Plymouth Magazine-Spring26-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 6
Get to Know our New
Pastor of Congregational Care!
By Erin Marth (she/her)
Tell us a little about yourself and your faith journey. What events or experiences
led you to pastor here at Plymouth Church?
Erin Marth (she/her) is Plymouth’s new
Pastor of Congregational Care. We sent
her some questions to help us all get to
know her a little better!
Favorite color: Green
Favorite Food or Meal: Cheesecake
Favorite Book and/or author: Oh, it’s so
hard to pick a favorite! Lately, I’ve been
appreciating “The Book of Awakening”
by Mark Nepo, “Practice the Pause: Jesus’
Contemplative Practice, New Brain
Science, and What It Means to Be Fully
Human” by Carline Oakes, and “The
Abundant Community: Awakening the
Power of Families and Neighborhoods”
by John McKnight and Peter Block. As
for favorite authors, I often come back to
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Jan Richardson,
and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
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It’s been a winding journey! I’m a farm
kid from Northern Iowa who grew up
in a small, rural church that served as
a kind of extended family. I studied
Political Science at Iowa State University,
before connecting with the Presbyterian
Church (USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer
program. Through that program, I
moved to the Philippines and served
with a local human rights organization.
It was an experience that rattled my life.
I was forced to reexamine who I am, who
God is, what it means to be a church and
community, and how to live in this world
when our lives are so interconnected.
I then served as a chaplain resident in
a hospital in the Twin Cities before
returning to Des Moines as the Director
of Christian Education at Westminster
Presbyterian.
As I returned to the States, I was
wrestling with a big question that
continues to shape me: What does it
mean to follow Jesus in this world that
is so both so beautiful and where there
is so much hurt? The Spirit has guided
me as I’ve practiced living into the
answer. For about a decade, I served as a
community organizer in Iowa, Florida,
and Minnesota. After discerning the
call to merge my community organizing
experience with congregational ministry,
I earned my Master of Divinity degree
with a concentration in Pastoral Care
and Counseling.
As I said, it has been a winding journey,
and I’m grateful that every experience
I’ve had, every person I’ve met, and every
community I’ve joined has enriched
my spiritual life and my ministry. I
love meeting people where they are,
journeying with communities through
the peaks and valleys of life, exploring
together the gifts God has given us, and
building the connections and systems
that support us along the way.
After a few years, I felt called to complete
the last steps of my ordination process. I
first served a church in Western Illinois
and then moved into the work of
Intentional Transitional Ministry, first in
the suburbs and then on the North Side
of Chicago. In early December 2025, I
returned once again to Des Moines to
serve alongside you all at Plymouth as
your Pastor of Congregational Care.
