Welcome Rev. Jamielee Demske
As we prepare to welcome Rev. Jamielee Demske and her family in July, we asked her a few questions to help everyone get to know her better. Come back every week to learn something new!
Hi there, I’m Rev. Jamielee, and I’m excited to be your new Pastor of Congregational Engagement.
I was born and raised in Southeastern Wisconsin, and I attended my first United Methodist church service just ten days after I was born. We were part of a tiny church near Kansasville—population no higher than 3,000—and it was there I first learned the lessons of Jesus: lessons of boundless love, truth, justice, mercy and hope that would define my life for years to come. That tiny church’s big heart proved that love was not just a thing to be read about, but a verb, an action to be taken. It was the place where I saw some of my first celebrations, potlucks and Vaction Bible Schools. It was the place that showed me how church wraps around us when we are in need of care, whether we’ve experienced a loss or just need help raising a barn. But life rarely moves in straight lines, and eventually we moved to other churches and other places. Chances are you know this to be true too, that not every place and not every church is a safe and welcoming place. I saw that the church, for all its goodness, could cause pain. So, there were years where faith and I were no longer friends. In those years, I wouldn’t have claimed the title of Methodist, Christian or even religious, and you couldn’t have paid me to believe I would one day take the title ‘Reverend’. I was busy making plans to be a history teacher and planned on doing just that until one fateful day in Wyoming County, West Virginia.
There’s an old Yiddish phrase I used to hear from my grandparents from time to time, “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht”. I’ve been told it means “Man Plans, and God Laughs”. I had spent plenty of time planning on a future without God and without the United Methodist church until a surprise birthday party where God clearly had the last laugh. In the midst of those faith-less years, I worked for a home repair non-profit in the Appalachia region, and I happen to be working on my birthday. Without me knowing, one of the family’s we’d been serving that summer had found out when my birthday was and had taken it upon themselves to throw me a surprise birthday party. When I walked in, I was so truly confused and alarmed that I screamed at a pitch not suitable for human ears. As it turns out, I do not handle jump scares well. But once my heart stopped racing, it started to notice something. That the people around me had offered up what little they had to someone they didn’t even know all that well. They’d gone out of their way to show compassion and sacrificed the food from their own table just to welcome someone well. And in that moment, I remembered all the lessons I’d learned in that tiny little church all those years ago and I saw them all walking around the table, passing bags of Doritos and Squirrel Stew (don’t knock it till you try it.) They knew how to love like Jesus and how to do it well, without the doxology, the stained glass, or the committee meetings. And there, surrounded by celebration, roadkill, and smiling faces I heard the call.
To go and love.
Love, regardless of what it costs.
Love and love well everyone God has put in your path.
While there, I served as the James Barnes Intern at Trinity UMC in downtown Denver, followed by five years as Associate Pastor and Youth Director at Washington Park UMC. In 2021, I was ordained as an Elder and began serving as Pastor of Spirit of Hope UMC in Englewood, Colorado. In 2022, I was called to Montana, where I became the Congregational Resource Minister (CRM) for 52 churches across Eastern Montana—from Glendive to Browning and everywhere in between—and Pastor of Laurel United Methodist Church. In that dual role, I’ve trained, supported, and connected churches across the region, while also nurturing the beloved community right here in Laurel, leading them towards the lessons of Jesus I learned all those years ago.
Through it all, those early lessons—love, justice, mercy, and hope—have never left me, they’ve made their way into each and every story I’ve lived. And as our time together begins, I’m eager to hear your stories too.
With excitement and deep gratitude,
Rev. Jamielee