Meet new Methodist Lay Minister Karen Fisher

CHELAN - Karen Fisher has been a member of Wenatchee’s First United Methodist Church for nearly 11 years. Maturity and growth in her faith walk have inspired her to serve God while serving others, as a church member, a trained lay leader, and now a lay minister.

 Karen was born in Spokane, graduated from Spangle’s Liberty High School then Whitworth College majoring in accounting and business management. She worked as a loan officer to farmer-owned cooperatives, married a Bridgeport Methodist named Steve at a Spokane Valley Methodist Church, and continued working until they were expecting their third child.

“My grandmother was a teacher in a one-room school in the early 1900s. She was also a farm wife who taught Sunday School, and lived about three miles down the road,” Karen said. “She was a great influence during my childhood, teaching us kids Bible stories and reminding us over and over that God is love. . ."

“But when I left home, I left the church,” Karen continued. “I’ve always lived in an attitude of prayer, I guess, always chatting with God as I moved through my life every day.

“My husband would say that maybe we should take our four children to church. I would tell him that would be fine. . .go ahead,” she explained. Then she told the story that helped bring their family to First United Methodist Church.  Their son Robert, a Boy Scout, joined Troop 7 and attended First United Methodist Church for Scout Sunday. This experience and his desire to understand the word ‘reverence’ in the Boy Scout Law, helped bring his family back to church attendance.
It is common knowledge that some careers and professions require a nurturing spirit. Karen’s success as a nurturing mother is found in the successes of the four Fisher offspring, which range from insurance underwriting to bio-engineering and bio-medical engineering degrees to electrical engineering studies.

Karen’s husband Steve has also benefited from Karen’s nurturing spirit. He is Grant County PUD’s Managing Director-Power Delivery—behind every good man is a good woman, it is said. This good woman followed her husband’s career in the power industry in both Washington and Oregon.

Now Karen Fisher will deliver on the extensive training she has had to serve the Methodist denomination as a lay minister. She serves as Seven Rivers Missional District lay leader. She also has completed training to be a certified lay minister during a two-year Academy for Spiritual Formation sponsored by the Upper Room, meeting at St. Benedict’s Retreat Center in Schyler, Nebraska for five days, eight times a year, to discuss the four books of required reading for each session.

“We had amazing teachers at the Academy,” Karen emphasized, “requiring us to look inward, then outward.”

Switching to her hopes for her ministry at Lake Chelan United Methodist Church, Karen remarked, “Well, I am a lay person just like everybody else—we are all serving together. Now I’m assigned to walk with you, to find and understand what Lake Chelan United Methodist Church is supposed to do, and how it is to serve others.

“My dream is to fan the larger flame of vitality in this church, which has served this community for over 100 years, hoping this opportunity will teach me more than I’d need to know as a lay minister.” Karen Fisher’s thoughtful comments and sermons reveal her nurturing spirit as Chelan’s new lay minister.