The Rev. Karen McDonald Smith was ordained at Salem Presbyterian Church and joyfully became the church’s pastor on January 16, 2011 after serving as the student pastor since October 2010. When she first came to the church, Karen said that she felt like she had come home. Some in the congregation said that they felt as if she was one of the family and they wanted to invite her home to dinner.Raised in a small farming community in western Pennsylvania, Rev. McDonald Smith is the fourth generation of her family to attend Oak Grove Presbyterian Church in Transfer. In that church and family she was nurtured in faith and from an early age participated in the life of the church. She first played the piano for Sunday school when she was eight years old, and at the age of sixteen she became the organist and choir director for that small, rural congregation. It was there that she first sensed God’s call to serve the church through the ministries of music and education.
At Grove City College Karen met and married Mike, an Air Force officer, and over the next twenty years they lived in California, Arkansas, Alaska, Virginia, and Kentucky. During that time Karen was a substitute teacher in the public schools, an assistant manager for Berean Christian Bookstores, and the music director for several musical theater productions. Serving in lay positions in the church, she directed vocal and hand bell choirs of all ages, played the piano and organ, taught Christian education classes, and for one summer was the interim program director a Presbyterian camp in Virginia. Encouraged by the folks in the congregations she served, Rev. McDonald Smith attended Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, graduating in 1998 with a Master of Divinity degree. She managed the seminary bookstore, and later became the manager of the Presbyterian Book & Resource Center at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denominational offices in Louisville. Karen is enthusiastic about sharing the gospel story with people of all ages. For nearly seven years she was director of a preschool and later served for several months as a part-time chaplain for an elder-care facility.
Karen’s hobbies include reading good books, watching “chick-flicks,” attending classical concerts and musical theater productions, making counted cross stitch gifts, crocheting afghans, and slow walks in cool weather. The Smiths have two adult daughters, Jennifer and Liza.
The journey continues as Karen joins in ministry with the congregation at Salem Presbyterian Church. We welcome you to join us on the journey. Come walk with us… come run with us… into God’s exciting future!
