Karla Spence Kurtz is a nonprofit professional with over 25 years of experience and a storyteller. She uses these skills to help organizations and individuals share their stories and build passion for their mission. Karla has a Master of Public Administration

(MPA) with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Economics from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN.

Karla is a cradle third generation (at least) Methodist and United Methodist and has deep Methodist roots on both sides of her family. The women in her family have been part of the Women’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS), the United Methodist Women (UMW), and now the United Women of Faith (UWF).

She is active in the United Methodist Church and has served in many roles throughout Holston Annual Conference and the districts within, includeing Board Chair at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Wesley Foundation, District President and District Officer for the Oak Ridge District United Methodist Women. She was on the organizing committee for the Domestic Violence Task Force for the Holston Conference and led the effort to write a resolution that mandated training on domestic violence and advocacy for all clergy which was adopted. She is a domestic violence survivor and as a result is a strong advocate for women’s rights and common-sense gun control. In the local church, she has directed Vacation Bible School, taught adult and children’s Sunday School classes, organized trips to Holston’s Resurrection large event for youth groups, and sung with the Oasis contemporary music group. She has also served as a District Delegate-at-Large to Holston Annual Conference.

Her hobbies include geocaching, 4-wheeling in Jeeps, photography, rubber stamping, scrapbooking, reading, and since the pandemic she’s been learning to cook and bake. Originally from Oak Ridge, TN, Karla is married to Rev, Billy Kurtz from the Karns Community outside of Knoxville and they moved in June 2023 to Bluefield, VA, where he now serves at First United Methodist Church. At age 30, she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary form of macular degeneration and is legally blind, but still has very good central vision. Their home is blessed and run by two feline children (rescues Roberto and Willie) plus a neighborhood cat that apparently owns the parsonage, Mako and is self-teaching to be a seeing-eye service cat for Karla.

SPIRITUAL LIFE RETREAT 2024
Saturday, May 11, 2024, 9 am – 12 pm
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Spiritual Revitalization and Healing Thru Guided Meditation

These last few years have brought most of us a tremendous amount of stress and emotional wounds. We get up each day to “take care of business,” but we desperately need a time apart for healing and spiritual renewal. Whether the stress and wounds you carry come from the recent strife within our beloved United Methodist Church, your family, your work, or other places, together we will spend time giving ourselves and others love, grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and peace. We will listen to the still and small voice of God to guide us. We will seek wisdom from other important people in our lives. We will use guided meditations and visualizations to reflect and begin healing and they can become part of our self-care tools going forward.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NRSVUE)

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Items to Have Available for Gathering:

• 4 small rocks/small items/fabric of different materials & textures to use during meditation as a touchstone.

• Communion elements: grape juice and roll/cracker