The Rev. Karen Gygax-Rodriguez has received the 2007 Ministers Council Ralph Garfield Schell President’s Award for Excellence in the Ministry. The award was announced by Ministers Council President Alice Burnette Greene at the Ministers Council Senate concluding banquet on August 14. She was nominated by the Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin, the Rev. Dr. Arlo Reichter.
The President's Award was instituted in 1996 as the recognition of a member of a local Ministers Council who seems to be extraordinarily faithful in carrying out the principles of the Ministers Council Code of Ethics, as well as unusually effective in fulfilling the objectives of the five committees of our structure..." The award is announced annually, and usually at the closing banquet of the American Baptist Ministers Council Senate.
The Rev. Gygax-Rodriguez has served as Pastor of the Federated Church in Green Lake, Wisconsin, since 1996. She is recognized for her many gifts, including worship leadership and singing.
She has led her congregation in several new initiatives, including the region’s New Church/New Century, which has brought outstanding leaders to resource her congregation. She was a member of the visioning team for the Center for Excellence in Congregational Leadership program at Green Lake and participated in class one of CECL. Recently she has led her congregation in dealing redemptively with a difficult situation regarding a registered sexual offender.
The congregation is affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA, United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. The Rev. Gygax-Rodriguez is American Baptist and has also maintained appropriate connections with the other denominations.
Her home church is First Baptist, Waukesha, Wisconsin. She is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and Colgate Rochester Divinity School, New York. She has also studied in Universitad Autonoma of Mexico in Mexico City.