Planting Seeds of Faith: Perkins Grad Kay Ash Receives Denman Evangelism Award
Kay Ash
When Pastor Virginia “Kay” Ash (M.T.S. ’15) arrived at Kessler Park United Methodist Church (KPUMC) in 2018, she knew Sunday mornings alone wouldn’t work for the children in the church’s Oak Cliff neighborhood.
“Most of the kids I serve are unchurched,” she said. “Parents here want their kids to have a faith formation experience, but expecting them to rush in to be here on a Sunday morning was not going to be their thing.”
To offer an alternative, Ash launched Wednesday Night Live with just five children. The program offered dinner, free play, Bible stories, prayers and blessings. After a two-year pandemic pause, it roared back and has been “growing exponentially ever since,” Ash said.
That innovative, community-rooted approach recently earned her the 2025 Denman Evangelism Award from the Horizon Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church. The award honors clergy and laity who excel in sharing the gospel in ways that invite others into a relationship with Christ.
A Midweek Break
On Wednesday evenings, KPUMC’s wooded campus, known as Roberts Forest, becomes a sanctuary for children ages preschool through high school – a break from the usual pressures at school.
“I can see it when they get out of the car,” Ash said. “They run into the forest to meet their friends, their shoulders drop by inches, and they finally relax. By midweek, they’re worn out. Here, they don’t have to be number one all the time. They just play, love each other, and pray together.”
What began as an outreach to neighborhood kids has become, for many families, an essential midweek ritual. “They get mad at me now if we don’t pray or bless each other,” she said. “It’s come full circle—these unchurched kids expect it, want it, need it, and relax into it. It’s so healthy.”
Ash’s approach reflects a shift in children’s ministry leadership in North Texas over the past decade, guided by former Bishop Mike McKee, with input from children’s ministry expert Rev. Dr. Leanne Hadley. The focus moved away from counting Sunday attendance to measuring faith engagement—looking to help children develop “faith language” and to share spontaneous stories of God’s presence in their lives.
“The first thing we tried was reminding kids of the truth of who they are: a blessing and a gift from God,” Ash said. “We tell them that over and over again until they believe it—because nobody else tells them that.”
Ash has also led Kessler Quest Summer Camps, a series of themed day camps hosted on the KPUMC campus. Two camps this past summer focused on service, giving children hands-on volunteer, and another focused on animals, including a visit to a lion and tiger rescue in Wylie.
One service camp included a powerful history lesson: a visit to the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House, followed by the Freedman’s Cemetery in Dallas. There, the children learned that more than 10,000 people were buried on the site—without headstones.
“That realization—that Black people and white people have not always been treated the same—was really eye-opening for them,” Ash said. “They couldn’t imagine that kind of thing would happen, and yet they were standing there on top of those graves.”
Ash sees her ministry at KPUMC as more than programming. It’s about creating spaces where children can breathe, belong, and discover God’s love—sometimes without realizing it’s happening.
“I don’t manipulate or craft those moments,” she said. “I just pay attention. When they come to me with their stories of faith, that’s when their hearts are changed. That’s when they’re really moved.”
Rooted in Perkins
A nationally recognized trainer in the A Time for Children ministry method, Ash had been serving in children’s ministry for decades before enrolling at Perkins. She came seeking a deeper biblical foundation.
“I needed a stronger understanding of the Bible so I could tell those stories with integrity,” she said. “My favorite classes were with Dr. Jaime Clark-Soles, who taught me to find what’s in the in-between spaces of the text—the juiciness of those stories—so even kids who don’t care about the Bible might find a connection.”
Her time at Perkins was transformative. “It was a dream I never thought would come true,” Ash said. “It changed my life. I love what I get to do every day, and I hope I get to do it forever and ever.”
The Denman Award is a recognition of that quiet, persistent work -- week after week, camp after camp, blessing after blessing—planting seeds that, in God’s time, will grow.