Kristal Smith is leaving the Presbytery of Carlisle after three-plus years as the mid council’s Presbytery Leader for Governance and Congregational Leadership.
Twice before, Kristal Smith decided to step away from a position she was holding just to see where God was calling her next. She had no leads, no direction as to what’s coming down the road. It’s a brave act of faith that isn’t for everyone.
“I frame this like Abram leaving the land of Ur because God told him to leave,” Kristal said, describing her mindset during those times between jobs. “He left not knowing where he was going but trusted that God would show him whatever that good and fruitful plan would be.
“I don’t consider myself having the same sort of faith as Abram, but it’s similar to that idea. It’s my personality, too, that I need to leave something and allow that space in between to help me hear what’s next and to inform my discernment around that.”
The Presbytery Leader for Governance and Congregational Leadership at the Presbytery of Carlisle, Kristal is stepping away from this call at the end of February. And for the third time in her career, she does not know what’s next.
“I just happen to be in that season again, which is kind of surprising to me,” she said. “I trust that whatever is going to emerge will emerge and that we’re in good hands. I guess that’s something I’ve learned over the years as part of my faith walk is God does provide. I trust that will be the case here, that I’m not being foolish, I’m not being naive, that I’m doing it as an act of trust.”
The last time Kristal stepped away from a call with nothing in the balance she was an associate pastor at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Lebanon. Seven months later, she landed at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital as a chaplain where she served for three years.
“The position at Good Sam was so rich and meaningful for me,” she said. “I really loved that work. That’s just one of those things where I couldn’t have predicted it, anticipated it, any of the above. I had no idea that the chaplain was going to be retiring and they were going to be looking for somebody new. I didn’t know any of that.
“When I landed there, it was hard work, but it was something that really filled my soul with meaning and connection with real life. People were going through some really difficult times. Just to be able to be with them; I can’t fix anything, but I can be here in the darkness and the struggle with you. I found a lot of meaning in that.”
Following the stint at the hospital, Kristal became a visitation pastor for the Lebanon Lutheran Cooperative Ministry, a position she held for eight years. Being part-time at the co-op also helped her manage her younger children’s afternoon and evening activities, so that opportunity made sense at the time. As her children grew older and were more self-dependent, she could return to a full-time role, and that’s when the position opened at the Presbytery of Carlisle in 2022.
“My youngest child had just graduated from high school, so I was looking for something full-time instead of part-time,” she recalled. “I thought that this position was where I could use the experiences that I had had with helping churches make difficult decisions about merger/closing or how to reconfigure their ministry.
“Also, I’m an engineer by training and my bachelor’s degree, so I thought that this position with the stated clerk aspects of it would satisfy that idea of not everything needs to be open-ended. I’m also task-oriented, and I thought this would be a really nice blend of developing relationships, encouraging ministry to flourish and continue and/or close while also doing the tasks and being able to check off a list and say I got this thing done today.”
Kristal Smith stands with Inho Kang, the pastor of the Harrisburg Korean Presbyterian Church.
Kristal described her role at Carlisle as being “stated clerk plus,” meaning there were several other aspects of the position beyond what a stated clerk does.
“Part of the ‘plus’ was helping churches and pastors in transition because there’s such a big wave of transition that’s right happening now,” she said. “We needed to – and still need to; it’s an ongoing process – be flexible with our structure so that we can navigate and be helpful to the churches and to the pastors in this brave new world that we seem to be engaged in.”
Being the Presbytery Leader for Governance and Congregational Leadership for three-plus years in Carlisle has certainly been rewarding for Kristal.
“I’ve enjoyed the variety of the work,” she said. “I have enjoyed the deeply relational aspects of it, my work on the Commission on Ministry, with congregations and pastors, and having that balanced with the tasks associated with being stated clerk. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know other mid council leaders, folks at the Synod and people in the congregations.
“It gives me a sense of how big the Church is and celebrating everything the Church is in all its different forms because there are so many different forms. Each community is shaped differently, and that’s exciting to me. I really like that diversity of expression.”
There are many aspects of the call she’ll miss when she looks back on her time at the mid council.
“I’ll miss the people, the relationships that I’ve formed and the opportunity to see the sorrows, joys and new things that churches and pastors are trying,” she said. “I’m going to miss that and the relational aspect of it.”
Carlisle hopes to call a temporary stated clerk in early February, someone who will work with co-leader Jamie McLeod (the Presbytery Leader for Transformation and Vision) to keep the presbytery on track.
As for Kristal, her experience and skillset give her confidence that she’ll find something down the road when the time is right. The fact that she has landed squarely on her feet two previous times when leaving a position before another is determined also factors into her confidence level that she’ll be able to acquire another meaningful call.
“I don’t know what’s coming next, but I trust that something’s coming. I don’t know what it is,” she said. “This feels like, as they say in Ecclesiastes, a time to be born, a time to die. So, a time to embrace, and time to refrain from embracing. This feels like the time to let this go, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Kristal does have some plans for the near future, like traveling with her daughter to New Zealand, visiting her son in college in Milwaukee and going to see her parents in Michigan.
“I’m thinking about some different volunteer opportunities that I know around Lebanon,” she added, “but I’ll continue to listen for that still small voice.”
It’s a voice that has been heard by Kristal two other times when she was contemplating a new call, and she’s ready to see what path it leads her down this time.
“My life verse is ‘Be still and know that I am God’ – Psalm 46:10. That’s just something that I really resonate with and have resonated with for a long time,” she said. “That Psalm talks about the nations being in an uproar and God lifts God’s voice and the earth melts. All these things are happening around us and yet there’s that still small voice that speaks to the soul. I’m able to rest in that and know that it’s going to be OK.”