Laura Reed - Nowhere Near Finished With Me Yet
Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God. This is Cumberland Road. I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. Today, Laura Reed joins me on Cumberland Road. Laura resides in the Tampa Bay area in Florida. She's originally from the Northeast. She attended the University of Tampa and she received her bachelor of science with a double major in business and Spanish. And she received her MBA from Saint Leo University. Currently, Laura is a student in the program of alternate studies and hopes to one day work towards her master of divinity. Laura works in management at T Mobile, and her son is 16 year old Alexander.
T.J.:Laura, thank you for joining us today.
Laura:Thank you. It's great to be here.
T.J.:I want to start our conversation by asking you, do you recall your first encounter with God?
Laura:Well, you know, when I think about when I was thinking about this, my childhood in church and God, I don't remember ever a time there not being church for God. Luckily, my parents had me at church from very young and you know, I lived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. So, I attended the First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem and a huge church and it was, you know, it was very enjoyable but I will tell you this, when I was younger, I don't recall it being, I don't remember that relationship with God. I know that we were there to worship God. I knew what church was about, but it really wasn't until I was a teenager and I started going on retreats.
Laura:And when we went on retreats, we started really talking a little bit more serious. And that is when I became a Christian when I was 16 years old. And I, you know, I don't remember, you know, hard for me to remember stuff all the way back then, but it just, I would say my encounter was in those retreats, and other encounters I have are when I go on mission trips. So, but I would say when I was a teenager more so it became much more personal and meaningful to me. And I really started understanding what it was about.
T.J.:The first time you and I met, it's been several years ago, was in Lutz, Florida, suburb of Tampa Bay.
Laura:That's right.
T.J.:And at that time, you were in leadership at the church, but you didn't have a call to ministry. And I may be jumping ahead so we can go back if we need to. But sometime, kind of tell us how you came to the Christ Church in Lutz, Florida. And then that growing relationship with god led into a calling to the word and the sacraments.
Laura:Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Now, this may be a very long story. I am known to talk a lot. So I'll try and make it a little concise.
Laura:I always say I was raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I left there when I was 17 to attend college in Tampa, Florida. I was a new Christian. I became a Christian at 16. And unfortunately, when I chose my college, I did not choose a college that I was aware of any type of Christian groups.
Laura:And here I was away for the first time getting that newfound freedom. I didn't really have Christian involvement on campus. So I considered myself a Christian, but I don't think I lived a Christian life. After college, I got a job. I settled down.
Laura:I had always been Presbyterian PC USA. So, I joined the First Presbyterian Church, started doing mission trips, loved it. And then I started with my job, started traveling. And just to take a step back, I had a very good job. And I had been working there almost thirteen years and it was about then that I started kind of feeling this call towards a path.
Laura:That was probably the beginning of that. And in my heart I knew that to follow the path, I wasn't really sure what it was. I knew it was God related. But I knew I was gonna have to leave that job. Now, this was at a time when people did not leave that company.
Laura:I had a four day work week. I made really good money and had really good benefits. Nobody quit that job. I quit that job.
T.J.:Wow.
Laura:I quit that job and took a three month contract with another job and thought the minute I did that, I was like, what have I done? With that other job, which I am currently working at today still after, what, twenty or so years, again, the path was calling me. So I said, you know what? I think I need to move to Denver, Colorado. I never ever, the minute that thought was there, I never thought it wasn't gonna happen.
Laura:I applied for a training manager position. I never thought it wasn't gonna happen. I applied for the job and got ready to move. I moved to Denver, Colorado. I was there a few years and trust me, if you've ever been to Denver, you don't ever wanna leave Denver, Colorado.
Laura:It is God's country. It's beautiful. But again, the path was calling me. My company was opening up an office down on the border of Mexico in Texas. And again, I said to myself, well, I guess that's where I go next.
Laura:Never considered I wouldn't get a job there. I applied for a job that I didn't get. It didn't really phase me. I said, okay, what other jobs are available there that I can do? And I really found a job that was much more probably more suited for me in process management.
Laura:And I applied for the job and I got ready to move. And I moved. You know, again, it was there. Now, I thought that was kind of where I was supposed to be because early on, I thought my thing that God wanted me to do was to retire in Mexico and build an orphanage. That's what I thought it was.
Laura:I was like, wow. Well, goodness gracious. There we go, god. Thank you. You you just got me down here.
Laura:Right right here in the border of Mexico. I mean, thank you. But that wasn't it. He was still calling me. I had my son Alexander when I was there in McAllen, Texas and the path called me back to Tampa where my family had all moved down from Bethlehem when I had been living there.
