Happy Wednesday! Today, as part of “Tomorrow’s Teachers & Preachers” learn about Director of Family Life Ministry Hannah Knehans who serves at Trinity in Springfield. A Lutheran teacher and pastor’s kid, Hannah has had a focus on family ministry since she was quite young. She took advantage of homeschooling with dual enrollment at Concordia, Wisconsin before becoming a Concordia, Ann Arbor alum. Read about her story below:
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a wife and a mother. As a middle school and high school student, I babysat, nannied, taught Sunday School, helped lead VBS, and served in a variety of mentor roles for the children in my congregation. Throughout the years, parents of the children and other volunteers asked if I was considering becoming a teacher or other church worker. Most of my family members are either ordained or commissioned church workers or lay leaders in their congregations. Being surrounded by so many wonderful examples of men and women in ministry, meant that I always assumed I would be involved in the church. My family taught me that ministry is just what we do! Ministry was a habit, a priority, and a given part of life.
By the time I began considering a more specific career path, I knew I wanted to go into full-time church work. I looked into various programs at the Midwest Concordia universities closest to me. I considered becoming an elementary teacher, a Director of Christian Education (DCE), and a Deaconess. At each college visit, I talked with current students in the program and the program advisors. One impactful conversation I had was with Ben Freudenburg, the head of the Family Life Education Program at Concordia University Ann Arbor (CUAA) at the time. He talked about the role of parents as the primary faith educators in their children’s lives. He also helped me catch the vision of homes and churches working together to disciple children.
Probably the biggest reason I chose to enter the ministry, and specifically Family Ministry, was because of the example and encouragement of my parents. They encouraged me that no matter what I did with my life, my most important priorities should be my own family. I chose to become a Director of Family Life Ministry (DFLM) for three main reasons: 1. I was thankful for the influence my parents and extended family had on my faith and I wanted to help other Lutheran children grow up in families like mine. 2. I wanted to grow my ability to lead (with my husband) my family in faith formation in our own home. My undergraduate and continuing education have definitely helped me grow in my own faith. It also helps hold me accountable as I try to raise my own son in the faith! 3. Since I grew up as a pastor's daughter, I felt like I had a realistic expectation of church ministry and I knew that God had given me unique gifts to handle the challenges, and joys of ministry.
While I love doing children’s ministry and developing relationships with the children at Trinity especially at VBS and our church’s week-long overnight camp, my greatest joy in ministry comes from seeing the evidence of parents’ faithful family discipleship. I teach a class for parents on Wednesday nights during the school year. At that class, I often have parents share their challenges or little victories from the past week. I especially love hearing moms and dads tell about difficult conversations they’ve had with their children.
