United Methodist Church welcomes new pastor Dawn Skerritt

The Columbia Falls United Methodist Church has a new pastor. Dawn Skerritt was hired after finishing her pastoral training at the Iliff School of Theology, a United Methodist school in Colorado.

She and her husband, Tom, moved here with their three children and two dogs. They have been married for 16 years. He is trained as a special education teacher. Grant, 13, is in eighth grade and plays trumpet and basketball. Sheridan, 11, is in fifth grade and loves math and is great in school. Mason, 5, is in kindergarten.

Skerritt has been interested in being a pastor since she was in high school. She always got clergy as a suggested career when taking high school compatibility tests. She was born in Conrad and grew up on a farm near Dutton. She recalls having an hour-long bus ride to school. She also went to church camp by Flathead Lake as a teen.

Her desire for pastoral care began when she was involved in the statewide United Methodist Youth Council.

She recalled thinking, “A lot of the people I highly respected were pastors.” Around that time she wrote to Iliff School, “What do I need to do to come to you guys?” Her interest was there, but she was too young at the time to go to seminary school.

“Different people could see that in me, but I certainly wasn’t ready, so I tried to live out what I felt was God’s call on my life,” she said.

So, she went to college in Billings. She met her husband while they were volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. After graduating with a mass communications degree, she went to Yakima, Washington to work for AmeriCorps VISTA as a grant writer for a couple years. When her son was born she stayed at home for four years. Then the family moved to Great Falls and settled in for a while. At first, she worked for the American Red Cross in disaster services. But, her work with nonprofits was not as fulfilling as she dreamed it would be. Her pastoral desire finally became reality.

The Iliff School had an online program that allowed her to keep her family in Great Falls and stay at home with her youngest son while completing the Master of Divinity degree. However, she did take two-hour commuter flights to Denver every quarter for lectures. She was only delayed once, and never missed a class.

As part of seminary, she had an internship as an associate pastor at a church in Great Falls. It was during this experience, that her interest in being a pastor finally made sense to her.

“Things came together for me, and I thought ‘that’s what I want to do,’” she said. She described it as puzzle pieces fitting together to complete a picture.

She ended up moving her family to Colorado for 15 months of hands-on training in clinical pastoral education. She served as a chaplain resident at the University of Colorado Hospital.

“I loved my time in the hospital because I could do ministry every day,” she said.

She helped patients who had something heavy on their heart, were afraid of dying or had a difficult decision to make and wanted spiritual advice.

“That was super rewarding,” she said. “But I missed the worship aspect of my ministry.”

This led her to seek work in a church rather than only a hospital. She knew that in a church she would still be able to minister to people everyday. She also realized she had gifts in administrative work that she could use in a church setting.

She is looking forward to “caring for the people” in the community.

“When you take time and sit down with somebody, it shows them you care,” she said.