Laura:And so the path called me back to Tampa. Tampa, I started back in with a PC USA church. And it's funny when I think about it because it was a medium sized church and I was happy for the anonymity, if I'm pronouncing that right, because I thought, oh, this is perfect for me. Just enough people where I can come and get to know some of them, but nobody's really gonna expect anything of me. No one's gonna ask me to do anything.
Laura:Perfect. Well, then I bought a house and I was a little further away and I'm like, you know, I really want to find a Presbyterian church closer to my house. I went on the internet, I found two churches. One was a First Presbyterian Church about thirty minutes away and the other was a Cumberland Presbyterian Church about fifteen minutes away. That was the one in Lutz.
Laura:I remember saying to my mother, hey, mom, this Sunday, I'm going to go check out me and Alex are going go check out this Cumberland Presbyterian Church. My mother said to me, be careful. I I I was like, what is it? Is this a cult? I was a little bit nervous, I have to say.
Laura:I don't remember if I asked her why. She just said, Be careful. So I was a little bit nervous and it was a relief when I went there and everybody was nice and normal, you know, because I wasn't sure what was gonna happen. We kept going back. I noticed it wasn't a huge congregation, so I did have a few concerns about maybe being asked to volunteer.
Laura:And I thought, okay, I like the people, I like all this stuff. I joined the church. But before I joined the church, I had to talk to the pastor, of course, and this was early on because I needed to know, well, what is so different between Cumberland and PC USA? And we sat down and we talked about predestination and I know some of the Presbyterian churches have changed some of their thoughts on that now, but we talked about that and about how Cumberland Presbyterian doesn't really, doesn't have that. And I said, you know what, I am so happy because when we used to talk about that when I was joining my church back home, that was an idea I could never get on board with, it troubled me.
Laura:So I was so happy. I'm like, so, wow, like I have found my church. Of course, the minute I joined, all of a sudden I was doing youth junior church. Oh, at some point they wrote me into president of CPWM, which I still am. But then somehow, of course, I got in session, then I became the clerk of the session, which I still am.
Laura:I'm also in my secretary in our Keiko circle. So, I'm pretty much doing a whole lot of stuff there but I still didn't have my calling. I still was feeling like I was I was happy. I felt like, okay, this is what that journey was around the country, right? God was bringing me in my adult life back to a place where I could really live my life as a Christian and really grow in my faith and I was very happy about that.
Laura:I felt like that had been worth all the all the wondering I had done. And then you know it it wasn't until we were really searching for a pastor. And I had that kind of angst where you know there's something you need to be doing, but you're not sure what. It's that unkind of rest feeling, sort of when I was on that path traveling around and I was speaking with a friend and we were talking and talking because I was I think something had happened at session and I needed to run it by her because I can sometimes get a little bit bullheaded and I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't me being that way, you know, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't being, I won't say wrong, but that I just wasn't, you know, being difficult about something. And so we talked and talked and talked and towards the end of that conversation, her comment was, You should be a pastor.
Laura:And I said, You know what? You're right. And the minute I said that, it was like years, years and years of just, they just felt that relief like, oh my gosh, this could be it, this could be it. Of course, then I started going to pause and I have so much homework and I have so many final projects due December 1, there's that stress again. But that's kinda it, how I got to Cumberland.
T.J.:So your mom was spot on with her warning, be careful.
Laura:You are right.
T.J.:Be careful. You may be roped into all these different leadership positions in the Cumberland church. Be careful. You may actually have a calling that changes your life.
Laura:Yes. Yeah. And it certainly has.
T.J.:So you have used the word a couple times, a few times, a path, just path, and and your vocation had moved you around to different places throughout The United States. Along this path and these relocations, what is it about the Christian faith that really kept you grounded and gave you purpose?
Laura:You know, just realizing that just having God to walk with you every day, just knowing, you know, sometimes people pull away from God when things go wrong, when they're angry about the outcome of something. And to me, that's when I have to lean on him even more because, you know there's a lot, we can see by 2020 that there's a lot going on in this world, you know, I can't do it without God, he is my rock, He loves me no matter what. And he's faithful to me. And so I I never thought of an, you know, I never thought of any other way, quite honestly.
T.J.:Along your life path from teenage years up to present, is there any people that you would like to mention that's had a great impact on on your your journey of faith?
Laura:Well, I'm gonna say first and foremost, my mom and dad. Because they're the ones that got me to church. They're the ones, and use a similar method with my son, I'm gonna force you to do something whether you want to or not, because I know you're gonna like it. And they forced me to go to youth club. I was very shy, believe it or not.
