
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  leaders as we learn what it's like to be a woman in ministry.
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  Today, you'll be hearing from Sheila Cummings.
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  Sheila was ordained just last year in 2024, after many decades
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  of ministry service. She currently serves as lay
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  pastor at Perth Andover Baptist Church.
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  Sheila talks about ministering in the community where she is
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  known as the Arena Pastor, and about the encouragement she
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  received from numerous women who ministered, though unordained.
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  I was born in Bath, NB. It was in those ages, you know,
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  when they used to give me the pin and all the bars, when you
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  had perfect attendance at Sunday school.
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  And so I went to church all my life.
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  When I was about 7 or 8, Pastor Manter Wilson was here.
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  One day he was sitting with me on the 3rd step up in the front
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  inch way of the Parsonage and was sharing with me about
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  Christ. And that's the day that I
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  realized I personally had to accept Christ as my Savior.
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  He couldn't go on the backs of my grandmother and my mother.
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  I had to make my own decision somewhere around like the middle
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  school age, I felt that call and I used to voice it.
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  And of course, the first thing I would hear is you're not a man.
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  I did wrestle with that I wrestled with, I feel God has
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  called me. Why am I hearing a call?
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  I can't be? And so that was, that was a real
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  challenge for me. And it it set me for a loop for
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  a while. I didn't even like to read
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  Paul's writings. I was only a teenager and I just
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  couldn't understand that. But there were several women in
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  the church, older women who really saw that.
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  One especially was my aunt. She encouraged me.
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  And there was another lady, a spinster lady who when I was
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  baptized, brought me a couple books and and was promising to
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  pray with me and everything because she said, I know you
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  have things to do for the Lord. The male pastors often use me to
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  support them in their ministry, like I would do visitation with
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  the Bible studies, these types of things, but I couldn't be the
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  pastor at that time. When I was married, we both felt
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  my call and we weren't really sure what it was.
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  So we became very involved in the Gideon's and I became part
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  of the national executive of women.
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  So I would be able to speak at Gideon conferences and things
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  like that. And so Gideon's was one of the
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  ways that I could serve God without restraint.
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  Obviously, since I couldn't be a pastor, I went and become a
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  teacher, then I was the principal and that we even just
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  at one time considered leaving teaching and going to, to study
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  some place. But at that time I didn't really
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  feel that's where God was leading me.
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  I I knew it was ministry, but I knew it was local church
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  ministry. It wasn't all these other
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  things. And Hugh McNally and I were
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  serving on the convention council together.
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  He said, Sheila, he said you've got the call.
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  And he really believed he was one of the ones starting ones
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  with the Atlantic Society of Biblical Equality, and he really
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  encouraged me to. And Harry Gardner said, like
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  Sheila, take the lay pastor training at least.
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  So I took the lay pastor training and then my church put
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  me as a lay pastor working aside the pastor.
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  But it had to be a lay pastor at that time still because I was a
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  woman. When I turned 55, I took Freedom
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  55 from teaching. I retired.
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  I enrolled at Acadia and took the graduate home and Christian
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  studies. I found that the younger
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  students in the group seem to appreciate maturity.
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  They were very supportive. Professors were very supportive
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  and with those studies and courses, then I could go along
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  to the ordination and I was able to enter the ordination route.
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  But by the time I came to my ordination internship, they
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  waved it because I've been working in the church here as
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  lay pastor for over 10 years. And during that time, I had been
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  the person who 3 pastors were ordained under my time and I was
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  kind of working along with them. And so the church wrote a letter
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  and said, you know, we really don't see it, a year of
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  internship for someone who's been mentoring other pastors.
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  So they waived that internship. So in the Perth Andover Baptist
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  Church, like I do Bible studies, I do different groups, the
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  ladies group and that I've worked in children's ministries
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  and when we were first married, my husband and I spent quite a
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  few years doing work with the youth.
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  Our house was a drop in center, but I also have another unique
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  ministry. My mom's sister is United
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  Church. When she was still alive, she
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  would ask if once in a while if I could come speak at their
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  church and when I went I told them unapologetically that I was
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  a Baptist. We kind of had a joke about
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  that. So once a month I still go
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  regularly to the United Church in Plaster Rock and do their
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  service. They don't have a full time
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  pastor. I'm the only one that goes every
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  month and then they have other ones fill in or else they have
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  to fill in themselves. So I'm kind of there pastor too.
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  And Father Gilbert at the Catholic Church contacts me on
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  pastoral things too. We'd have a good chat.
