PASTOR DAWN HARGRAVES
Office Hours:
Mondays: 9:00am-12:00pm
Tuesdays: 9:00am-12:00pm
My husband is my best friend - Scott. We have been married for nineteen years. We live in Fredericktown along with our two children; Talon (16) and Lillian (11). You will come to know of our home life as I will tell the latest farm story, or the challenges of parenting our soon to be driving teen (his birthday was in June), or our concern for our aging parents. Scott’s mom is eighty-four.
I have served God as a bi-vocational pastor for nine years. My secular work over this period has been in surface mining and reclamation/property development, and manufacturing. I hold a position comparable to AP/AR Manager and Compliance Manager along with insurance, payroll, and anything else that is administrative. Previous to this work, I held a position for six years as a Social Worker with a hospice provider in the Greater Pittsburgh Region and previous to this, I worked for a non-profit organization, The Mon Valley Initiative.
I am an alumni of Cal U with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work. I am also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh earning a Master of Social Work degree. My undergraduate degree focused on counseling and my graduate degree is specialized in Community Organizing.
God called me into ministry a long time ago however that call was heard and understood about ten years ago. My pastor at the time encouraged and guided me into the process of Candidacy to Ministry. This is for me remarkable because I did not know one female clergy. I did not even realize women could serve. However, my pastor never doubted when I said I thought God was calling me. I often explain my call like a football stadium at night that has the lights on. One can see the lights from a distance even very far away and may know it is a stadium but cannot see what it is exactly. I knew the light was there calling to me but I had no idea what it meant, no idea or experience of what it, the call, was. No role model, no woman clergy in my life or in my experience. Yet God did not see that as a barrier.
My spiritual gifts are administration and leadership however after my last appointment change, God changed my spiritual gifts. My ministry passions are Social Justice with regards to equity specifically acknowledging an Area of Focus of our denomination - Dismantling Racism. I also find my heart yearns for ministry for and toward the “others” of God’s creation, and with those we know who have once been a part of a worship community but have drifted away or left the church.
All this is about me are things I want you to know however, what I want you to really know is how much I love God. I have been transformed by God. I have experienced miracles of God. I have known God’s amazing grace – the prevenient grace that prevented me from going too far from God in the years after my Dad died when I was fourteen, the justifying grace that was the moment I said, “Yes, my Lord” as a child and then again in my twenties, and to the ongoing glorifying grace that calls me on my sin and guides me to pray for more of Jesus. I look forward to us getting to know one another and what the Triune God will reveal to us, together.
-Pastor Dawn Hargraves
I have served God as a bi-vocational pastor for nine years. My secular work over this period has been in surface mining and reclamation/property development, and manufacturing. I hold a position comparable to AP/AR Manager and Compliance Manager along with insurance, payroll, and anything else that is administrative. Previous to this work, I held a position for six years as a Social Worker with a hospice provider in the Greater Pittsburgh Region and previous to this, I worked for a non-profit organization, The Mon Valley Initiative.
I am an alumni of Cal U with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work. I am also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh earning a Master of Social Work degree. My undergraduate degree focused on counseling and my graduate degree is specialized in Community Organizing.
God called me into ministry a long time ago however that call was heard and understood about ten years ago. My pastor at the time encouraged and guided me into the process of Candidacy to Ministry. This is for me remarkable because I did not know one female clergy. I did not even realize women could serve. However, my pastor never doubted when I said I thought God was calling me. I often explain my call like a football stadium at night that has the lights on. One can see the lights from a distance even very far away and may know it is a stadium but cannot see what it is exactly. I knew the light was there calling to me but I had no idea what it meant, no idea or experience of what it, the call, was. No role model, no woman clergy in my life or in my experience. Yet God did not see that as a barrier.
My spiritual gifts are administration and leadership however after my last appointment change, God changed my spiritual gifts. My ministry passions are Social Justice with regards to equity specifically acknowledging an Area of Focus of our denomination - Dismantling Racism. I also find my heart yearns for ministry for and toward the “others” of God’s creation, and with those we know who have once been a part of a worship community but have drifted away or left the church.
All this is about me are things I want you to know however, what I want you to really know is how much I love God. I have been transformed by God. I have experienced miracles of God. I have known God’s amazing grace – the prevenient grace that prevented me from going too far from God in the years after my Dad died when I was fourteen, the justifying grace that was the moment I said, “Yes, my Lord” as a child and then again in my twenties, and to the ongoing glorifying grace that calls me on my sin and guides me to pray for more of Jesus. I look forward to us getting to know one another and what the Triune God will reveal to us, together.
-Pastor Dawn Hargraves