Rev. Marianne McPherson was born and raised in the Episcopal church recognizing her relationship with God in kindergarten and is a product of solid parochial education (Episcopal/Catholic). Her call to the ministry and spiritual gifts were recognized as early as high school. During high school, she hosted a weekly radio and TV program about her school. She has excelled in athletics from an early age, loves to ride horses and motorcycles (things that go fast), and being on the water.
She found Trinity MCC in San Bernardino, California in 1979 and has been “at home” in MCC ever since. She has served churches in Alabama, California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida. Rev. Marianne was licensed in 1995 and ordained in MCC in 1996. She loves all styles of worship, especially spirit-filled praise, prayer, revival, and healing services.
Rev. Marianne has a BS in Sociology (healthy communication and group process) and Business Administration (healthy organizational development). Her MA is in organizational learning and instructional technologies. (She also attended MCC’s Samaritan Seminary 31 years ago where she and Rev. Pat met.) She has worked for profit and nonprofit businesses in strategic planning, corporate development, quality and performance improvement. Her passion for people and for making a difference led her to teach youth and adults alike in the prison system. This led to her work as a special education teacher for the last six years in Florida where she (not surprisingly) was named Teacher of the Year.
In ministry, her life-long passion of the empowerment of the laity has led her to develop and implement a number of programs that recognize and employ each person’s spiritual gifts, skills, and talents. She is a spirit-filled, love and graced-based, liberation lesbian theologian. She puts the “FUN” back into the fundamentals of faith and ministry. She says, “What good is grace if you do not use it? Church, love, and grace are action-words!”
