Big Spring District, United Methodist Church |
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Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors |
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Rev. Namiqa Shipman |
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Our Superintendent |
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Rev. Namiqa Marion Ardhuerumly Shipman was born on Oct. 18th, 1958 to Ihsan and Lillith Ardhuerumly in Rockledge, Florida. One of her earliest childhood memories is of lining all her dolls up in rows in the living room and preaching “hellfire and damnation sermons of repentance” to them!
Namiqa did most of her growing up in the suburbs of Rochester, New York, but graduated from high school in Newark, California, a bedroom community for San Francisco. She attended McMurry University where she met and married Walter Shipman, a McMurry football player and Education major. While, there, Namiqa also served the Caps UMC as a Student Local Pastor. Graduating magna cum laude in 1979 from McMurry with a B.A., she went on to Perkins School of theology at S.M.U. Namiqa graduated from Perkins with her M.Th degree in 1983. While at Perkins and for a time thereafter she also served as Associate Pastor at First UMC, Plano. Namiqa was Ordained an Elder in the United Methodist Church and admitted into Full Connection in May of 1989.
Over the course of her ministry Namiqa has had the privilege of serving nearly every size congregation from small, rural, cotton-farming faith communities to large suburban and downtown churches in 4 Annual Conferences across the Jurisdiction. Additionally, she is the first woman in the Episcopal area to have served as the Senior Pastor of a large membership church. Namiqa is presently serving for the second time as a member of the Northwest Texas Conference Cabinet. She was privileged to have served as Superintendent of the Pampa District from 2000-2002 and is now enjoying her time of ministry as Superintendent of the Big Spring District.
Namiqa also served the Denomination as a member of the General Council on Ministries from 2000-2004. While serving on GCOM, she was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Work Area on Agency Relationships, a member of the Evaluation Committee for the General Board of Church and Society and a member of the joint GCO
Namiqa and husband Walter, now a practicing attorney in Big Spring, have been married for 29 years and are the very proud parents of son, Will. Will, a sophomore at the University of Texas, is 20 years old and the absolute light of his mother’s eye and delight of her heart! Namiqa is also the daughter of retired Conference members, Dr. Ihsan and Rev. Lillith Ardhuerumly. |
