Carson Hawks is both experienced and gifted in helping people engage sacred stories and traditions. I have worked with her as she finished her training as a spiritual director and am impressed with how tenderly she holds people’s stories, especially those involving some kind of trauma. This gift includes not only holy listening but an ability to tell her own stories and those of our Christian tradition in writing groups, preaching, adult spiritual development and worship leadership. Carson is mature, a lifelong learner, and has demonstrated at First Church UCC Phoenix the gifts and skills to work inter-generationally as our membership and welcoming coordinator.
Rev. Teresa Blythe, Spiritual Director at First UCC - Phoenix
In leading a workshop at First Church UCC, Phoenix, Carson unpacked the story of Lazarus in such style, that I was able to hear it in a new way, invoking my understanding of Jesus' call for the community to impact and uplift the individual into new life. Carson has a gift for bringing a refreshing second sight to sacred stories, and I am forever changed for it.
Daryl Sparks, Congregant and Member of First Church UCC - Phoenix,
Trauma-Informed Life Coach
Since I met Carson, she has shown a deep passion for the narrative of each individual she comes into contact with. Carson's ability to make even the most vulnerable individual feel safe and seen gives her the unique ability to also practice the most compassionate accountability I have witnessed in a potential candidate for ministry. Carson is drawn to the sacred in everyone and is able to draw the sacred out of everyone. If you pair that with her background in education, theological study, and her own personal self-awareness she is able to bring together individuals and communities who may have never found common ground. I believe Carson has always been on track to lead the church to a deeper understanding of itself, its narrative, and the collective narratives it seeks to hold in its sacred space.
Shawn Snavley - Seminary Peer and Mental Health Case Manager for the T.R.N.S. Project
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