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  We have a good, we have some good conversations and they know
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  where I stand. And I don't compromise my
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  beliefs to be ecumenical, but I can work with other
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  denominations. I'm great at connecting with
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  people who don't feel comfortable with church.
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  I'm known as the arena pastor. I, I'm president of the local
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  senior hockey club. I spend a lot of time at the
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  arena and like there's people that I've talked to there.
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  They'll come up and talk to me in the arena for counseling and
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  things like that at Ranford Village Council and I serve on
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  that. I, I volunteer in so many things
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  and in the community. They see me as it's someone that
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  they can trust. Many of them saw me as a pastor
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  before our church. I'm really spending a lot of
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  time working with women. I have a group of senior women,
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  most of them widowed. So I have a women's coffee club
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  and once a month we go out to eat dinner together.
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  And then I've got a group of low income women.
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  They love the Bible study time, but we also have a Facebook
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  Messenger group for that and our prayer requests.
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  We end up all week. You're getting those.
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  And so a lot of it is just that personal connections with
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  people. We're not here to just stand on
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  the pulpit and preach on Sunday morning.
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  We're here to minister to the needs of the people in our
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  church, but also in our community.
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  And you also have to do a lot of personal care because you can
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  get worn down in ministry. I used to take a calendar and I
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  had colored pieces of paper. And this was, these are the
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  hours I should be spending at the church.
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  These are the hours I should be spending at home.
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  These are the hours I need for me.
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  And then, OK, if there's an extra meeting here, an extra
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  meeting here, you know what, Tuesday morning, if I take that
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  time for me and I don't come in here, it's not a big deal.
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  That visual makes it really nice 'cause you could just say, OK,
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  they I had this meeting and I did all this day that took away
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  an hour, 2 hours of family time here.
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  I got to put that over there someplace else 'cause I got to
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  balance it out. If I realized I couldn't
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  shortchange my husband and my granddaughter, I couldn't
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  shortchange my own personal well-being.
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  Once I gave myself permission to set reasonable boundaries, then
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  it was became so much easier. The other part is to I don't
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  work a Friday at all. Friday.
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  If you're going to be into a busy weekend and things, Friday
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  must be a day where you can just be down.
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  You can do whatever you want to do and chill, relax, do some
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  things with family and you're much better off.
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  You have a much better frame of mind for your your Sunday work.
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  The spiritual formation courses I took with Acadia were
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  excellent. The retreat one that they did
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  was amazing and I think every pastor needs to take the time
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  for retreat. In 2022 when we were or 23 when
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  they were having the debate, I was disappointed to hear a few
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  still pushing on the you know, the women should not be in this
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  ministry and therefore Renee cannot be in this position.
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  I so much wanted to get up and and share that there was only a
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  few of them. Most of them were positive and I
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  thought I'm not going to jump and fight.
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  The thing about feminism is you can't go to the extreme.
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  I get a bit upset with some of the feminism because it turns
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  into anti male and I I can't cross that line.
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  I will stand up for the rights of women to do anything, but I'm
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  not going to bash the males because I've had too many
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  positive male influences in my life.
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  And I think of Harry Garden, I think of Hugh McNally.
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  There's so many people that poured into my life.
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  There was a lady at our church named Kay Burke and she was the
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  treasurer. She was doing everything for
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  admission ban. She was teaching all these
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  different things and she was rock solid and she encouraged me
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  along the way. There was another lady, Mrs.
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  Wright, Mrs. Lee Wright, and she stepped in beside me when I was
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  in probably upper elementary middle school, and she said
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  God's going to use you and she would pray for me.
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  She would give me a book that I might like to read.
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  She she also encouraged me. My grandmother was another one
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  for me and I used to stop in on the way home from school and she
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  would have milk and cookies. And it just happened that she'd
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  be doing her daily devotional just at the time I came so I
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  could share with her those those are the type of mentors I had.
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  So they couldn't be ministering themselves.
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  Even though she taught middle school, Sunday school, that's
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  very much ministering. As a child growing up, I used to
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  look at the we have a stained glass window and we brought it
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  here to the new church and it was Carrie Hammond Archibald.
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  And she became a missionary to India.
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  And that picture is always has always been there on the wall.
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  And as a child, I kept looking in that if Carrie can serve God,
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  I can serve God. Thank you, Sheila, for sharing
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  your story with us. Called to Serve can be found on
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  Facebook and Instagram, and you can keep up to date with our
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  latest research and events at Called to serve.ca.
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  We'll be back next week with another woman's story of serving
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  and ministry.