Every Sunday morning at Blackburns' Chapel in Todd, N.C., breakfast is served before communion.
Congregants gather around tables fashioned from old pews, passing plates among neighbors. Between bites, they sing hymns, pray together, read Scripture, listen to a sermon, and linger in conversation.
Along with Sunday worship, the congregation gathers around the table each Wednesday evening for dinner and Bible study. A food pantry remains open around the clock, and the church partners with neighbors to distribute fresh produce from its garden to the community.
Through field education, students at Duke Divinity School step beyond the classroom and into churches and other ministry settings where they begin testing what they've learned against the complexities of real life. For Savannah Smith, a Rural Ministry Fellow pursuing a Master of Divinity (’27), that journey has led to Blackburns', a small rural congregation where she could dive right into the community—a place where ministry happens as naturally over coffee and breakfast as it does from a pulpit.
"So much of what we do here is around the table," Smith said. "It has to do with food and feeding people and eating together. And that's one of the best ways, I think, to connect theology to a real-world context."
For a while, Smith imagined a very different future. "Ministry was never something that was on my radar," she said. "I always thought I would be an artist or designer of some sort."
Working in Local Church Bolstered Self-Esteem
As an undergraduate at Appalachian State University, Smith studied religious studies alongside her other coursework and found herself captivated by the classroom.
She quietly dreamed of attending Duke Divinity one day but struggled to imagine herself as a pastor.
"I was really afraid of being that person in the pulpit," she said. "I didn't want to let people down. I didn't want to represent Christ in a bad way. I was afraid that I was the wrong person for the job."
After moving home, she eventually began serving in children's and youth ministry. It was her pastor who finally persuaded her to attend the annual Convocation & Pastors' School gathering at Duke Divinity. Standing in Goodson Chapel for the first time while hundreds of United Methodist pastors sang "Here I Am, Lord," something shifted.
The visit confirmed that Duke could be the right place to explore her calling, to learn more.
The classroom has helped me to articulate what Christ's church should aim to look like, while serving at Blackburns' has helped me to be part of Christ's church. I wanted to be somewhere where I could get my hands dirty. I've definitely found that here."
Now working in a field education placement as a student at Duke, Smith says the classroom and the church placement work together to help her understand her faith and calling.
Ministry Career Path Set
As a Rural Ministry Fellow, Smith knows she'll serve a United Methodist congregation in western North Carolina after graduation. Not long ago, that future felt overwhelming and scary, but it’s starting to feel sacred.
"Duke Divinity has definitely shown me that we all have the responsibility to carry out Christ's mission," she said. "It's helped me to think about my vocation less as this duty and more as this gift. I get to go and I get to be with the people of God, and I get to be a part of how God is already at work in those places."
Field education has been a part of that journey from fear to trust.
"I can say that field education has given me a confidence that I don't know if I ever thought that I would have before starting Duke," she said. "It gives me the opportunity to mess up. It gives me the opportunity to get comfortable with my gifts in the way that I can lead best. It has allowed me to love my vocation and not just be scared of it."
Looking back, Smith smiles at the younger version of herself who wondered whether she belonged in ministry at all.
"I was afraid that I was the wrong person for the job," she said. "But God equips the unequipped."
Your Generosity Matters
Your support of the Ministerial Education Fund Apportionment helps schools like Duke Divinity School to prepare people to discover their calling through the challenging curriculum. Your generosity enables the church to increase financial support for recruiting and educating ordained and diaconal ministers and to equip annual conferences to meet increased demands.
excerpt from a story by Rebekah Ramlow, Duke Divinity School
This story shows the power of the Ministerial Education Fund—one of seven apportionment funds of The United Methodist Church—to prepare and equip those answering God’s call to ministry. Your church’s support provides theological education, scholarships, and leadership development through our United Methodist seminaries and boards of ordained ministry. Together, we ensure that faithful, well-prepared leaders continue to guide the Church into the future.
When your church supports the Ministerial Education Fund, you invest in the next generation of United Methodist clergy and leaders.
