Methodist minister makes mark in Escondido

By JULIE PENDRAY

Faith Conklin has lived a life of going where God sends her.

From age 3 to 9, she lived in foster homes and a boarding farm while her mother tried to make ends meet and re-unite the family.

As a young adult, she took field trips to Harlem, then later to the mission field in Albuquerque.

In her middle years, she criss-crossed Southern California as a Methodist minister. She has been at First United Methodist Church in Escondido for nine years.

Conklin is known by some in town as Mother Faith. Her sermons and conversations are sprinkled with real life observations from being a wife, mother and grandmother. Along the way, she has developed a special compassion.

"I tend to have an open-door outlook on ministry," she said. "It's non-exclusive. I don't need to judge people or their lifestyles. Who is going to the kids with the tattoos and green hair?≤

Conklin lived with Baptists and Catholics and started her confirmation with Lutherans, while in foster care.

"Each of those gave me gifts," she said.

She became a Methodist at age 15.

Her outlook on Christian service goes back to one man, she said recently.

≥When I was 15, Charles Barton was a minister in Jamaica, New York,≤ she said. ≥He was white and he began a ministry in Harlem. His motto was åpersonal piety and public works of justice.π≤ I lived with him for a while and he took my sisters and me to meet Father Divine and Daddy Grace, who were preachers in Harlem in the 1950s. He did it to introduce us to another way of looking at life and at ministering.≤

Conklin said that in college she would have been called a religious fanatic.

"Everything was black and white. I had all the answers," she said.

When she entered seminary, she became more theological.

"It was more about ideas and I lost my fervor along the way. I'm regaining it now. I don't have a need to see things in a box anymore. I'm comfortable with different people's experiences. It comes with age."

Conklin became a missionary at a school for emotionally disturbed and disabled girls in Albuquerque and wanted to go back as a teacher. She attended the School of Theology in Claremont in the late 1960s as one of two women in a class of up to 400. The leaders asked her why she wasnπt planning to be ordained.

"I prayed about it and went ahead with the ordination," Conklin said.

She served in Arcadia, Woodland Hills and Whittier before coming to San Diego as district superintendent. In that capacity, Conklin made administrative decisions for 60 Methodist churches.

≥The ordination vows say that you will go where youπre sent,≤ she said.

In the late 1990s, the Escondido church was looking for someone who could bring a new dimension to worship and make connections in the community.

Current associate pastor Earl Guy was instrumental in getting Conklin appointed there.

≥We needed someone energetic, with vision,≤ he said. ≥Someone who could be a cheerleader, to help people get involved and find their ministries. We needed someone who was strong and could lead with grace.≤

What advice does Conklin have for people who want to go into ministry?

≥How have you tested the call?≤ she said. ≥What do people think of your preaching? Do others think you have the grace and gifts to be called? Find out where your passion and the worldπs need meet.≤

≥There have been times when I have felt failure,≤ she said, ≥but God called me. No matter where Iπve been, God has been there and grace has been there.≤

What does she feel about some peopleπs belief that women shouldnπt be pastors?

≥God called me into the ministry and He doesnπt make junk!≤ Conklin replied.

≥In the early years, there was a lot of opposition. Some people would say, åWe want to get married in this church, but we donπt want the woman to do it.π That made me angry.≤

≥Paul says there is no male and female; weπre all one in Christ. In his best moments, he got that. In other moments, he was dealing with a specific cultural aspect.≤

Conklin is now 64. When the Methodist church gets ready to make her next appointment, will she be ready to go where God sends her?

Absolutely.

But sheπs not about to be parted from her grandchildren — so, she hopes it will be in Southern California or Hawaii.

What is it like being a mother, grandmother, and minister?

Conklin related the time she met a woman from one of her congregations in the supermarket.

The woman looked surprised, then said, ≥I guess you still have to do the groceries!≤

Conklin smiled broadly as she recalled the incident.

≥Iπve ironed my husbandπs shirts for 40 years!≤