Cathy Byrd

I, Cathy Byrd, am 68 years old. I was married for 48 years to William H. Byrd (Bill). He died August 2020 of COVID 19 complications . 

 I was raised in a small agricultural community in southwest Georgia. Bill and I met in college at Auburn University.  We raised our 2 children, Billy and Charlotte, in Montgomery, Alabama. We moved to Panama City, Florida in 1994 when Charlotte left for college. Bill worked in broadcasting management. I worked in pharmaceutical sales. Our children are married and we have 5 grandchildren from ages 26to 16. We have one great-grandson. 

I was raised attending a Baptist Church weekly with my family and was baptized at age 12. I became a Methodist when I married Bill and we raised our children in church. I attended a three-day retreat in 1992 and was moved to a much deeper commitment to Christ.  The way I have understood it is that I gave my young and mostly innocent heart to Jesus at 12, recognizing the brokenness of humanity and the need for a savior.  But there were aspects of my young life that had not yet come into being- marriage, parenting, finances, career, and so much more.  At 38 I had a lot more experience with my personal sinfulness and realized I had not intentionally surrendered each area of my life to Christ, but instead was living a compartmentalized life. So I gave my world-weary soul to Christ at 38.  The way I thought about it was that I was actually a religious "churchian" with more of an intellectual understanding of salvation than a fully-devoted follower of Christ until that point.  The next five years I was actively invested in growing in faith through fellowship and study with a small group of older women who actively mentored me.  Coming of age in the 60s and 70s, I had lived with some culturally-inculcated ideas that were challenged by my growing commitment to Scripture. At 43, during a worship service in which the pastor was preaching on Romans, I made a fuller surrender and gave my mind to Christ.  I prayed as I sat there, "Lord, I surrender my need to have all the answers.  I ask you to show me what I need to know by the power of your Holy Spirit, according to your timing and your will for my life." My life was dramatically changed in a matter of weeks and I found myself under spiritual attack.  Satan tried to take my marriage, my mind, and my Christian witness. It was a difficult year.  I spent six days in a psychiatric unit, but felt so profoundly the presence of God and his protection through it all.  It was determined that I had been in a depression for at least a couple of years, having experienced a combination of several losses and major life changes and had decompensated to a point of an emotional emergency. I began counseling with a wonderful Christian woman who became a further discipling influence in my life and my mid-life emotional emergency led to a greater spiritual emergence.  

I started a weekly Depression Impact Group at my church for women and was active in teaching adult Sunday School, helped start Celebrate Recovery in our county, and in 2002 I started working part time as Christian Education Superintendent in my church.  I took a two-year course for paraprofessional certification in Christian Education through Columbia College's eChristian Education program and was certified through The United Methodist Church.  I quit the pharmaceutical sales job and returned to graduate school, receiving a Master's Degree in Counseling and Psychology in 2008, making the decision to give all of my strength for the rest of my life to Christ at age 54.  I began working with women in substance abuse recovery and other life-limiting dysfunctions and families in crisis, becoming Director of Women's Programs at The Panama City Rescue Mission.  I also explored my call to full time vocational ministry through The UMC and started seminary studies and preparation for becoming a deacon, specializing in Christian Education and Counseling.  I served at the Rescue Mission until 2014. A change of leadership at the Mission led to my decision to start a small residential ministry for women, Titus 2 Partnership, Inc.  This 501c3 non-profit and all-volunteer ministry, now in its fourth year, houses 12-15 women each year, providing intensive discipleship and mentoring toward life recovery using a Christian Twelve Step approach, along with other widely recognized Christian discipleship curriculum-resources and individualized mentoring . We refer to Titus 2's ministry as being "low cost, high impact." The ministry has been well supported financially, through volunteer hours, and community participation.  We also do community outreach and case management with families in crisis. 

In June 2017 I ended my pursuit of ordination as a deacon in The UMC.  The ongoing political and theological divisions in The UMC led to increasing dissatisfaction with the direction of The UMC.  I had completed all seminary requirements, the residency, and Clinical Pastoral Education training. 

I continue to believe that the Lord has called me to ordained ministry as a deacon for a number of reasons.  But I have also come to believe that my covenant with Christ is independent of the covenant requirements of clergy candidates in The UMC.  

I serve on staff part time at my local church, Lynn Haven United Methodist, working in community outreach and congregational care as needed, teaching a weekly small group, discipling individual women personally, and other tasks as requested by the pastoral staff.  My title is Community Care Minister.  I have enlarged my ministry to other activities with other denominational and non-denominational congregations, community agencies, and other non-profit groups advocating for persons living in homelessness, with mental health challenges, substance abuse, or other life-limiting dysfunctions. I serve on the Community Adult Protective Services Committee of the 14th Judicial Circuit, advocating for inclusion of the Christian perspective to the human services problem-solving processes in our area.

I expect to be engaged as a direct service provider of faith-infused transformational education and counseling ministry and as an advocate for community services that bring Christian principles to bear on local human services needs for as long as the Lord gives me strength. My "spiritual dream" is "to know Christ and to make him known" in every way and in every place that the Lord leads me..  

I am humbled to serve Christ and His church through ordination as a deacon through CLI. Thank you.  

Rev. Cathy Byrd, MS CRSS