When Janet Collinsworth started classes part-time in 2005 at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, she told ethics professor Rebekah Miles, “I am here for the knowledge. I’m not going into ministry.”
Perkins School of Theology is one of the 13 United Methodist seminaries supported by the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment of the United Methodist Church
“You might want to rethink that,” her professor advised.
Twenty years later, Janet is well into her ministry helping homeless women and their children toward self-sufficiency. The nonprofit she started in 2013 just broke ground on a multi-family village in Wylie, Texas, providing affordable housing for women and children who have graduated from her Agape Resource & Assistance Center. Jericho Village will provide the first housing in Collin County with wrap around services and with sliding scale rent, meeting the needs of families challenged by the dramatic increase in rent since 2020.
Janet’s road to ministry began with a last-minute request to teach her 13-year-old daughter’s yearlong Methodist confirmation class. She shoehorned the teaching assignment into her already busy life as founder and CEO of a successful boutique forensic accounting firm. With 30 years of accounting experience, Janet was highly regarded as a forensic accountant focusing on litigation support and fraud investigation.
However, teaching young teens about the Methodist church and its beliefs sent Janet to SMU’s theology school, seeking more information.
On a 2006 trip to the Holy Land at the Jordan River, Janet felt the power of God.
Soon after her return from the Holy Land, she began the path to ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church.
Collin County, north of Dallas, is home to the headquarters of Frito-Lay, JC Penney, Toyota USA and ExxonMobil, but 40 percent of students in Plano, its largest city, qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. There is no emergency shelter in Collin County and the few transitional housing agencies have beds for about 450 individuals, turning away more than 4,000 people each year, Janet said.
“I raised my children in Plano and had been blind to the need,” Janet said. “I began to see that hunger was a symptom of much larger problems in Collin County – evictions, lack of transportation, low-paying jobs, lack of childcare. Most of the food pantry clients were families led by women, many with children under 12-years--old.”
In 2010, she helped the church launch Project Hope, a mentoring program to help households, particularly those led by women, gain stability and resources.
Project Hope became the cornerstone for Agape Resource & Assistance Center, the nonprofit Janet started in 2013, just four years after graduating from Perkins. Agape’s ministry focuses on helping women and their children overcome the barriers that opened Janet’s eyes – housing, education, transportation, child-care and health care. Each barrier is addressed in a practical way, beginning with housing in remodeled homes and repurposed office buildings in Plano. Women choose a vocation and begin training for a job with a living wage within their first 60 days in the program.
“We want women who have been earning $15 an hour to train for jobs that will pay $50 an hour to enable them to become self-sufficient,” Janet said.
“Like Rahab, women in the Agape program, and our neighbors who will find a home at Jericho Village, must overcome adversity to survive,” Janet said. “They work hard and step out on faith believing their sacrifices will result in a better future for themselves and their families. Yet, despite this faith, they are faced with seemingly impenetrable barriers and walls to achieving this goal. We, like the Israelites, must surround them with strength and help them bring down the walls that prevent them from fulfilling God’s purpose in their lives.”
excerpt from a story by Nancy George, Perkins School of Theology
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the Ministerial Education Fund is at the heart of preparing people for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The 13 United Methodist seminaries help students to discover their calling through the challenging curriculum. The fund enables the church to increase financial support for recruiting and educating ordained and diaconal ministers and to equip annual conferences to meet increased demands. Please encourage your leaders and congregations to support the Ministerial Education Fund apportionment at 100 percent.
