By Chris Hughes

For Carita Brown, following a calling from God has involved many doors opening unexpectedly—doors that she has stepped through on faith. She describes them as “and suddenly” moments.

“I think of the book of Mark when I think about how God moves in my life. It’s always ‘and suddenly God did this’ and ‘suddenly God did that,’”’ she explained. “That’s how God moves in our lives sometimes.”

Brown is an ordained Baptist minister and a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplain who serves with the Air National Guard. Though she is confident in her calling today, the path that led her to full-time chaplaincy and to CBF was filled with moments of uncertainty and a willingness to step out of her comfort zone.

Originally from Baltimore, Md., Brown began her spiritual journey in a traditional African American Baptist church. At age 24, she rededicated her life to God and began attending Ebenezer Baptist, a National Baptist Convention church.

During this time, she fused her passion with dance to her renewed faith. “That’s when I really took the gift of dance that God gave me, and I co-founded a dance ministry,” she shared. “I went on to actually open a Christian nonprofit dance organization in 1999 that went around the world, sharing the message of Christ through dance.”

It was when she started to explore going to seminary that God seemed to move “and suddenly,” invited her to step out of her comfort zone, introducing her to people and opportunities that would help her on her journey.

One of the first people to open doors for her was Dr. Todd Still, then serving as a New Testament professor at Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity. “Dr. Still is why I decided to come to Gardner-Webb. He was just that phenomenal, that encouraging,” Brown said.

After visiting several seminaries across the country, Brown decided to head south to Boiling Springs, North Carolina, to check out the CBF-affiliated school. “I could only come on a Saturday because I worked full-time,” she recalled. “So, my friend and I drove eight-and-a-half hours from Baltimore to Boiling Springs.”

Through Dr. Still, Brown says she discovered Gardner-Webb’s embracing hospitality and faithfulness to each student’s journey. “They weren’t trying to just get a new student. They cared about my journey. They cared about who students are,” she shared.

Doors continued to open for Brown, leading her in pursuit of her calling and into deeper connection with CBF. First, there was an opportunity to become a graduate housing director after struggling to secure housing to attend school. Next, it was a nomination to be recognized as a CBF Scholar for the school in her first year, something Brown admits she had never heard of and didn’t know was a possibility for her.

“Faculty knew of the scholarships, but must nominate candidates and someone on that faculty nominated me,” she explained. For Brown, the nomination represented something so much more to a woman of color attending school in the race-haunted South. “They could have picked a second-year student. They could have picked a third-year student for that scholarship. I was one of the few minority students there and they didn’t have to pick a minority student,” Brown recalled.

“They were paying enough attention to who I was and whom God had called me to be to nominate me; and enough professors saw what God saw in me to vote for me to get that scholarship,” she added. So, the budding seminarian became a CBF scholar, giving her partial tuition money and providing her the opportunity to attend the annual General Assembly as part of the scholarship, allowing for further connection, networking and immersion into CBF life.

From there, Brown made the connections that would lead her to where she is today. She met the late George Pickle, CBF’s longtime endorser of chaplains and pastoral counselors. “When I talked to George, it was kind of ‘and suddenly’ with chaplaincy, too,” Brown shared. She spoke with Pickle about her interest in chaplaincy and considered it as one possible path for her after graduation.

Becoming a chaplain wasn’t without its own uncertainties, however. With a background in psychology and experience in mental health institutions, Brown had considered her time in those kinds of settings to be over. That was until another “and suddenly” moment presented itself to her. She intended to use her dual M.Div./MBA degrees to go into the business world, but when that fell through, she gave chaplaincy a second look.

Brown went on to join the team at Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., where she discovered how different chaplaincy was from her previous clinical work. “The reason I stayed in chaplaincy is because one of the main differences between counseling and pastoral care is that in counseling, one remains objective and kind of outside of the person’s experience, outside of what’s going on with the person,” she explained.

“It’s almost like you’re a tangent to what the person is going through,” Brown added. “But not with pastoral care. Pastoral care is about being with the person at the point of their need, walking through with them in that journey, in that pain and suffering. It’s being alongside them, being connected and not tangential.”

Brown’s vocation in chaplaincy has taken on a life all its own. For the last 10 years, she has served as a chaplain with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. Her work led her to be one of the first members of the Women’s Chaplaincy Cohort for women chaplains serving in predominantly male spaces, such as the military, corrections, higher education and law enforcement. Brown says such cohorts are critical for women serving in these fields. “This cohort allows your voice to be heard, allows you to be seen, allows you to be validated in your call because it’s very easy to feel diminished or invalidated in your call,” she explained.

Currently Brown also serves on the Coordinating Council for Mid-Atlantic CBF and the Mid-Atlantic CBF Clergy Care Team where she is actively involved with CBF Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care Ministries.

CBF has been an expansive and welcoming theological home for Brown and a common thread throughout her vocational career from seminary to the Air National Guard. “CBF wants people to retain who they are, and whom God has called them to be,” she said. “You don’t find that type of relationship just anywhere. It’s about more than partnerships, it’s about relationships.”