Called
From Classroom to Conference Hall
Pam MacRae has spent her career equipping women for ministry in numerous settings: the church, academia, and even the Called conference
by Anneliese Rider
Pam MacRae—professor, program head, and director of Moody Bible Institute’s Called conference—didn’t go to college for education and never saw herself launching a major. But after years of serving women in conferences and churches, she realized that women were eager for more training—and she could help offer it.
Now, with 20 years at Moody, she’s passionate about helping prepare and equip women for ministry and always coming up with intentional ways to do so, whether it’s through a class, a major, or even the Called conference.
‘I understood what women were asking for’
Pam, a constant companion of her dad on his pastoral visits, grew up loving the church. “I just saw how wonderful it was to influence people and share Jesus and to love and care for people,” Pam says, recounting childhood visits they made in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
In her high school years, Pam’s Bible teacher at her private Christian boarding school taught her how to dig deep into the Bible, “and to delve into Isaiah as a high school senior just made me love the Scriptures.”
With a passion for serving people and studying God’s Word, after graduating high school, Pam attended Moody to study Bible and theology.
While a student, Pam often visited her sister, who worked in the student recruitment office—and there she met her sister’s coworker Bob, a Moody graduate. They dated, and in 1979 after Pam graduated they were married. That year, Bob took a role as a youth pastor at a church in Boca Raton, Florida.
“I did ministry with him as a youth pastor, but I always felt very drawn to ministry to women,” Pam says.
That pull continued, and even as she raised their two daughters, Pam began to take opportunities to serve in Bible studies and speak to women in different settings.
When Bob left the pastorate and became a professor at Moody Bible Institute in 1995, Pam began pursuing her master’s degree in Ministry Leadership at Moody. Before long, she also started working in Moody’s conference ministries department, helping run women’s conferences all over the country. She loved it.
Left: Pam MacRae with her husband, Bob. Right: The MacRae family.
Reach to teach
But when the conference ministry department was eliminated, Pam wasn’t sure what was next—until John Koessler, then the chair of the Pastoral Studies department, asked her what it would look like to start an undergraduate ministry to women program at Moody.
“I just rattled off five classes without even thinking about it,” Pam says. “From all the conversations I’d had with women, through the conferences and networking and events, I could understand what women were asking for.”
Before long, John asked Pam to teach a class—but she said no and suggested he find other teachers.
“It was nothing I ever envisioned or thought of,” Pam says, “or even knew to want to do.”
But as time passed, with John’s gentle encouragement and consistent guidance, Pam began teaching—and eventually they began the Ministry to Women major. Pam became the program head, also earning her doctorate of ministry from Bethel Seminary in 2013. In 2014, she also launched the Ministry to Victims of Sexual Exploitation program.
Pam MacRae speaking at Called.
A unique conference for women in ministry leadership
In 2016, Pam was having a conversation with two coworkers who also served in ministry to women.
“We were talking about the Ministry to Women curriculum and how what was in the major would be so useful for women who are serving in churches who’ve never been able to have any formal training for ministry,” Pam says.
That conversation started the ball rolling, and soon they were putting together the first one-day Called conference for the spring of 2017.
Their goal was twofold: to provide practical academic training for the attendees and give the Ministry to Women majors hands-on experience running a conference.
At Called, professors and practitioners lead workshops, and between the main sessions, attendees can choose three workshops about practical topics. In 2025, topics include church hurt, multi-generational ministry, sensitivity to race, the theology of pain and suffering, flourishing after ministry discouragement, and many more.
Each attendee is given access to the audio recordings of all 17 workshops so that they can use them to train and equip their leaders. The conference is also livestreamed.
Support system
Attendees can also choose to join a cohort, so women in ministry can continue to encourage each other for the next 12 months after the conference.
“We’ve had women who have taken advantage of just continuing to have conversations about ministry throughout the year,” Pam says, talking about the value of that support system. “It’s a beautiful and wonderful experience to see women enjoying talking to somebody who does something like they do.”
After a few years of holding a one-day conference, Pam and the Called planning team added an extra option.
“Now we have an additional pre-conference full training day that’s more in depth,” Pam says, noting that the pre-conference day is also worth a Continuing Education credit for those women involved in college courses. At the pre-conference day for the Called 2025 conference, Juli Slattery—president of Authentic Intimacy and a member of Moody’s Board of Trustees—will lead a training on how to help women in ministry handle today’s sexual issues.
Called 2025: Freely Give
The theme for Called 2025 is Freely Give, pulled from Matthew 10:8, where Jesus says, “Freely you have received; freely give.”
“What I really want is for women to come and be equipped and strengthened in the ways in which they serve and the ways they minister,” Pam says, adding that Called isn’t just for women who are leading in a ministry setting. “It’s also for women who have a sense that God is calling them to something, and they want to be equipped for what they are feeling that is ahead for them.”