Thrive

Kelly and Shannon McCuaig

Lead Pastor, First Methodist Carlsbad.
Advancement Officer, Methodist Children’s Home.
M.Div., Asbury Theological Seminary, 2016.
Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, 2010.
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Published: February 4, 2025

“How do you communicate the gospel in a world that is continually moving away from the gospel? I mean, we are ministering in a cross-cultural setting, wherever you find yourself in the U.S.”

From Different Beginnings, a Shared Calling

Kelly and Shannon had different upbringings regarding faith but found their lives becoming intertwined with a shared calling to ministry during college. Kelly grew up in a family heavily involved in church and felt a call to ministry as a fourth grader at church camp. Shannon grew up in a family in which faith was never discussed and neither church nor a relationship with God informed their regular lives. A friend led her to Christ when she was 17, and she experienced her first Christian community at the Wesley Foundation at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

Kelly also attended the Wesley Foundation, where he was reminded of his call to ministry, specifically cross-cultural ministry. He and Shannon began dating just before she went on her first mission trip to Ukraine. “She felt this call to ministry when she was in Ukraine, and she was coming back to the U. S. ready to break up with me if I didn’t feel the same way,” Kelly says. “Praise God that I did feel the same way… We had our separate callings and separate passions, but God pulled us together.”

Answering the Call: The Path to Asbury Theological Seminary

After completing college and getting married, Kelly and Shannon discerned that attending seminary was the next best step. For them, Asbury Seminary seemed like the obvious option. ”I don’t think I had a single pastor in my entire growing up that wasn’t an Asbury [Seminary] grad,” Kelly said. “It was almost like there wasn’t even a choice.”

They originally planned for only Kelly to earn a degree. However, after some consideration, Shannon also applied six days before classes began. Having not grown up in a practicing Christian home, Shannon found that studying at Asbury Seminary gave her confidence in knowing scripture and knowing God that she had never experienced before. “I felt very insecure and insufficient in a lot of ways, and something about being a seminary grad changes that for you,” she says.

The intercultural studies aspect of their studies was especially significant for their ministry. Shannon recalls the specific impact of studying alongside professors and students from many different cultures. This allowed them to already gain some perspective from outside their own culture. “Predominantly, the most beneficial [part of] my degree from Asbury has been on the intercultural side,” Kelly says. “Yes, all the more traditional M.Div. classes—the preaching, the church administration, pastoral care—that’s invaluable, but I utilize the intercultural training every single day.”

Mission Interrupted: Navigating Unexpected Turns in Ministry

After graduating from Asbury Seminary, Kelly and Shannon answered the calling they had perceived in college and went to the mission field. Because of the area they were serving and the nature of their work, they still must be very cautious about sharing about their work. Needless to say, the entire experience was an inflection point in their lives for many reasons. After a season on the field, the McCuaigs and their team experienced significant and unforeseen issues, and they were forced to exit the mission field. “It was for reasons that were beyond our control, things that we didn’t understand, and things that really broke our heart,” Kelly says. “We needed a place that we could return to heal and to recover.”

Kelly and Shannon felt confident that Wilmore was that place. However, before landing in Wilmore, Kelly sat down with Rich Jones, an Asbury Seminary graduate and the pastor of their home church outside Lubbock, Texas. “He just flat out looked me in the face and he said, ‘Kelly, you may not see it, but you were called to preach,’” Kelly says. “I swore I would never be a local church pastor.”  

They returned to Wilmore and the community that encouraged their call to missions before, but now offered them solace and healing. “It’s one thing to have somebody affirm you and believe in you on the front end,” Shannon says. “It’s quite a different experience to have somebody affirm you and believe in you after heartbreak and failure. That’s profound.” Kelly adds, “Asbury taught me Christian community in a way that I long to see in our family, our community, our church and our neighborhood.”

New Mission Fields: The Local Church and Children

While they were in Wilmore, Kelly completed his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and he and Shannon began to discern what it would look like to be in pastoral ministry. As time passed, they became more and more excited about continuing their missional call, now through the local church. At the same time, Shannon was trying to figure out what her call to ministry looked like. She stayed home with their kids for a few years and then returned to work while they were back at the Seminary, working for a small non-profit organization that serves kids from low-income families. “It’s been a very accidental thing for me to discover that I care very much about opportunities and health and stability for children and youth and their families,” Shannon says.

When they left Wilmore for the second time, it was for Kelly to pastor at a church in Mankato, Minnesota. After four years there, the McCuaigs moved to New Mexico, closer to their home region of West Texas, where Kelly began pastoring in local churches. Additionally, Shannon received an opportunity to work for Methodist Children’s Homes in their region. “I never would have imagined being a fundraiser, but it was getting a phone call from Kelly Lawson, also an Asbury Seminary grad, calling me and saying, ‘Hey, I need to hire somebody to do fundraising in West Texas and New Mexico, and I think you could do it,’” she says.

The McCuaigs Ministering Together Today and Tomorrow

Though it looks different than they ever imagined, Kelly and Shannon are both using their gifts and callings to reach people with the love and truth of Jesus. Having been in New Mexico for about seven years, they are very excited about the opportunities they have in front of them. Now, with two kids over the age of ten, they are thinking about the oncoming stage of becoming empty nesters and enjoying time with their kids as they become young adults with their own blooming faith. 

Additionally, Kelly has been tapped to help lead a partnership between his annual conference and the Thailand annual conference, utilizing his intercultural experience to help congregations be more global and mission-minded. With some margin in her schedule, Shannon is beginning to discern if there is some area in which she can volunteer her time, maybe even something cross-cultural in nature. In any case, now knowing to expect the unexpected from God, the McCuiags want to remain nimble and open to however he may invite them to use their giftings. “We’re not in ministry together in the same way that we envisioned 20 years ago,” Kelly says. “But we’re still in ministry together and that’s really cool.”


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