By Noelle Leavitt, Staff Writer

Spending most of her teenage years in London working and praying alongside a variety of people, Charisa Hunter-Crump felt compelled to dedicate her life to the world of ministry, even if that meant facing unexpected challenges. She grew up in a house of worship. Her father, Victor Hunter, the pastor at Evergreen Christian Church, has dedicated his life to God, and in 1963 he moved to London with his wife, where Charisa, her younger brother and older sister were born.

Churches in England were struggling, Victor Hunter said, but the family stood strong and made worship and love priorities. Charisa has carried worship into her adult life.

"I loved worship for as long as I can remember," Charisa said. In early August, Charisa took a role in ministry at Evergreen Christian Church beside her father.

And while the position was a natural fit for Charisa and her father, who has been at the church for the last 21 years, the development prompted some skepticism in the congregation.

Questions of nepotism arose within a small group at the church, and some wondered if Victor Hunter was moving his daughter in to take his place when he retires, said George Meyer, who attends Evergreen Christian.

"We dealt with a lot of stuff at the beginning of the debate," Meyer said.

But after Meyer and others took a look at Charisa's professional life and saw what she had to offer, parishioners accepted her role as a minister alongside her father.

"They complement each other," said John Stiller, who sings in the choir. "They have two different perspectives."

Stiller sees Victor Hunter as having depth and knowledge in ministry, and Charisa as shining a youthful light on the congregation. Charisa also became the church's youth pastor.

"She's pretty cool," said youth member AJ Grise, 15.

During a recent Sunday worship service, Victor Hunter and Charisa embraced the congregation with messages of love.

"As Dad has already said, we are thinking about peace this week," Charisa said, addressing the congregation. The youth group then stood and joined Charisa in praying for peace across the world, especially in the Middle East.

Jane Locke, who had been trying to get a youth group together, is especially pleased with Charisa's presence.

"We came here and we stayed because of Vic's preaching, and we love Charisa," she said.

But perhaps no one is more proud of the pair's role in the church as Victor Hunter.

"A father dreams of a time when they might stand shoulder to shoulder with their child in some cause that is greater than them," Victor Hunter said.

Charisa's interest in theology dates to a time when her father and other ministers gathered in the United States to plan a ministry group in England.
Although Charisa and her siblings were born in London, the Hunter family returned to New York, where Victor Hunter and two other ministers formed a fellowship called the Disciples House Worship and Ministry.

Victor Hunter, his family and the two other pastoral families then moved back to London to begin an "experiment in ministry" in the heart of the city to give aid to and raise awareness of many different people - the homeless, actors, writers, displaced children.

The three families moved into a Victorian bishop's palace and started the Disciples House. They worked with different inner-city churches in London of different denominations.

"It was a time when the church was trying to figure out how to be a community," Victor Hunter said.

Charisa was in her teen years, and it wasn't long before she decided to dedicate her life to the church.

"I had my call when I was 14," Charisa said.

And so she went to her father and said, "I'm interested in theology, and I want to be a minister."

He replied, "We need to talk."

Victor Hunter was proud yet worried about his daughter's decision.

"The Church of England did not let women in ministry," Victor Hunter said. "When there is that kind of social change, a person has to be very strong to face the challenge."

He didn't want to see his daughter hurt by those who might not accept her role in the church. Nonetheless, Charisa accepted the challenge, and for the remainder of her teen years, she studied theology alongside her father in London.

After she graduated from high school, she attended the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to study theology, and from there she returned to the U.S. to get a master's degree in theology at the University of Denver.

By that time, her father and mother had returned to the U.S. and her brother and sister remained in London.

Her first big role as a senior minister was at a church in Denver. "The church in Denver didn't have a female minister," Charisa said. "No one knew what to expect, not even myself."

To her surprise, most people were accepting of her presence, and Charisa believes the generation of female ministers before her helped pave the way for other women in the ministry.

"I always wanted to embrace that I was a minister that happened to be female, not a female minister," she said.

And now, at Evergreen Christian Church, she enjoys her new role, as does her father.

"We know how each other think," Charisa said.