That tattooed biker? Yeah, she's a pastor
Rev. Katie Klein says that people often approach her while she’s out on her motorcycle, then find out she’s pastor of Cooper Creek UMC in Denton. Her stole? It says “Follow me.”
A tattoo may seem edgy for a pastor, but Katie Klein’s includes the cross.
BY SHERON C. PATTERSON
UMR Editor
Pink hair, tattoos and a biker — does that describe a United Methodist pastor? You bet! Meet Rev. Katie Klein, part-time pastor at Cooper Creek UMC in Denton.
“People see me on my bike, and they approach me. We’ll be talking for 10 minutes or so, and they’ll ask what I do for a living. I tell them that I am a UM pastor and they say, ‘That’s so cool,’ ” she said.
“I am who I am,” Rev. Klein said. “There is a prescribed box for pastors to fit into. We need to let go of it, if we are going to reach a new audience.
“We have to talk about what they want first, and then later we can share our historical theological texts with them.
Her church reached out to her and turned her life around.
“I was 17 and a single mother,” recalled the pastor, now married with two sons. “That’s when my local church made me a youth volunteer. I went on to Texas Woman’s University to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology and over to Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth to earn the masters of divinity.”
“I have a passion for people in need. It started when I was in seminary at Brite Divinity School.”
Her love for helping others leads her to compassionate projects, and her congregation, with a membership of 30, gets on board.
“We are small in number, but we do big things,” she said. “My church does not need a fancy invitation to get involved in a project. We just put out a call, and the need is met. My folk show up where they are needed.”
This summer, Cooper Creek UMC was already involved in Denton-area project of Interfaith Ministries. They raised over $3,000 as a part of Sneaker Weekend, which provided for shoes and other back-to-school needs of low-income children.
But the congregation did more. The members learned that there were 850 students in Denton who were still in need of school supplies. Quickly, they pulled together supplies for 82 families—after Rev. Klein posted the request on her Facebook page. A nonstop user of Facebook, Rev. Klein updates her pages hourly. It is a form of ministry.
“We are just getting started,” she said.
“Every month we take on something else. Serving God is fun because God is so awesome.”
