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Kay Balderose

balderose_kay.jpg“I grew up in the Presbyterian Church, but Jesus was just an historical figure to me,” says Kay Balderose. It wasn’t until her freshman year at Westminster College in the early 1970s that Kay recognized that going to church didn’t make her a Christian.

“My roommate Louise was a born-again Christian,” she remembers. “I would come home from fraternity parties and she would be reading her Bible, and I thought she was one of the weirdest people I had ever met. But she didn’t judge me, she just accepted me. She invited me to Christian fellowship meetings where I started noticing a difference between Louise and her Christian friends and the drunken kids at the frat parties I was attending.”

Kay attended the Chatham Center Weekend in 1973, which was a precursor to the CCO’s annual Jubilee conference. “It was amazing to be in that hotel which was overrun by college kids. Just being able to see how many other Christian college students were out there—who believed and were excited about it—was a really great, powerful experience.”

She enjoyed getting to know Christian students from other schools, and listening to speakers like RC Sproul and Terry Thomas, and Christian musicians Noel Paul Stookey and Phil Keaggy. “Terry and Natalie did a workshop on sexual purity, and I still have the notes and a cassette tape, with all of the Scripture references. I’ve used it in my work with young people since.”

Today, Kay is Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, where she lives with her husband, professional bagpiper George Balderose.

After graduating in 1976 with a degree in mathematics, Kay worked as a computer programmer for three years, and then realized that what she really wanted to do was “help people and tell people about the joy of Jesus.” Even though she was already doing that in her workplace, she sensed a call to fulltime ministry.

Kay went to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and while raising her family, she pursued part-time jobs in women’s ministry, Christian education, and as editor of a Christian web magazine. In 2002, she was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, and in 2009, she assumed her current position.

And she points back to her college years as foundational for the faith she still practices today.

“The whole Christian experience at Westminster really changed my life,” Kay says. “I moved from the hedonistic, pleasure-seeking, wild and crazy college lifestyle to realizing that because of Jesus, I was a worthwhile person and I had value. Students who knew me as a senior didn’t believe the stories of what I was like as a freshman, I had changed so much! I have always had such a burden on my heart for college kids and such gratitude for those adults, whoever they were, who came to campus and talked to us about Jesus. The decision to live for Christ changed everything.”