Rev. Dr. Ashley Goad’s spiritual heritage is a long one, going back to 1773 when her family planted Springfield Friends Meeting, a Quaker church in High Point, North Carolina. Ashley grew up surrounded by this heritage.
“If you spend more than five minutes with me, I’ll likely work three things into the conversation: Jesus, mission and Quakers,” she laughs.
Ashley heard God speak to her at age eight, but it wasn’t until she graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor of Science in political science that she acted on that call. “I loved working in state government and politics, but I also loved mission work,” she says. “When I wasn’t working in the North Carolina House of Representatives, I was going to Matamoros, Mexico, to abide with the Quaker pastor and his family there.”
After only seven days at the University of Georgia, where she planned to work on a master’s in political science, Ashley knew God was calling her to ministry. She withdrew from graduate school and moved to Mexico to serve.
She eventually pursued graduate school, receiving a Master of Divinity from Liberty Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Global Perspective from George Fox Evangelical Seminary, where she studied in London, Cape Town and Hong Kong. In 2006, she became a recorded, or ordained, Quaker pastor in North Carolina.
Ashley continued to serve globally and considers Haiti her second home, as she has logged more than 50 trips to Haiti since 2009, mainly in service with Living Waters for the World and Solar Under the Sun, two ministries that seek to bring solar-powered clean water systems to communities in need.
It was in Haiti, in the Port-au-Prince airport in March 2013, that she met a mission team from First Methodist Church Shreveport, where Nycki Sorensen was serving as Global Mission Director. “That’s where my story with the Sorensens began,” Ashley says. That August, Ashley took over as Global Mission Director when Nycki and Mark Sorensen moved to Texas to begin their time in ministry at The Woodlands Methodist Church.
Now at TWMC herself and an ordained elder and deacon in the Global Methodist Church, Ashley is excited about her role as Pastor of Missions. “TWMC has a rich history in missions, and I look forward to learning where we’ve been and growing together into the next phase of ministry.”
Ashley is married to Christopher Harbuck. Chris has two children, Palmer and Kit, both married. Kit and his wife have a son, Hank. Ashley’s son, Mac, who is from Haiti, now lives in The Woodlands with Ashley and Chris, as does their beloved black lab, Molly.