Glory be! Pastor faced life—and death—with grace Amy Forbus, Dec 23, 2008
PHOTO BY GREGG FLOYD
The Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball, left, baptizes a young girl Nov. 30. The beloved pastor died just two days later of complications from cancer. The Rev. Lisa Greenwood Wolcott, right, assisted.
By Amy Forbus Staff Writer
She was a highly gifted United Methodist preacher, teacher and pastor—and by all accounts, would easily have been elected a bishop.
Yet when the Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball spoke with you, you knew that you mattered, both to her and to God.
Ms. Baskin-Ball lived out her calling as a pastor to the very end. She died at home Dec. 2, shortly after entering hospice care at the end of a two-year battle with cancer. She was 50.
Despite being diagnosed in January 2007 with neuroendocrine carcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer, Ms. Baskin-Ball continued to model a confident, authentic faith, and an active ministry in which she comforted others as she herself became at peace with dying.
“She fought so incredibly hard for almost two years,” said Mary Brooke Casad, executive secretary of the United Methodist Connectional Table and chair of the North Texas delegation to General Conference.
“And when she decided that the time had come to end the treatments, she threw a non-stop party to love on everyone around her and savor each moment and all that was good and sweet about this life.”
North Texas United Methodists and others across the country are now mourning her loss, but none more than her husband, Bill Ball Jr., and their nearly 5-year-old son Skyler, about whom she spoke on the last night of the 2008 General Conference.
As chair of the Higher Education and Ministry Committee, Ms. Baskin-Ball presented their final piece of legislation, but first waved to Skyler, who had stayed up late to watch the proceedings on the Internet.
“I want to say thank you to my brothers and sisters,” she said with great emotion, “who are shaping Skyler’s young life with such love, and who continue to find ways to make the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ accessible to all God’s children.
“This church of ours, even with all its imperfections and its disagreements and its brokenness, is absolutely the greatest blessing in my life . . . we have known no greater joy than the love and the fellowship of the church.
“I believe God will continue to share [love] with the world in a bold and ferocious way. And so the victory will be Jesus Christ’s—and I believe that—and so it’s with confidence that I move on to be the church after this event.”
Ms. Baskin-Ball did move on to be the church. As her struggle with cancer progressed, she continued to preach and to pastor her congregation, Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas—missing only one Sunday of preaching—and to chair the North Texas Conference Board of Ordained Ministry.
She also represented North Texas in July as the lead clergy delegate to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference, but not as a candidate for the episcopacy.
By Nov. 19, scans revealed that it had spread to her brain; on Nov. 20, her husband sent out an e-mail announcing that she was entering hospice care.
Dying well
The couple didn’t withdraw, even as the end drew close. In fact, they began opening their home to visitors who wanted to say goodbye.
“She’s still in ministry mode,” fellow North Texas pastor the Rev. John Mollett told The Dallas Morning News. Indeed, Ms. Baskin-Ball was most often the one offering comfort to her friends, rather than the other way around.
“She was handing out the Kleenexes for us to wipe our tears away as we told her goodbye, professing her faith again in the assurance of eternal life, crying with us as she dreaded the physical separation from her beloved Bill and Skyler,” said Ms. Casad.
“Everyone who knew her thought they had a special, unique relationship with her. And they did, because she made you feel like you were the most important person in her life.”
On Sunday, Nov. 30, Ms. Baskin-Ball baptized some three-dozen children, youth and adults at Suncreek UMC. Later at home, the church’s youth choir sang for her. Then she welcomed scores more visitors.
That night, Mr. Ball helped his wife into bed after what he described as “a truly glorious day,” but one that left them both knowing that the time for true rest was near. That time came less than two days later, on the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 2.
“Skyler and I need your prayers,” Mr. Ball wrote in an e-mail message announcing his wife’s death, “but Kathleen has set a clear example for us about how to keep stepping forward and living a faithful life when facing adversity.”
Gifted for ministry
Ms. Baskin-Ball knew something about adversity long before her diagnosis. In 1989, she was appointed to be the founding pastor of Nueva Esperanza, a Hispanic congregation in one of the poorest areas of Dallas. It was a challenge she wanted, and she dove in, taking a five-week immersion course in Spanish to equip her for ministry.
And Nueva Esperanza thrived: the once-abandoned chapel filled with worshipers as the young, energetic pastor worked tirelessly to transform lives in that neighborhood.
Her gifts for ministry later transferred to other congregations. Ms. Baskin-Ball was appointed to Greenland Hills UMC, a Dallas congregation known for its attention to social justice that doubled in size under Ms. Baskin-Ball’s leadership, then Suncreek, which grew from 600 to over 1,500 members as residents of the growing suburb of Allen, Texas, discovered the dynamic preaching of its senior pastor.
Before his July election to the episcopacy, Bishop Jim Dorff served alongside Ms. Baskin-Ball in the North Texas Conference: they taught preaching for the local pastors licensing school and worked together for General and Jurisdictional Conferences.
“She would always find something interesting and good to say about an individual,” he said, “how God is working in that person’s life, or what potential God has put within them.”
Her gifts were widely affirmed by her colleagues. Knowing of her diagnosis in summer 2007, they elected her anyway as clergy leader of the 2008 General Conference delegation.
“I remember her elation,” Ms. Casad recalled. “She said, ‘They believe I have a future!’”
Many of her colleagues were among some 2,000 people who gathered Dec. 6 for a memorial service at First United Methodist Church of Richardson. Each participant in the service said Ms. Baskin-Ball had talked with them about the roles they would play. Clergy women in her covenant group shared remembrances—one in the form of a letter to Skyler about what his mother had taught her.
Bishop Dorff told the congregation that while he had dreaded Ms. Baskin-Ball’s death, he had greatly looked forward to the memorial celebration. “We need this day,” he said, receiving nods of agreement.
The Rev. Jack Soper, a mentor and friend to Ms. Baskin-Ball for many years, noted in his homily that she had included herself in the action when planning the service: “And then we will sing . . .” or “We’ll have a prayer . . .”
“I can feel her presence today,” he said.
He also addressed young Skyler directly from the pulpit: “Your mom told me that she loves you more than all the M&Ms in the world!” To the delight of the congregation, Skyler responded enthusiastically, “I know that already!”
Good and faithful
Ms. Baskin-Ball continued to serve her congregation and the larger United Methodist connection throughout her illness, even when tired or in pain.
“It was a challenge to continue to provide leadership for the church within the physical limitations that she had,” Bishop Dorff said. “To push those boundaries, but not go past them. And she did, and did it so well.”
In the end, Ms. Baskin-Ball died as she had lived—pouring out herself for others and for Christ.
“If ever there was anyone worthy of the scriptural proclamation, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ it’s Kathleen,” said Ms. Casad. Then she added Ms. Baskin-Ball’s signature phrase: “Glory be!”
Ms. Baskin-Ball had requested that memorial gifts be used to support a clergy presence in an impoverished neighborhood of Dallas. They may be sent to: Suncreek UMC, 1517 McDermott, Allen, Texas 75013, designated “Memorial fund – Kathleen Baskin-Ball.”
PHOTO BY GREGG FLOYD
“She’s still in ministry mode,” fellow North Texas pastor the Rev. John Mollett told The Dallas Morning News. Indeed, Ms. Baskin-Ball was most often the one offering comfort to her friends, rather than the other way around.
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