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WOMEN'S MINISTRY IS A NATUR AL FIT FOR MELISSA MEREDITH
using her ministry skills in West Texas BY K AREN GARCIA
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rowing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with parents who were believers, Melissa Meredith (’13) says it’s natural that she, too, would come to the Lord. Her father was a former music and youth pastor, and her mother discipled her at the family’s kitchen table. “I saw the love of the Lord played out every single day in our home,” she says. Meredith, director of the women’s ministry at Southcrest Church in Lubbock, said she’s a product of the mentorship and discipleship of women who taught her to love the Bible. While Meredith’s family attended a few churches as she was growing up, she calls First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow her home church. Her father baptized her at Liberty Baptist Church in Tulsa when she was 8 years old, and she “just really fell in love with the Lord.” She “fell in love with God’s Word” in sixth grade during an Experiencing God Bible study with her church youth group. “I was really shy growing up,” she says. “I was the quiet girl in every group.” Still, she felt that God was calling her to full-time ministry. Meredith surrendered to that call at Falls Creek, a Baptist youth camp in Davis, Oklahoma, the summer she turned 16. She remembers walking down the aisle of the amphitheater and seeing her mother’s best friend who happened to be serving as a counselor down in front of the stage. As she approached, Meredith says, the woman told her it was “about time” she surrendered, because they had all seen her calling. “Having somebody else who knew me, who knew my family, who knew my story, see that and proclaim that over me was really powerful,” Meredith says, adding that the woman is still a mentor to her today. Meredith studied Christian education at Hannibal-LaGrange University in Missouri. About to graduate and unsure what she was going to do next, Meredith was helping set up a seminary fair for her local church and decided to walk through the tables.
Southwestern News