News
The Church Council is pleased to introduce the Rev. Coletta Eichenberger as our Interim Pastor. Coletta brings a wealth of interim experience to Grace UCC and will be a tremendous asset as we begin the process of discovery and the search for a full time permanent pastor for our congregation.
Coletta’s initial service will be on September 5, 2010, and she looks forward to meet all of the members of the congregation.
Please extend your assistance and cooperation to Coletta as she begins her time with us. Please wear your name tag while she settles in and gets to know us.
Biography of Rev. Coletta Isgro Eichenberger
Rev. Coletta Isgro Eichenberger is an ordained Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister who has a wide range of experience in ministry and leadership. She graduated with honors from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis with an M.A. in Pastoral Care and Counseling, which included a summer of Clinical Pastoral Education (hospital chaplaincy), and a year of a supervised counseling practicum. Ordained in 1979 at the Rocklane Christian Church (DOC) in Greenwood, IN, where she and her husband, Bob, served as co-pastors, Coletta led worship, did pastoral care, and worked with youth, education, and women’s ministries. In August of 1979, the Eichenbergers moved to Boonville, MO to serve as co-pastors of the First Christian Church (DOC). Coletta and Bob shared one full-time position, and alternated preaching and worship responsibilities, and equally divided other duties of pastoral care and committee work. Their work with this congregation concluded in August, 1982, when Coletta and Bob focused their ministry in new directions. Bob moved full time into Counseling and Pastoral Care, while Coletta worked in the areas of leading workshops and retreats in spirituality, sacred dance, and mind-body-spirit integration, along with supply preaching, substitute teaching, and training to be a Licensed Massage Therapist.
In November, 2006, Coletta began her current work as an Intentional Interim Minister, or Transitional Ministry, with a focus on helping congregations develop a solid foundation for ministry with a new installed pastor. She served for two years at the Evangelical UCC in Boonville, and followed that with a service of 20 months at the Columbia UCC, which is concluding at the end of this month. During that time she took the three-day training in Transitional Ministry offered by the Interim Ministry Network. What she discovered in the process of her first interim position is that the skills and experiences of the years between congregational ministries have served her well in working with congregations in transition.
She brings to this work expertise as a teacher of youth through adults; well developed listening skills; facilitation of group process, and helping people to get to know one another on a deeper level; a strong commitment to spiritual growth; and a commitment to speaking the truth in love. She is able to establish an easy rapport when meeting new people, and engaging people where they are. Among Coletta’s strengths are a practice and sensitivity to the liturgical arts, particularly sacred movement and dance, storytelling, and creating ritual and settings to enhance worship.
She is eager to meet the members of Grace UCC, and discerning together how the next chapter in the Grace story will unfold.
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