Amber Eaton

Rev. Amber (Hinebaugh) Eaton was born in 1979 in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, her family attended a local Baptist church, and Amber participated in Awana, youth group, and other church activities. When she was fourteen, her father lost his job at Hughes Aircraft, and his sister and brother-in-law invited them to join them at Navigators Africa Partners. After a period of remote work, Amber’s family moved to Minnesota. Their first winter there was the coldest on record, with the most snow ever. This was a difficult transition for a teenager!

Amber’s cousins attended an Evangelical Free Church, where Amber met Jim Eaton, and the two became fast friends. As a fundraiser for a mission trip, Amber and Jim were part of a church show that included singing, drama, puppets, and more. Practices and performances meant that the two were spending three to four days a week together. Jim wanted to be a youth pastor, and when he asked Amber what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said she knew would be a pastor’s wife.

Amber couldn’t remember ever being taught that women could not be pastors or preach, but this restriction pervaded the culture of every church she attended. The only time she saw a woman on stage at a church was the worship team. She learned that women were supposed to be at home taking care of the house and children.

In 2001 Jim and Amber were married. In 2007, while Jim was in seminary, they began to seek a church where Jim could serve, candidating at three, including one in McPherson, Kansas. Amber recalls that initially she resisted going to “podunk Kansas,” but the Eatons fell in love with the people and the town. Every month the wives of area pastors got together. The first time Amber attended this gathering, the group read a book about how to support your pastor husband. Amber didn’t fit that mold. She was not the cookie cutter pastor’s wife she was “supposed” to be. It was then she realized that she wanted to be doing what Jim was doing. 

While Jim was in seminary, one of his professors, Klyne Snodgrass taught a class on women in ministry called “Women, the Bible, and the Church.” Amber read all the assigned course books and edited all of Jim’s papers. This was what she wanted. 

Following Jim’s graduation from North Park Seminary, the Eatons moved to Covenant Cedars Bible camp and then to Salina, Kansas, where Jim took a pastoral position at a Covenant congregation where a woman had preached only two times in its history—both times that woman was Rev. Tammy Swanson-Draheim. Yet they felt a shift in the climate because the congregation had a woman on staff as pastor of discipleship. Unfortunately, however, this woman resigned two weeks after Jim started. The church invited Dr. Klyne Snodgrass to teach about women in pastoral ministry but would not let him preach about it on Sunday. A Sunday night dinner drew about one hundred people—but from those who supported women in ministry. 

In 2016 when Amber watched Jim walk across the Annual Meeting stage to be ordained, God told her she would be next. In 2019 then-superintendent Rev. Tammy Swanson-Draheim announced a retreat for women who were sensing a call to ministry. Jim encouraged Amber to go. On her way to the retreat she turned the car around twice. “Yes this is what I want to do…no way can I do this. No way we can afford seminary.”

Amber learned about a new opportunity for seminary study through North Park Seminary—the Equip Cohort, sponsored by the Northwest Conference, making seminary study accessible. The other barrier Amber encountered was her own educational background—she only had a ninth-grade education. However, she learned from the North Park admissions counselor that seminary accreditation allowed “special student” admissions for older students who had extensive ministry experience. Boy did she have life experience! Even so, Amber kept telling herself she wasn’t smart enough—that she hadn’t written a paper since ninth grade.

After a second retreat for women pastors and women considering a call to pastoral ministry, “Called, Gifted, Here to Stay,” Amber heard God telling her to call North Park. After refusing for a time, Amber finally contacted North Park to express her interest. After completing the application, Amber was accepted into the first Equip Cohort. The whole family celebrated! Amber graduated with her Master of Arts in Christian Formation May 2024 at the age of forty-five.

In 2021, Amber and Jim began to pursue co-pastoring opportunities within the Midwest Conference. After being offered role in Iowa, Amber shared with Superintendent Tammy that they hoped to move to Colorado to be near Amber’s aging parents. The very next day Amber and Jim received an invitation to replant Agape (Faith Covenant) church in Colorado Springs as co-pastors. Miracle? Yes! Amber and Jim said yes to this small church who didn’t think God was done with them yet—and none of us have looked back. They moved to Colorado Springs in September of 2022. 

When Amber and Jim came, we were a church of about ten to fifteen people, including children. We are now—as The Well Covenant Church—a congregation of around forty-five. God is performing many miracles through this small church who serving their community. Thank you, Jesus, for all you have done for us in the last three years. What a blessing Amber and Jim are to us.