Lisa Meilani Plunket

Lisa Meilani Plunket was born January 17, 1959 to Joseph and Norma Lei Noland in
Owensboro, Ky. She passed away at the Joe Raso Hospice facility in New City, NY on May 21,
2025. She was 66 years old.
Visitation will take place at GracePoint Church on Monday, June 2 from 4:30-6:00 PM. A
memorial service will follow at 6:30 PM also at GracePoint. In lieu of flowers please consider
donations in Pastor Lisa Plunket's honor to Risen King Church (risenking.life) or to a ministry
very dear to Lisa's heart, Empower. (empowerww.org)
Lisa has been married to Dr. Michael Plunket for 45 years this summer. Together Lisa and
Michael founded and pastored churches in Mississippi, Mexico City, Atlanta, GA, and New City,
NY. Lisa served with her husband for 21 years as a pastor of Risen King Church in New City,
New York. Lisa was an amazing mom and is survived by a son, Joseph Plunket of Nashville
with his partner, Sara Nelson, and a daughter, Anna Baldwin of Morristown, NJ. Anna is married
to Rev. Brian Baldwin, and they have two children, Ali and Kai, Lisa's cherished grandchildren.
To Ali and Kai Lisa was known as Mimi, and Ali always called Lisa, "her best friend and
teammate forever."
Lisa's surviving family include her Mom, Norma Lei Noland, of Maui, Hawaii, her two sisters,
Karen Gates, also of Maui, and Jill Durham of Paducah, KY, and her three brothers, Charlie,
David, and William. Charlie and David both live in Maui, and William and his family live in
Brooklyn. As well as having a deep love for her siblings, Lisa really loved her two brothers-in-law,
Gary Gates and Steve Durham, and sister- in-law, Katie Noland. She relished being an aunt to all her nieces and nephews,
Ben Noland, Shelby and Noland Durham, Kainoa and Leilani Gates, and Les and Henry Noland. Her dad,
Joseph Noland, passed away in 2017.
Growing up in Owensboro and later in Louisville, Ky, Lisa's mom and dad created a secure and
creative foundation for Lisa's life and ministry. Lisa had such a moral compass and inherited
from her parents a strong sense of integrity in everything she did. She was also encouraged to
be creative and artistic, and she created beauty in everything that she did.
As a student at Western Kentucky University she studied History and Bible. Her college studies
prepared her to be a teacher and preacher of the Word of God. Lisa loved to study the Bible,
and then to share her gleanings with the church, at conferences, and even in international
settings at schools, churches, and national conferences. Her sermons and lessons were like
works of art, creative and yet full of rich Biblical scholarship. All of her teaching flowed from her
deep intimacy with Christ. As a college student one of her roommates was a prayer warrior,
often weeping over a map of the world, praying for those who had never heard the gospel. That
kind of prayer and intercession captured Lisa's heart. She was able to accomplish so much in
ministry, but her primary calling was to pray and to teach others to pray. She was the first
student and later one of the early leaders of the College of Prayer International. Through COP
she taught people how to prayer all over the world. She led a prayer time in Arua, Uganda in
2007 where three thousand people responded to the invitation to follow Jesus. It was one of
the highlights of her ministry as she prayed, an Acts 2 Pentecost type experience took place in
an open field. As she prayed heaven came and glory filled the open air meeting.
For 21 years she has ministered in different capacities at Risen King Church in New City. She
restarted the children's ministry as a result of clear guidance from the Lord. As a result
hundreds of children have had life changing encounters with the Lord. For many years she
developed small groups as the church was experiencing growth in numbers, and she created
all the curriculum for those small groups. She would pray and ask God, "How do I effectively
pastor your people?" She would hear from God and form a strategy, writing curriculum,
devotionals, workbooks. Always developing a multi-faceted approach to discipling the
congregation in spiritual formation and development. The apostle Paul wrote that he
experienced birth pangs that Christ would be formed in the people that he loved and pastored.
This was Lisa's heart for the people of Risen King Church. Her writings and strategies were
transformational for all who engaged in them.
One of Lisa's greatest passions was to develop women as leaders and ministers. She
strategized and collaborated with Dr. Wanda Walborn, her best friend, to start a ministry that
would do just that. And what a powerful and effective ministry was created. Women all over the
world are being developed and trained. Lisa loved Empower and the Empower women. As
incredibly gifted as Lisa was, she was always such a humble servant of Jesus. In the Empower
program she was one of the professors, a mentor, and one of the favorite speakers, but she
went through the program herself, did all the assignments and graduated.
In 2018 a large tumor was found in Lisa's abdomen. She was diagnosed with a rare form of
cancer called GIST. Throughout her treatment she fought courageously. She continued all her
ministry roles until 2023 when she underwent a third operation and began a chemotherapy that
was very difficult. Through it all she loved to travel, especially with Ron and Wanda Walborn.
She walked every day 2-3 miles around Nyack. She loved living in Nyack. Downsizing in 2023
to an apartment in Nyack, she created the most beautiful apartment just as she had always
done, making everything lovely around her.
She entered hospice on September 9, having fought the good fight, but having exhausted all
her strength. In her last conversation with her family she asked if she needed to do more or
pray more so that more people would find their way to Jesus. It was her time to rest. Her work
on Earth was done. She began declaring: I feel the rest of God, the peace of God, and the
victory of God. She look up to the ceiling and stretched out her hand and said, "Jesus, you
have made a way for me." On May 21, 2025 at 12:46 AM she passed peacefully into the arms
of her savior.