Rev. Autumn Krueger was ordained a full elder in our Conference on June 11, 2021. Her path to ministry is unique– one that began in Harrisburg, South Dakota. Autumn was active in Harrisburg UMC from grade school age and grew into various leadership roles within the church there. It was a special calling that took her to the east coast for seminary and to the far west coast, where she currently serves at St. John UMC in the Alaska Conference.

Autumn discovered her local church as a caring community after her father died when she was 12. “The church was a safe place my mom could drop me off at without question. I was involved in school stuff, in sixth grade, but whenever I had time, I’d be, like, ‘Hey, can I go help Erica with this at church?’”

At her local church, she found simply by being present, she would be asked to participate and take on new opportunities. Church members recognized her leadership gifts quickly, and invited her to serve on the church council, starting a youth council, serving on the tech team, and many other things.

“Even as a youth,” Autumn shared, “I imagined continuing to be active in ministry, but not necessarily as a career. I was like, ‘I will be the most excellent volunteer youth leader!’” In high school, Autumn participated in Conference youth events, including CCYM, and later attended Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. While at DWU, she served on the student ministries team, helped with the youth group at Mitchell First UMC, and helped launch the new church start, Mitchell Fusion UMC.

Wesley Acres Camp was an important location in Autumn Krueger's journey of discernment on the way to ordained ministry. Photo from Dakotas-Minnesota Camp Ministry website.

After her first year in college, Autumn was at Annual Conference, and was resisting going up for the altar call, fighting the urge to jump into ministry as a vocation. And then after blacking out, she was suddenly at the altar with Rev. Theta Miller, asking her why she’d come forward. Autumn couldn’t answer that question, but knew she was being called to something more. Later that summer, while working at Wesley Acres Camp, yet ignoring that calling, she heard a voice saying “You were made for it.”

Within 48 hours, after a few phone calls, Autumn’s major and all of her classes DWU had been changed, and her path to ministry began to take shape in concrete ways. Later that fall at Youth Convocation in St. Louis another experience shook her into the realization that, “OK, I get it. You’re calling me to this, and I need to pay attention to this.”

“That was the shift in mentality for me, to transition from just being ‘the most excellent volunteer’, to ‘this is a life thing.’” It was a deepening of her calling to ministry, and a letting down of her guard. “It was like, eight months of me going, ‘No, no, no,’ to just, ‘OK, yes.’”

Krueger’s final college year included an internship with Rev. Kathy Hargraves at Mitchell First UMC, which was quite different from the smaller Harrisburg church she was so familiar with. Following that she had an internship with Mitchell Fusion UMC, which was more familiar on the campus at DWU. As the Dakotas Conference Elisha Intern program began that summer, Autumn was in the first cohort, and served back at Harrisburg UMC under the mentorship of Rev. Kyle Reinhiller. That was her introduction to preaching, but she was blessed to be at her home church, which recognized her instantly as an associate minister. Autumn later realized that her three different internships in the Dakotas gave her a very good grasp on what ministry involves.

To fulfill a desire to experience another place and expose herself to other ministry challenges and models, Autumn went to Atlanta, Georgia, to the Candler Theological Seminary.

Called Moment. On July 4, 2016 a friend caught this photo of Autumn having a conversation with God about whether this is really vocational and not just a trip. Photo courtesy of Autumn Krueger.

“I chose Candler partly because I wanted an experience different than where I came from, so I was intentionally looking for… a big city, and not the Midwest.” She also wanted a seminary experience that focused on application, which is what Candler was offering.

“In my first year– the first year contextual sites are outside of the church walls– I was at an assisted living home in a chaplaincy program. Most of that year was pastoral care, plus the foundations classes. And then the second one was more Bible-based of like, how do you translate this into the local church?”

Later in seminary, Autumn was wondering about a last internship somewhere different– like Alaska. After receiving an offer from Birchwood Camp, she decided that was different enough, but didn’t know whether her desire was more “vacational” or vocational. After spending the summer in Alaska and returning there for a winter event, it became clear that God was calling her to ministry in Alaska.

Her first charge after seminary was directly to a solo appointment at Anchor Park UMC, in Anchorage, a city of 380,000, which was a challenge, although not necessarily in the ways she expected.

Rev. Autumn Krueger with her youth group on a retreat, September 5, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of Autumn Krueger.

“Anchor Park UMC, as a church, had never had a single pastor, they'd never had a female pastor, and they'd never had a straight-from-seminary pastor and not an ordained pastor,” said Autumn. “We had a lot of firsts.”

She experienced many successes at Anchor Park, a period that included personal growth and congregational learning, especially in helping the church to minister to their immediate community and share Jesus’ love with homeless people and those struggling with addiction and recovery right at their doorstep.

Experiencing some burnout is unfortunately normal for most pastors, and Autumn experienced that after several years. She sought help from her district superintendent, and after some discernment, was appointed to St. John UMC, just five miles down the road, but as Pastor of Student and Family Ministry. St. John is the largest UMC in Alaska, with a three-person pastoral team. Her lead pastor is fellow Dakotas Conference colleague Rev. Andy Bartel. She is enjoying the new appointment, working in a ministry team, and working with the staff on children’s ministry and small groups. The change has allowed her to focus on curriculum used for various groups, a focus she’s passionate about.

On hand for Autumn's ordination were, left to right, Janet Krueger, Autumn's mother, Autumn Krueger, and Bishop Laurie Haller. Photo by jlynn studios.

She adds, “The thing I have always felt, is how much the Dakotas Conference wants you to live into your calling, no matter what that is. If that’s serving in a local church in the Dakotas, awesome. Is that serving in chaplaincy in Rochester, awesome. If that’s serving in Alaska, awesome. That has been one of the more encouraging parts of our relationship, knowing that the Dakotas sent me out as a missionary and continues to support me.” She adds, “There aren't many ordained pastors in the Alaska Conference who are from Alaska. There are several LLPs, and together we serve the 28 United Methodist faith communities here. We don’t have an ordaining board.”

Autumn cares deeply about having good mentors in life and says she wouldn’t have come this far in her ministry journey without them. Especially important were Revs. Brandon Vetter, Kathy Hartgraves, Andy Bartel, Kyle Reinhiller, Theta Miller, Theresa Whetsel, Gary Ray, and many more who nurtured her calling and were there to raise her up along the way. She looks forward to ministering to others in the same way, and mentoring folks in their paths of discernment and ministry. Her goal in ministry is simple: “To do the next right thing.”