Christina Crice

Christina Crice has been serving as Children’s Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church since 2004, though her connection with the church began as a summer intern in 2003. Before stepping into ministry, Christina’s path was anything but predictable. During summer breaks from college at SIU Carbondale, she worked as a drafter for a company that partnered with Allied Signal (now Honeywell), converting engineering drawings into AutoCAD. After changing her major, she moved to Connecticut to become a nanny and later served as a counselor at the local Boys and Girls Club after completing her degree at UCONN.

Returning to Kentucky, she found a role at Immanuel as the coordinator of the Encore after-school program and a teacher in the preschool. That opportunity blossomed into a part-time ministry position and, eventually, a full-time calling to lead Immanuel’s children’s ministry.

What’s one thing people might not know about you?

I was a discus thrower in high school. My senior year, I finally hit my stride and made it to sectionals - just short of state, but still one of my proudest accomplishments. If my knees would cooperate, I’d still be out there throwing. The discus taught me that growth isn’t something you force - it’s something you nurture. That idea has stuck with me in ministry and in life.

What are you up to when you’re not at work?

If I had endless hours in the day, you’d probably find me in a woodworking class. I love working with my hands - building, painting, creating. I’m endlessly inspired by architecture, especially the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. I’ve visited his Fallingwater house twice and would go back again in a heartbeat.

I’m also a nature-lover, storyteller, and lifelong learner.

What is your favorite part about serving at Immanuel Baptist Church?

While I loved the church of my childhood, it wasn’t until I lived in Connecticut that I experienced a more inclusive, questioning, and theologically diverse kind of faith community. That church (Greenwich Baptist) helped me see that there was space for women in ministry, and that our questions didn’t disqualify us from faith; they deepened it.

When I returned to Kentucky, I never imagined I’d find anything close. And yet… here we are. Immanuel has been that kind of place for me. A place where people are free to ask, to grow, to be formed and transformed. A place where children are not seen as "the future" of the church, but as its present. Where spiritual development is nurtured, not rushed, and where even unpopular or challenging questions are welcomed.

Immanuel genuinely cares. About children. About families. About transformation. About the kind of faith that gets built slowly, lovingly, and together.

What else would you like us to know?

I grew up in a huge extended family—my mom is the oldest of 11 and my dad is smack in the middle of 11. Sunday dinners at Grandpa and Grandma Tynes’ house were sacred: cousins rolling down the hill, climbing the barn, floating nut-boats in the stream, and homemade ice cream on the porch. That spirit of belonging, play, and love is still the measure I use for community—and I’ve found it here at Immanuel.