Dear Church,  A couple weeks ago, I attended a memorial service for a 94 year old member of the church I grew up in. Shirley and her late husband Ross were often greeters or coffee hour hosts, and served in various committee roles at the First Congregational...

Dear Church,  At Lakewood Congregational Church, we continue to be in a season of transition, discernment, and visioning, while remaining grounded and steadfast in our primary purpose– witnessed to in our mission statement– We strive to be a welcoming, worshiping...

Dear Church,  It was so wonderful to celebrate our Social Hall and Kitchen renovation at the Annual Meeting on February 16th! This huge project has been such a great joy. Both the process and the outcome are strengthening our church and our community in wonderful...

Dear Church,  Every few years, the First Sunday of Advent happens the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This is one of those years. If I’m honest, I much prefer the years with a nice little week in-between, but the Creator of Time didn’t consult me first. So here we...

Dear Church,  As I write, I’m listening to many loud noises coming from our social hall— the beautiful sound of contractors working hard to make our dream into a reality. We’re a little over a month into the renovation of our Social Hall, Kitchen, and West...

Dear Church, I've been stuck in some sort of writer's block for about 2-3 years. You see and hear my writing a lot, so it might be hard to understand. It's not a complete inability to write; it's more like a heavy pressure, or a lack of ease. I don’t like it. ...

Dear Church, I love June for many reasons– school is out, my porch is ready for sitting, it’s my wedding anniversary, and our Suzie’s birthday. But maybe what puts it over the top is that I really, really love celebrating Pride Month.  Pride Month is not exactly...

Dear Church Family, THANK YOU! As of May 2, 2024 our campaign commitments total $1,578,662. That is 98% of our goal of $1.6 Million in commitments which will be fulfilled over the next 3-5 years. Those gifts come from about 125 households, with a median commitment of...

Dear Church Family, I won’t say it was a gift to stay home with Covid on Easter morning this year, but it was a gift to see the way LCC was able to continue moving with both Rev. Catherine and myself out of commission. A strong, healthy church is one in which the...

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...