Trailblazing LLUMC Minister Chronicles Journey of Faith

The Rev. Donna Whitehead faced many Dallas area first and learned, ‘I Am Enough’

During a time when most women were discouraged from entering ministry, the Rev. Donna Whitehead forged her own path, opening doors, minds, and hearts through joyous enthusiasm, inclusive love, and a passionate pursuit of personal growth resources.

She was among the first women ordained in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, the first woman to join the staff Highland Park UMC — doing so as an intern – and the first woman pastor to help launch what is today one of the largest churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Whitehead, the associate pastor of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, explores her faith journey in I Am Enough: A Memoir for Spiritual Seekers, which was released this fall.

“In her memoir, Rev. Whitehead courageously and boldly proclaims, ‘I Am Enough!’ — three of the most important words a clergy woman can hear,” said Bishop Cynthia Harvey of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. “In a real, vulnerable, and humble spirit, Donna helps us join hands as we travel the journey together and proclaim along the way that ‘We Are Enough!’”

The Rev. Stan Copeland, senior pastor of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, has worked alongside Whitehead for nearly 25 years.

“I am but one who could say I have never witnessed anyone who joyfully experiences ministry more than Donna Whitehead,” he said. 

In her memoir, Whitehead takes readers from her upbringing in an idyllic but confining small town in Louisiana to her highly desired role — she thought — as a homemaker and mother in the 1960s in suburban Dallas where her engineer husband took a job at Texas Instruments. 

But her life took a dramatic turn after a Jewish rabbi’s class set her on a spiritual path that continues 50 years later.

Whitehead, who has a Master of Divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology at SMU, has made a career of defying expectations and endured her share of hardships, from people who didn’t believe women should be ministers, to her internal struggles with her faith.

Yet she pushed on — from helping build Custer Road UMC in Plano from the ground up, to helping anchor an established church at Lovers Lane UMC, and in recent years to witnessing the ordination of one of the UMC’s first ministers from the LGBTQ community. 

“Through trials and tribulations, connecting with God’s love became the one constant in my life, and it can be for you, too,” Whitehead said. 

She hopes her memoir will empower readers to discover their faith anew and examine the biases and blind spots that keep them separated from God and from others.

“You have no worth to prove because you are already enough,” she said. “Together, we are enough!”