Connected in Ministry: A Staff Spotlight Series continues with Rev. Kathy Pittenger, who helps churches build Safe Sanctuaries policies and discover faith formation resources through Lifelong Faith.
Editor’s note: This is part of a new series — Connected in Ministry: A Staff Spotlight Series — spotlighting Michigan Conference staff members. You’ll get to know them better, hear what brings them joy in their work, and learn how their ministry helps local churches fulfill their calling and mission. Read the full series.
In the church where Rev. Kathy Pittenger grew up, Bible stories were something you walked through. For one Exodus experience, the congregation split into tribes, worked through a series of hands-on activities, and then went to a nearby park with a boardwalk that runs so low over the water that crossing it feels like walking on dry ground, with the sea held back on either side. That crossing is what she remembers best.
There was also a musical about Daniel in the lions’ den. Her grandfather played Daniel. She was a lion and remembers sitting beside him at rehearsal.
The church where Pittenger grew up, about 30 minutes south of Rochester, New York, practiced discipleship by living it out together across generations, keeping children closely connected to weekly worship. By third grade, she was reading scripture during worship. She served as an acolyte, attended church camp every summer from third through twelfth grade, and preached her first sermon on her seventeenth birthday.
In high school, she felt called to Christian education and followed that call to Malone University in Ohio and then to Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where she met her husband, Rich. In 2006, they moved to Michigan, where prospects for serving as a deacon were brighter than in New York.
Pittenger spent her early years in Michigan leading children’s and family ministries at Waterford: Central UMC. In 2018, she joined the Michigan Conference’s staff as Children’s Initiatives Coordinator. Since 2022, she has served as Associate Director of Faith Formation and Leadership Development.
Her day begins with prayer, often the guided Lectio Divina of “Pray as You Go” and a daily devotion from “The Upper Room Disciplines.” After that, the day belongs to other people’s ministries. Her personal mission is to equip, empower, and encourage ministry leaders, paid or volunteer, lay or clergy. In practice, that means returning calls and emails, planning faith formation and leadership development opportunities, working with the Sustainable Children’s Ministry Team, and spending hours each week with the Making Meaning Together grant team, a partnership between the Michigan Conference and the Rio Texas Conference. This fall, she has also been helping Rev. Joel Walther and staff from the United Methodist Foundation of Michigan craft the Ministry Mechanics workshop for local church leaders.
Pittenger devotes much of her attention to helping local churches develop a protection policy, known in the denomination as Safe Sanctuaries. Every church with people in it should have one, she says. A good policy protects children and youth, as well as older adults and other vulnerable people, while giving staff and volunteers clear guardrails. She has helped countless congregations write or revise a policy, find screening and training resources, and work through questions ranging from prevention to responding in a crisis.
That work recently earned wider recognition. This month, Safe Gatherings named Pittenger its 2026 Administrator of the Year. Her nominators pointed to the initiative she designed to ensure clergy across the conference complete both Safe Gatherings abuse prevention and clergy ethics training. More than 80% of the Michigan Conference’s 447 clergy members are now fully certified, and she is working toward 100%. When hundreds of people needed to complete the training, she built a web page with step-by-step instructions and answers to common questions. Pittenger called the honor “an encouragement and a reminder” that behind-the-scenes administration makes a real difference in the life of the church. Read more about Pittenger’s well-deserved recognition.
Asked for the single moment her work made a difference, Pittenger gently resists the premise. She often passes along a resource, an idea, or a listening ear, and never learns what came of it. But she knows the feeling. It comes at the end of a call with a pastor in crisis or burnout, when they hang up feeling seen and heard, and sure again that their ministry matters.
Nothing delights her more than hearing how churches welcome children into worship through a Prayground/Grace Space and other creative ideas. What frustrates her is that so many leaders never learn what help exists. She would love for more of them to discover the Lifelong Faith website, the Michigan Conference’s collection of faith formation resources, which is richest in children’s ministry and growing for youth, adults, and intergenerational groups. She also suggests church leaders sign up for one or more of the faith formation e-newsletters.
When things pile up, she puts on a playlist of Paul Zach and The Porter’s Gate and lets it repeat. “Nothing to Fear” and “Always with Me” are two favorites. Fall weekends mean football and a puzzle or a LEGO set, and one of her cherished rituals is reading at night with her 13-year-old. The family is finding new rhythms now that their oldest son has started community college and his first job. She has studied six languages (English, Latin, Spanish, American Sign Language, Biblical Greek, and Hebrew) and is fluent in one. And although she grew up in western New York and has been to Niagara Falls more times than she can count, she has never been to New York City.
She often thinks of an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” To her, that is the whole point of a connectional church. “I can only help churches who are willing to reach out,” she says. She hopes this invites a few more to do just that.
Rev. Kathy Pittenger’s work equipping ministry leaders across Michigan is supported by the Ministry Shares your church faithfully contributes to the Michigan Conference. Thank you!
This article was written from a questionnaire completed by the featured individual and then edited by Michigan Conference staff with AI assistance.
Last Updated on October 26, 2026