For Amy Kay Pavlovich, faith is not simply part of her life; it is her way of life. As an associate minister at the First Christian Church, Pavlovich, 31, said her faith helps her understand the world.

“My faith is the lens through which I process everything,” Pavlovich said.

Originally from a rural community in Kansas, she grew up attending United Church of Christ services regularly, where, as a teenager, she already felt a strong connection with God. However, Pavlovich did not consider the ministry because her family preferred male ministers to female ones.

After she graduated with a master’s degree in rhetoric and communication from Kansas State University, she still felt the same connection with God and decided to explore the call to the ministry. One Sunday in 1999, something unusual occurred in church.

“I was almost done with my master’s degree, was teaching Sunday school and decided to do something a little different with the class,” Pavlovich said. When she went to group worship later that day, the minister delivered a sermon that went in the same direction and used some of the same ideas Pavlovich had discussed in her Sunday school class.

“I thought, geez, I had that in me to do that,” she said. When she left church that afternoon, she cried in her car, moved by what she believed was the result of God’s work.

Pavlovich said there are few theological colleges serving many Protestant denominations, so she moved to St. Louis in order to attend Eden Theological Seminary, one of seven graduate schools of the United Church of Christ.

Telling her parents she answered the call to the ministry was difficult for Pavlovich. Although her parents were not candidly against her choice, they did not accept it at first.

“I could sense they weren’t pleased about it for a number of years, but they’ve definitely come around,” she said.

Her parents had not had good experiences with female ministers, Pavlovich said, but they also did not want their daughter to have a rough time in her career if parishioners came to her for help with difficult issues. Pavlovich said the job of a minister also requires a time commitment, making it harder to raise a family.

Already married when she decided to attend the seminary, Pavlovich said her husband, Dane, was not surprised when she decided to follow her faith.

“I think he kind of always knew,” she said, laughing.

Pavlovich said her high school friends also told her at their 10-year reunion that they could see her as a minister.

However, many of the people who follow the ministry are not close to her age. The profession sees many people who look to the seminary as a start to their second career. Pavlovich, who at 31 is still considered young among church clergy, sees the age gap as a benefit.

“It adds to the richness,” she said. “People who are older have experience, and people who are younger have high expectations. It adds a different dynamic.”

Although the church where she serves as a minister is part of the Disciples of Christ, Pavlovich considers it similar to the denomination she grew up with, finding only small differences, like baptizing infants versus immersing adults or children who have made a decision to follow the church.

Even though Pavlovich, who understands herself as a Protestant, relates to other religions that follow similar theology, such as Judaism or Islam, her call was to Christianity. “I understand God more fully in Jesus.”