Hello, Dear Church!
I just reached an interesting benchmark in time. Beginning this week, I have spent more time serving as the Senior Pastor of LCC than I spent in my first pastoral call at the First Congregational Church of Ripon, Wisconsin– five years and nine months. I haven’t been counting down all this time, but it recently occurred to me that it must be coming up, so I did the math.
Time is always strange. As with most life stories, it feels like just yesterday and forever ago at the same time. Sometimes I feel brand new to Lakewood. There are cultural nuances, expectations, and relationship dynamics I still don’t quite get. It will take me at least 20 more years to understand how the light switches in the staircases and hallways are supposed to sync up, and why I always get it wrong. Other times, I feel like I’ve always been here, like I’ve touched every corner of the building, and every person in this family of faith is woven into my heart.
I am so very, very glad that God brought me here to LCC, and I hope and expect that we’ll have many more years together. Even so, I do still miss the “Body of Christ” that gathered at the top of a hill in small-town Wisconsin. The steeple, original to an 1865 church building, can be seen from any point in the town. The people in Ripon were the ones who watched me fumble through my first Baptisms, first funerals, first stewardship campaigns as a pastor. They held my babies when they were teeny tiny bundles. My current experiences with the “Give, Gather, Grow” Capital Campaign here at LCC are causing me to reflect on the “Sacred Space Renewal” Capital Campaign we did in Ripon. We worked hard together to raise the funds to fully renovate and preserve an historic sanctuary, repair the pipe organ, and install a new roof. We finished the campaign and re-dedicated the sanctuary when I was 36 weeks pregnant with our sweet Suzette Luise in May of 2016, around the time you all were watching the Cavs head into the NBA Championship.
I’m not sharing this in a spirit of sadness or longing to return. I’m sharing it in the spirit of the line in our “Reception of New Members liturgy,” which reads, “We give thanks for every community of faith that has been your spiritual home.” Church communities play such a unique role in our lives. There is nothing quite like the people you sing with, pray with, covenant with, discern with. I am so thankful for my “spiritual homes.”
I am also grateful for each one of your spiritual homes that have brought you to this time and place. I call them “the churches of my heart.” I invite you to take a bit of time to think of those places– church, chapel, camp, place in nature– whatever they might be. Name them aloud. Write them down. Thank God for the ways each place has shaped and formed your faith, even if they are no longer the place for you.
With Grace and Peace,
Pastor Joanna
I keep these wooden church pieces in my office. I call them the “Churches of my heart.” From left: The First Congregational Church of Berea, where I was raised; Eden Seminary; St. Vincent-de-Paul Catholic Church, where I was married; The First Congregational Church of Ripon, and Lakewood Congregational Church. The Communities of faith that have been my spiritual home.