Church Leadership

Pastor Stephanie Crossland

Stephanie Crossland is the younger of two daughters of Dr. John & Beverly Spangler.  She grew up in the Presbyterian Church, as her father is an honorably retired minister in the PC(USA).  Her parents joyfully live in a Presbyterian retirement community and her sister, Jennifer, is a public relations and communications specialist.

       Steph has a 20-year-old son, Joseph, who is interested in technology, auto mechanics and skilled trades.  She had married into a large family from the Akron, Ohio metropolitan area and remains close with her grown stepchildren, their spouses and her eight grandchildren.  Steph and Joey are excited about being in Snow Hill and getting to know folk at Makemie and in the community.  They have two cats to entertain them; Jepson and Rowan!

       Stephanie is a graduate of Berry College in North Georgia, known for its beautiful campus and as the largest physical college campus in the entire United States, at over 27,000 acres.  She is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, just outside Atlanta.  Steph spent four years as an Associate Pastor with a suburban church outside Baltimore.  The bulk of her ministry following this has been spent as a solo pastor with smaller congregations working in areas of transformation and redevelopment.  She served six years in urban Lansing, Michigan, followed by fourteen years in suburban Akron in a town called Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

       Steph’s passions are in serving with smaller churches, leader development, long-range planning, pastoral care, social justice and hearing about peoples’ faith journeys.