Stephanie Parker brings great hands-on experience to the Difference Makers Group as a 2nd Pastor Following a Founder! She is currently the pastor at The Gathering at Scott Memorial United Methodist Church in Virginia, a church merge that includes a church plant where she is the 2nd pastor. In this unique ministry setting Stephanie is not only a leader, but also a diligent learner being coached by Jim Ozier and working on her own advanced coaching certification with Phil Maynard.
Stephanie received her MDiv from Wesley Theology School in Washington DC. After graduation she served as US-2 young adult missionary for two years in Los Angeles California, working with churches around immigration. As her time was wrapping up, she listened to God’s call for her to return to her roots in Virginia.
Prior to her current position, she served for six years was as an associate pastor of a large church where she was also the 3rd pastor of the church’s extension campus plant. Those two churches were eventually yoked together, responding to the discernment that God was calling for it to be one church and bringing their unique gifts together to serve God.
COVID has brought together an amazing ministry of The Gathering at Scott Memorial serving the community by expanding its Fresh Food Wednesday Food pantry ministry and currently serve an average of 1200 people a week. The whole church is learning that ministry and worship cannot exist only on Sundays and they have embraced the shift during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a teenager, Stephanie had her “heart strangely warmed” responding to her local church’s missionaries share their experiences in Africa…and a commitment to missions and serving others drives her ministry still today.