As a Community Christian Church partner congregation, we share clergy staff to best live out a ministry of collaboration rooted in spiritual giftedness. Sermons, worship leadership, pastoral care, and day-to-day ministry leadership at PHCC are currently provided by the preaching pastor at CCC .
Rev. Shanna Steitz
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Rev. Shanna Steitz (she/her) is a person of deep prayer, big love, and spirit-filled intentionality. She is thrilled to serve in shared leadership with the people of Community Christian Church as Senior Minister.
Rev. Shanna is from a wide spot in the road in rural Missouri and while she grew up in a supportive (and progressive) small country church, she never imagined herself in congregational ministry. When she enrolled in Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, she had spent several years in university fundraising. She imagined returning to a college town after Brite and teaching wide eyed undergrads. However, the Spirit had other ideas. While at TCU, Shanna met her husband Ryan, also an ordained Disciples minister who now works for Community America Credit Union. Just as she didn't imagine actually being a minister she certainly didn't imagine being a clergy couple! But they have had an amazing adventure serving separate congregations in Fort Worth, Texas and then together at First Christian Church, Macon, MO and First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, CA. Shanna and Ryan are parents to Jacob and Audrey and live with their rescue dog, Otis. The Steitz's love cheering on all the Kansas City sports teams, exploring the National Parks, spending summer days in Ouray, CO, and eating whatever fabulous food Mr. Steitz is cooking! |
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Rev. Barb Jones
Campus Minister, PHCC |
Rev. Stephen Underwood
Associate Minister, CCC |
Rev. Stephen Underwood (he/they) is one curious critter, a person with big feelings and even bigger questions, and a believer in the power of story to bring hope and healing to a world in desperate need of both. As Associate Minister, he is delighted by the opportunity to lead with and learn from Community: imagining and embodying a church where all God’s children can know what home and family should feel like, and where justice and mercy flourish.
While he was technically born in a hospital, church was the place that made Rev. Stephen who he is. He grew up hearing the stories of David and Elijah and Esther, learning memory verses at Vacation Bible School and competing in Bible Bowl all the way through adolescence. But while pursuing a degree in Biblical Studies at a small, conservative Bible college in his hometown of Cincinnati, he began to encounter questions that a fundamentalist understanding of the world simply couldn’t answer. Deep study of the Bible and its context, companionship with Christians of different backgrounds and understandings, and a growing sense of his own identity as a queer person, all worked to shape them into a minister with a heart for all who have known harm from the church. Rev. Stephen received his MDiv from Vanderbilt Divinity School, a place that honed his passion for God’s liberation—individual, social, and cosmic—and gave him the skills for a ministry centered around justice and mercy. Living at the Disciples Divinity House there connected him with a beloved community of chosen family that sustains him to this day. In his spare time, Rev. Stephen enjoys hanging out with his cats, Merlin and Morgana, playing video games, board games, and Dungeons and Dragons, and watching drag performances. |