INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION

By Mary Holder Naegeli, Master of Divinity '87, Doctor of Ministry '11

My association with Fuller Seminary goes back to 1978, when I attended a one-time conference called Women and the Ministries of Christ. Pastoral scholars, working from the original languages, unfurled the Scriptures to show that women were indeed included in the call to teach and to baptize in the name of Jesus Christ. Thereby freed to pursue a theological education, I enrolled at Fuller and completed a [Master of Divinity] in nine years. I was ordained in 1987 as a Presbyterian pastor in the San Francisco Bay Area (East Bay) and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in 2011. Meanwhile, I was adjunct faculty in my area of specialty, adult discipleship and equipping, serving regional campuses in Menlo Park, Seattle, Phoenix, and Colorado Springs.

I am a Legacy Donor to Fuller because I feel at this stage in my life (active retirement) my job is to encourage the next generations of women and men in the manifold ministries of Christ's church. I had financial help in those early years (through my church), which made pursuing a degree possible starting in my 20's. My gifts are motivated also by my desire to see Fuller thrive and grow and become even more effective in this noisy and distracted world. It is uniquely positioned to address the complexities of ministry (theological drift, globalization, and mental health) with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to invest in its ongoing development, just as it invested in me!