The Rev. Erin Skinner joins Presbyterian Foundation as new Ministry Relations Officer

Erin Skinner was eight years old when her family moved from Orlando to the Atlanta area. Her parents, who had belonged to a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) church in Florida, decided to explore the various church options in Snellville, Georgia, a community about 30 miles east of Atlanta.

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But little Erin had a different opinion.

“I said, ‘No — we’re Presbyterian,’” she recalled with laugh.

Predestination? Perhaps. At the very least, the truth of her Presbyterianism has remained consistent along the journey to ordination and her role as the new Ministry Relations Officer (MRO) for the Cumberland Region of the Presbyterian Foundation. The Cumberland region includes Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky; Erin  now lives in Virginia with her husband, Will, and their two dogs. 

Soon after her denominational declaration, Erin’s family joined Westminster Presbyterian Church in Snellville, where she participated in the children’s ministry programs and youth group, which she describes as “a huge part of my life. I was really involved in our church as a young person and had an amazing youth pastor.” She interned with him at Westminster while she was in high school.

Her path to ordination was a bit indirect, helped by some kindhearted professors and mentors along the way. She enrolled in the business program at Georgia State University in Atlanta with the intention to earn an MBA. While she had thought at times about being pastor, she found other outlets for putting her faith into action as a  young adult, such as working as a camp counselor at Montreat Conference Center in the mountains of western North Carolina and volunteering with a downtown church in Atlanta. She began to feel herself “on parallel tracks.”

“While I love learning and being in college, I was not really as focused on business as my career. I was really getting a strong nudge that maybe I ought to go to seminary,” she said. When she talked with two of her professors, she learned that her marketing professor was an ordained Episcopal priest, and that her entrepreneurship professor was deeply involved in lay ministry in the United Methodist Church. Maybe, she thought, ministry is my destination after all.

“They worked with me to adapt their classes for this new direction in my life,” Skinner said with appreciation. “Georgia State gave me such a strong foundation that I didn’t even know I was getting until much later.” She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology and an MBA.

It was clear to Skinner that she was discerning a call, “but I had no idea what was on the other side. A lot of important people in my life gave me great advice, and some of them had had a wonderful experience at Union (Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va.),” she said. “I knew I was ready to be somewhere new.”

“Part of my spiritual journey has been the experience of being in nature, especially rivers and whitewater. Richmond, because of its proximity to the James River, provided the opportunity to continue exploring my spiritual practices in nature in addition to the theological education I was seeking.”

She completed her pastoral education at Union and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), earning her Master of Divinity and a Masters in Patient Counseling. She also served as a chaplain at VCU Health and Bridgewater College in the Shenandoah Valley. She describes chaplaincy as an opportunity to “grapple with theology and provide pastoral care in the some of the most challenging moments of people’s lives.”

As an MRO, Skinner will serve churches, working with congregations to create a culture of generosity; offering seminars and workshops; developing gift and fundraising plans for ministries; and providing coaching to finance, stewardship and endowment committees.

“I have what I would call excited anxiety about this new role,” Skinner said. “I am looking forward to building relationships with the people I get to meet and work with. A lot of my ministerial roles so far have been transient in nature; my hope is to build deep and long relationships with people in their faith communities. I am eager to walk alongside congregations and help them engage stewardship as a spiritual practice.”