Laura:I was a shy, younger person and they forced me to go on my first retreat and I didn't wanna go. I can remember my father driving me to the church with a neighbor girl and he turned to her and said, Fausty, are you going to look after my Laura? Which was the same thing I would say to my son's friend when I'm leaving him with his friend, you're gonna watch out for my Alex. So, they forced me to do that and it just took off from there. So, are definitely, they're my heroes.
Laura:My parents, they gave me everything to be successful in life starting with that church foundation. Now, have been so many people along the way that, I can't even mention names because I'm afraid I will forget names, but my church, any church I attended, there was always someone, there was a pastor. When I was living in McAllen, Texas, my dog of seventeen years, I had to put her down and I called my church pastor. I was sitting in the parking lot at the veterinarian and I called my church pastor and he prayed with me and he, you know, he did all that stuff. And everybody I've met, my current church family at Christ Cumberland Presbyterian, you know, they've all known each other a long time and, you know, hear me, know, I come in, I'm, you know, I sometimes I have a New Jersey attitude sometimes, you know, I like to push a little bit more than I like to step back and they have embraced and supported me.
Laura:TJ, you and the POS teachers, oh my gosh, I have learned so much. One of the things I will tell you, becoming a Christian at 16 and then leaving and going away to college and kind of living a wild college life and then getting back into things, I didn't get a really good foundation, a really good biblical foundation. And so I'm really trying to make up for lost time now in my studies at Paws and I'm learning so much stuff and I just find it so exciting. So really everybody along the way has encouraged me but I have to give it back to my parents at first because they were the ones that every Sunday we were at church.
T.J.:Isn't it fun to open up the scriptures or a book that you have to read for class and just the flip of a page or the completion of a chapter or just the closure of a class and it's just like, oh, man. What what what is next?
Laura:Right.
T.J.:That hunger of of oh, okay. Yeah. This book fed me. Now I'm ready for the next one. Now I'm ready for the next course.
T.J.:I don't know. It's a wonderful hunger to have. It can be overwhelming when you have all these expectations. But yeah, I don't even know if I can articulate it properly, but there's that excitement of learning something and then that urge to be able to, oh, well, I've gotta share this. Yeah.
T.J.:This revelation that has been laid on me, it's like, oh, I can't keep this to myself. This is something I I have to share. And you end up grabbing people, and they're like, not in the same place.
Laura:Yeah. And
T.J.:it's like, oh, okay. I gotta turn this down. The the frequency needs to be clicked down just a couple notches.
Laura:That does happen. Yes.
T.J.:Well, speaking of frequency and turning things up and down, where do you see God working in your life today? And where do you see God working in the world today?
Laura:So I would say in my life, you know, there's still so much I have to learn, you know, and I don't know why that surprises me. You know, I'm not like a spring chicken, but I'm like, I still have so much to learn. So one area I see God working in my life is trying to really show me, for instance, pray a lot for wisdom and for courage and I pray, I pray and I pray for that and it just kinda like hit me on the head like it was a God, like let me direct you Laura, let me tell you before you need to worry about wisdom and courage, I think you should pray for humility. I think you really need that and it's like, you know what, you're right, now that's gonna be, this is gonna be a big work in progress, okay? Humility, and I'm not saying I cannot be humble and I cannot do servitude because I love that, but those people who know me, I tend to run sarcastic and if somebody's coming at me, don't like to back down.
Laura:And to me, humility is when, I always used to say it like this, palms up, because that to me is the sign of humility. You're putting him out more to embrace and to show peace versus like that, you know? So, he's teaching me more and I know there's gonna be a lot more that he's going to teach me. How is he working in my life? It really helping me to learn everything I need to learn, showing me he's nowhere near finished with me yet.
Laura:So I should not become complacent or think in any way that I can stop and rest because there's a lot more. My really good friend from, I've known her, well, I won't say since first grade, won't say how many years that is. She always reminds me of when we were young, I always used to say, when people would ask us what we wanted to do, I would say, I wanna save the world. I had no idea what I meant back then, but now I know. So he's teaching me, he's helping me to grow, he's equipping me, there's a whole lot.
Laura:How do I see him working in the world? Well, you know, I mentioned this before that people might think this is a little odd for me to feel that right now, this year, 2020, he's giving us a wake up call. I just, what story? I think it was Sunday school class from the encounter. It was the story of Jonah where they talked about how God doesn't pronounce judgment without a warning.
Laura:And he also does show grace if people change. And I feel like this year is a little bit of a warning for everyone. I'm not so sure we're heeding that warning so I feel how God is working in the world is he's trying to give people as many warnings and as many chances because he loves us and he doesn't want us to be doomed, he wants us to experience not just in death but in life, that empowerment of living a life where my life isn't perfect, I was so mad at my son the other day, oh my goodness, I mean, he's 16, did I mention? Did you mention?
