Michelle Morris

Rev. Dr. Michelle J. Morris currently serves as the Lead Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Bentonville, Arkansas, a surprise to many who grew up with this girl who had no church involvement whatsoever. Prior to her life as a clergyperson, she worked for the University of Arkansas as the Study Abroad Advisor in the Fulbright Institute for International Relations, work she was drawn to as a former study abroad student and from her work as a travel agent and hotel hospitality employee. The daughter of a father whose father was the Assistant Dean of Men for Oklahoma State University and a mother whose parents were bootleggers and in and out of prison, Michelle has spent her life seeing things from multiple perspectives and encouraging others to do the same. She is a published author of Gospel Discipleship: Four Pathways for Christian Disciples, and is under contract for another work tentatively titled Prophet to the Generations, a book that pairs the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible with the current generations alive today with the goal of helping all of the generations understand one another better.

Michelle has an undergraduate degree in English and French and a Masters degree in Comparative Literature, both from the University of Arkansas, and a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University.