Lee Roorda Schott

Author. Pastor. Speaker.

About the Author

Since July 2024, Lee has been serving as pastor of Collegiate United Methodist Church & Wesley Foundation in Ames, Iowa, following four years serving Valley United Methodist Church in West Des Moines.

A pastor, author, and speaker, Lee believes the church is called to be a place
where everyone belongs and relationships are foundational. Her ministry is
shaped by a conviction that faith is lived out in authentic community—where we
speak truth to one another, honor healthy boundaries, and take responsibility for
repair and reconciliation. She believes this kind of shared life is both deeply
pastoral and quietly revolutionary.

Lee didn’t originally plan to be a pastor. After growing up on her family’s century
farm near Prairie City, Iowa, she went to the University of Iowa and Harvard Law
School and practiced law for fifteen years before following God’s unexpected call
into ministry. After seminary at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, she
was ordained an elder in The United Methodist Church in 2009. Her ministry has
included local congregations as well as nine years at Women at the Well, a church
inside the Iowa women’s prison, where her understanding of grace, justice, and
community was profoundly shaped.

Lee is the author of Foolish Church: Messy, Raw, Real, and Making Room and its
companion study guide, The Fools’ Manual. Her writing and teaching invite the
church to risk vulnerability, stand against injustice, and include voices too often
pushed to the margins. Across all her work, she encourages us to resist fear-based
faith and instead practice a discipleship rooted in love, accountability, and hope.
Grounded in the Wesleyan tradition and animated by a deep trust in God’s
ongoing work, Lee is passionate about helping people follow Jesus in a complex
and divided world. She lives in Ames with her husband Daniel and their springer
spaniel Francis. Their three grown sons and amazing daughters-in-law live in
central Iowa, with a granddaughter on the way. In her spare time, Lee enjoys
reading, puzzles, genealogy, heartfelt conversations, and planning travel.

Lee was appointed to Collegiate/Wesley in 2024, and is beyond grateful to be part
of leading a church committed to faithful worship (including tremendous music),
courageous leadership, and the slow, holy work of becoming more fully who God
calls us to be.

Prior publications

  • Lee Schott, Job, Immersion Bible Studies (Abingdon Press, 2011). You can check it out on Amazon here.
  • Lee Schott, “Preaching the Church toward Robustness,” in Doxology:  A Journal of Worship, Vol. 24 (Order of Saint Luke, 2007).
  • “The Pamela Rae Stewart Case and Fetal Harm:  Prosecution or Prevention?,” Recent Development, in Harvard Women’s Law Journal, Vol. 11 (Spring 1988), 227.

Some links

Lee was featured among the Des Moines’ Register’s 2018 “People to Watch” with a great profile about her work at Women at the Well. You can check it out here.

If you’d like to learn more about Women at the Well, which was so formative for Lee, here’s a link to their website!