This woman has seen Cal Lutheran grow as a purpose driven community, filled with faith and value from the days she went here. You once knew her as University Pastor, but now she is the Vice President for Mission and Identity! She will inspire you with her purpose-filled words and her one of a kind love story. Do you know who she is? I present to you Pastor Melissa Maxwell-Doherty!
Her Campus Cal Lutheran: What have been your positions on campus?
Melissa Maxwell-Doherty: Since 2000 my call was as University Pastor, but as of August of 2015, the President reconfigured a set of offices to be in relationship with each other and now we’re a new division. Now, I am the Vice President for Mission and Identity. I work to connect different offices together in their work, from Campus Ministry, Interfaith efforts, Office of Congregational Relations, to ecumenical partner congregations, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and the Theology and Christian Leadership major.
HCCLU: What is Mission and Identity about?
MMD: It is to steward the conversations and the work towards Cal Lutheran embedding itself more deeply into its mission, identity, and values. When you think of all the people who work here and the students who come on our many different campuses, I believe people want to be connected to the mission of this place and who we are and the values that we espouse. Most of our community is not Lutheran; some are, but there are all different kinds of faith demonstrated here with people who hold different kinds of philosophical values. There’s something about the work and values of the Lutheran higher education that continue to get lived out in the university. When people can connect to that, I think they live lives of purpose and harmony and can be an earthly, good part of the world.
HCCLU: What made you want to become who you are now, as a pastor?
MMD: I suppose you’re asking my call story. I grew up in a family whose father worked as an electrical engineer. His family was very connected to the church, so he loved to work the sounds system, change the light bulbs, and sing in the choir. Church was super important. My mother was a church organist, so music and singing was also a part of our church. There are all kinds of people along the way who I believed formed me into the person I am today. When I was in high school, I was involved in my local church youth group and my pastor nominated me for the position of serving at a high school youth board. I didn’t know anything about that, but I thought I’d put my name in, and I was elected to serve. The national church affiliated with CLU started pouring resources into me and learning experiences came with those, of course. At this time, our churches were wrestling with the question of “can a woman be ordained?” The two things I know I didn’t really want to do was to be a pastor or to be a pastor’s wife. God has a funny little sense of humor, doesn’t He? This church kept pouring leadership opportunities in me. When I was a student at Cal Lutheran, I decided to be psychology major and I thought I’d go into education. One day, I asked myself, “what are you going to do after you graduate?” People had been encouraging me and asking me “why don’t you want to be a pastor?” and of course, I just really didn’t want to do that. I would ask what they saw in me to be called to lead in this church and when I heard myself say, “well I’m going to test out seminary” and when I said that, it sounded very good to me. For me, it was a way to serve–to touch lives. As a pastor, often you can be in people’s lives when they’re hurting the most, at births and deaths, also at times of high celebration. You get to connect to deep places in people’s lives and I think that psychology degree also led me there. People who were influences in my life would say to me “ we see you having this gift. Have you thought about a particular pathway?” In the end, I graduated from Cal Lutheran, fascinated by theological studies and philosophy, and applied to seminary. For seminary, I actually went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and loved it. For me at some point in that journey, especially when I got to be an intern, I realized that there was this alignment with what I wanted to do in my mind and in my heart and how I wanted to serve in my hands.
Alternative Spring Break in El Salvador
HCCLU: What was your first call?
MMD: Scott and I served at a church in Glendale, California, then a church in Phoenix, Arizona, and then North Dakota! I loved them all, but then we returned to Cal Lutheran in 2000.
HCCLU: You and Pastor Scott both attended Cal Lutheran, right? Tell me about that!
MMD: Oh I could tell you where he kissed me the first time! He was the handsome transfer student. When I was a sophomore, Scott transferred to CLU and he was a year ahead of me. When Scott Doherty came, there was this group of women who would set up lawn chairs and watch him play tennis over by Pederson Hall. He was and still is a strikingly handsome guy. In January, I was taking a course called the Theology of Paul Tillich and Scott was in my class. He was a great conversationalist and a good listener and he was asking some of the same questions of life that I was. And I was smitten. About a year later, we started dating. We actually ended up going to seminary at the same time, and then we got married at the end of seminary.
HCCLU: Why did you pick to serve at Cal Lutheran?
MMD: The question “to whom will you give back?” pops up in my head. I hope to goodness that you carry this sweet spot for the university where you were formed, made friends, and had a place where you could ask questions and bump up against people in conversation who hold different ideas than you do that allow you to stretch and grow. This becomes this forming place that makes you brave for life and sends you out into the world with a sense that your talents, abilities, and gifts matter not just for you, but to better the world. You will want to give back. There’s just something about CLU. I’ve always thought that the call I was in was the best call, serving the parishes I loved, but I thought that if I couldn’t be doing that call, then I would love to serve in campus ministry at CLU because of how this university, campus ministry, and faculty shaped me. The opportunity to engage with students in timely issues of life, meaning, purpose, and the direction you’re going—I believe that fuels Scott just as much as it fuels me.
HCCLU: What are you passionate about?
MMD: I love this notion of Lutheran Higher Education—it engages students to think deeply into the haunting questions of life and to use that focus not to better their career or just simply find a job, but to move into life and make a difference in this world. Of course, I’m nutsy about my children. Nathan, one of my two adult sons, works at a camp and he is a program coordinator, planning retreats. He’s a builder; he’s totally built his home, everything inside the four walls. I’m so proud of him. They have a farm and animals—it’s really a great camp. My oldest son, Kyle, is a professional musician, a percussionist. He’s married and living in New York City and got his first gig playing for the Rockettes’ holiday show. He was also subbing for the Broadway Musical Hamilton, and we got to see both.
HCCLU: Any hobbies?
MMD: I like to rubber-stamp and work with paper. I like to make cards, so I’m a crafter.
Cards crafted by Pastor Melissa
HCCLU: What is your favorite Cal Lutheran event?
MMD: I really love Common Ground. It’s every Wednesday night at 9:11, and it’s meant not be like Joshua 9:11 or anything like that, but moreso “Who are you going to call? 911.” I just love the spirit and the energy there.
HCCLU: If you could change places with anyone for a day, whom would you choose?
MMD: It would have to be something international—like to be a part of the curators for the Rodin Museum in Paris. If I knew how to do it, I’d like to be a trailblazer up to Mount Kilimanjaro or something of that sort. I would want to be in another place doing purposeful work. I think it would also be fun to be a birdwatcher—I really like birds as my mother and grandmother did, as well. I would also be happy to be in a fabulous place, maybe around water, and to be an owner of a bed & breakfast.
HCCLU: Do you have a favorite quote?
MMD: Poet Mary Oliver said “What would you do with your one wild and precious life?”
HCCLU: If you could change one thing about the world, what would you change?
MMD: That all the world may be fed. I believe we have the capacity on this Earth to feed the world, but we’re not distributing it well. May the world be fed.
Photographed with Professor Windham-Hughes’ son, Sebastian, at her oldest son’s wedding