Lisa Caine, 2001-2016

The Rev. Lisa Caine was a third-career pastor. She was a college English instructor at Tift College in Forsyth and Union College in Barbourville, Ky. before becoming a medical office administrator for a group medical practice in Atlanta.

After the death of her husband Bruce in 1992, she answered the call to ministry in 1993, graduating magna cum laude from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in 1997. She was ordained a probationary deacon in 1997 and an elder in full connection in 1999. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English from Georgia State University, and a master’s of divinity from Candler.

Caine served four years as the pastor of the Corinth-Pentecost Charge in Winder before coming to Oconee Street UMC in 2001. Through her first eight years at Oconee Street, she also served as director of Athens Urban Ministry, best known for operating Our Daily Bread, a weekday feeding program for the hungry in Athens. In 2010 Caine retired from Action Urban Ministry and focused on her pastorship duties at Oconee Street until her retirement in June 2016.

Caine led the rebuilding of the Oconee Street UMC sanctuary after an April 2013 fire decimated the sanctuary building and greatly damaged the education building.

Pastor Caine’s sermons often focused on issues of social justice, with an emphasis on putting the Bible into action in society.