The Rev. Dr. Susan E. Crane served Interim Ministries-ABC from 2000 to 2002 as a Commissioned Woman Interim , a special program of IM-ABC in partnership with American Baptist Woman in Ministry (ABWIM), the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB), and the American Baptist Churches of selected Regions. Rev. Crane was assigned to the First Baptist Church of Gardiner, Maine as Interim Pastor. Her duties also included advocacy for women in ministry throughout the American Baptist Churches of Maine. Working with women in preparation for ministry and with churches "not ready" to call women to be their pastors convinced Dr. Crane that a Bible Study resource was needed to help both pastors and lay leaders in local churches to understand that God does call women into pastoral ministry.
From March through June, 2002, Rev. Crane served the American Baptist Churches of Maine (ABCOM) full time as an Advocate for Women in Ministry, visiting churches in character as Junia, and writing and testing the Bible Study resource at two different churches. Ordained in 1977, Rev. Crane has been the pastor of churches in New York State and Massachusetts; presently, she is Pastor of the Henderson Memorial Baptist Church in Farmington, Maine.