Lisa Kubilus Kraus serves part-time as the Interim Pastor at Grove. She also serves as co-Executive Pastor of the Presbytery of Northumberland.

 Lisa lives in Lewisburg, but hails from northeastern Pennsylvania. She was born in Scranton to a Scranton family but grew up in the woods in a place called Mt. Cobb. She graduated from Marywood University (when it was still Marywood College) with a BA in English and certification in Secondary Education. Her journey of faith includes growing up Roman Catholic, some experience with the Pentecostal tradition, and her own personal Reformation at the kitchen table when her husband, Rev. Ryan Kraus, was in seminary. Lisa’s Reformation came through reading and editing seminary papers and sermons for Ryan, whose undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell. A year after Ryan graduated seminary, Lisa began seminary at Columbia Theological Seminary, in Decatur, GA. She quickly transferred and, in 2002, completed her Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary, in Princeton, NJ.  (Never tell God you’re never moving back to New Jersey!) Lisa and Ryan have three young adult children. In her free time, when not talking All Things Church with Ryan, Lisa obsesses over their two standard poodles, Luther Gillespie and Audrey Jean, and practices grandparenting with the neighbors’ adorable children across the street.  

Lynne has served as Director of Cristian Education, Director of the Cherub Choir, and Early Childhood Music Program Facilitator at Grove since the early 1990’s. She and her family came to Grove in 1988 looking for a place to worship while her husband the late Rev. Wallace G Pabst, Jr, was called to institutional ministry.  

Lynne taught Head Start from 1991-2002, served on the faculty of Luzerne County Community College, Nanticoke, PA, from 2002 -2024. Lynne holds an A.B. in psychology and education from Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, with election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society; an M.A. in educational psychology from Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ, with election to the Phi Kappa Phi Society; and a D.Ed.Min from Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and two time recipient of the Julia Abdullah Award for “making Church School hour the most interesting hour of the week.” Lynne is a licensed Kindermusik teacher and a PC(USA) Certified Christian Educator (2005). Lynne is an active member of APCE (Association of Partners in Christian Education) and EAPCE (East Region of the Association of Partners in Christin Education) as well as NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). 

Lynne hails from a legacy of Christian Educators and identifies the Call from God being heard during her confirmation service in 1971 with her first response to that call in high school through a ministry of planning activities for the church childcare room and teaching VBS.  

With 50 years of experience in Christian Education, Lynne’s ministry and study interests continue to include infants and toddlers, music and the brain, children in worship, the role of the church in welcoming the littlest of God’s worshipers, music in worship, and intergenerational faith development. Beyond work, Lynne enjoys crocheting, sewing, gardening, old movies, and “mamawing”.