T.J.:Yeah.
Laura:Okay, I was so mad at him. Anyway, my life isn't perfect, it's pretty darn good. I have bad days, I have good days, I have bad days at work, I have, you know, good days. You know, things don't always go my way but at the end of the day, it really, it doesn't matter because I know that I have God. So I think he's trying to give a warning in this world and I don't know, I'm not sure we're heeding the warning but I hope to be a part of, you know, as I transition in the next couple years to being a pastor, I wanna be a part of that person that carries that message out there.
Laura:Not necessarily a warning, it's not my warning to give, but that message of love.
T.J.:Yeah. I wanted to talk to you about that and ask you. You're in a unique place of your service and your contribution and your relationship with Christ from a layperson and your giving and your gifts have been shared in that way. And now you have this calling that is very similar, but it has different roles and responsibilities. So as somebody who's in this kind of the transition period from lay to ordination of the word and sacrament, which is upon the horizon for you.
T.J.:What ideas and hopes and changes do you have for the church? And that can be at the local level and that can be for the the denominational level but also the the church universal. So, curious to know what you think about that because you have a unique perspective.
Laura:Absolutely. Well, you know, I don't think it's any surprise that church membership, people even attending church, is down. When I was growing up, it was most people went to church. I think for a paper I was writing, I believe it was like 75% of the people, let's say in America believe in God, but they don't necessarily believe they need to be part of a Christian community. Know, a part of just not just for my local church, but really, I don't wanna say making church cool again because I'd have to be really cool to do that.
Laura:But bringing back church and I'm not about trying to do all kinds of new crazy stuff because church, we're there to worship God and it's not for entertainment per se. Of course, the church community and what they do outside of those worship services, I think that's important. I know with my own church, it's just us getting back in the community. I've probably said this to members of my church a million times, they're probably getting sick of me saying this, but I wanna build a communal oven on our property so we can invite people to do bread bakings. I mean, and that's a small thing, I want to be a part of bringing people back.
Laura:I think that's so important and I don't have any, at this point, you know, probably every pastor out there, you know, would like to see more people coming to the church. So I don't really have any any secret ways I would do that. You know, I mean, I would get out there, the law of large numbers. I was an insurance before I worked for a cell phone company. I would get out there and, you know, as I'm out there talking to as many people as I can.
Laura:If I were talking about my church or another church, you know, but just getting people back into church and we're, you know, one of the ways we're trying to do that is not by changing our service, but by changing the way people can attend our service because of 2020, we started doing the Zoom services like a lot of churches did. And now that we're back in the church worshiping, we're still keeping a Zoom part of our church. So giving people more options so they feel more comfortable. I think that's one way you could change the, something about church without actually changing the worship part of the church. So I'm using technology to, you know, to improve some things there, but I'm talking a lot and maybe haven't said a whole lot of big, great things, but I just very simple.
Laura:I just want, would love to see people coming back to church.
T.J.:Yeah, to sum it up is to be it it sounds like Christchurch is doing this. It's being accessible to people, not just live, but maybe even recorded and it can be accessible at another time.
Laura:Mhmm.
T.J.:Yeah. That that is definitely an area that I think 2020 has brought for many congregations. And I think that there's benefits to that as well. Mhmm. Well, speaking of accessibility, how can we continue to follow you on your faith journey?
T.J.:Keep up with your progress at school and
Laura:and Oh.
T.J.:Your ministry.
Laura:Well, and if you're keeping up with my progress at school, maybe you can have a a kind word to my professors for me. Actually, hopefully you will find me in McKenzie, Tennessee in 2021 over the summer. Hopefully we will all be back. We will have had our vaccines and we'll all be back on campus for pause. I probably have at least two more summer sessions there, but you can find me taking pause classes throughout the year.
Laura:You can find me at Christ Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Lutz, Florida. You can look at the contact information for that church. I usually go there, I've been lately going there on Fridays and checking the voicemails. So if you happen to find the phone number, you can call it and leave a message for me. You can join us on Zoom if you want to, and that's another way because as a part of me doing the pause, I am trying to step up my sermon giving.
Laura:So I was probably doing a sermon about once every two months and now I'm trying to do it every once a month and then hopefully in 2021, maybe even twice a month. So you might ask for a link to come watch us or, you know, join us on Zoom. Maybe you'll catch me preaching one Sunday.
T.J.:Laura, thank you for sharing your faith journey. I've heard bits and pieces of it, just knowing you over the years. It was really nice to be able to join with you and and hear how God has and is working in your life. Thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a friend and travel with us on our next journey down Cumberland Road.
