It was my joy Sunday morning to introduce Sara Hunt-Felke as our soon-to-be Pastor for Students and Young Adults. If you were there, you no doubt picked up quickly on what a delightful spirit she is and how fortunate we are to welcome her to the FBC ministry team and family.

Sara is a native of Tampa who has spent the last decade preparing to embrace her calling to ministry. Along the way, she has served churches in Glendale, California and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her undergraduate degree is from Samford University in Birmingham. From there she earned a Master of Divinity degree from the esteemed Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. After that, she did post graduate work in Clinical Pastoral Education in a hospital setting. She has not taken the easy road, giving God the best preparation for ministry to work with. Count me both impressed and grateful.

Sara will arrive in St. Pete the week of Labor Day and begin her ministry among us. She will work with the spiritual development of our students grades six and up, as well as with young adults. There will be an obvious intersection of her ministry and that of Children and Young Family Pastor, Aimee Hobbs. She is also gifted in the area of pastoral care and will join the rest of the ministerial staff in providing loving, skilled care to our church family.

Sara has a great missional bent that will help us develop young people with a passion to reach beyond themselves. She has a great theological education and philosophy of ministry that will make her work not just efficient, but effective. And she looks with the long eye that sees beyond the experience to the life of faith constructed for the long haul. And undergirding it all is a heart of love and a maturity that is beyond her years.

We look forward to welcoming Sara and her husband T.J. in the days ahead. Pray for them in these days of transition and for the blessings they will bring and share with us at FBC St. Pete.