The Rev. Beth Maynard grew up unchurched in Nashville, Tennessee. After a conversion to Christ in her late teens, she worked first in classical music publishing and then as director of the Salem Mission, a shelter for homeless women and men. Ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1994, she has served as a congregational pastor and as a college chaplain in West Virginia and Massachusetts, most recently as Rector of Good Shepherd in Fairhaven, MA.
She currently heads up Mill Street House, an intentional Christian community in a low-income neighborhood of Beverly, and is an adjunct instructor in liturgy and spirituality at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Along with pamphlets and sermons on themes of social justice, spiritual formation and stewardship, she has also published three books: Meditations for Lay Eucharistic Ministers, the collaboration The Bread of Life: A Cookbook for Body and Soul, and an anthology of sermons in dialogue with U2 songs, Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog. She has been married for 25 years to Mark Dirksen, a Realtor and organist.
The Rev. Maynard holds a B.A. from Amherst College, an M.Div. from Boston University School of Theology, and a Certificate of Advanced Theological Study from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.