I grew up on a
farm near Northwood, North Dakota, very active with church and
music activities, while simultaneously doing
all the chores one would expect of a boy on a dairy
farm. I graduated from college at Dakota Wesleyan University in
Mitchell, South Dakota, in 1987. During my senior year I served
as the pastor of Letcher United Church of Christ and Loomis
Congregational Church, small towns in South Dakota.
I moved to
Minneapolis to attend United Theological Seminary of the Twin
Cities and completed my Master of Divinity in 1990. I worked in
an inner city congregation and grew to love urban ministry – it
was an example of the Beloved Community of all races, ages, and
sexual orientations actively engaged in the very real needs of
its neighbors living in poverty. I also served as the interim
pastor of Wishek UCC in North Dakota the summer of 1988.
Half of my
seminary senior year was spent in Washington, DC, at Wesley
Theological Seminary in a program specializing in the
intersections of theology and public policy with students from
around the country. I thrived in DC, so upon graduation I moved
back to work at the UCC Office for Church in Society, where I
interned during the studies the previous year. My particular
responsibility was mobilizing church members around the country
to respond to action alerts about legislative matters the church
was involved with – especially matters of war, nuclear
disarmament, equal rights, and hunger.
In 1991, I
moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to work at the national offices of our
denomination in the Hunger Action Office. During that time I
intended to circulate my profile nationally to seek a call to
serve a local congregation. Little did I know that I would
ultimately spend 16 years in Cleveland.
In 1993 I was
called to serve as the pastor of Archwood
UCC, right in the middle of the city. It was a small, dying
congregation of mostly elderly members. Over the course of 15
years we grew to a vibrant congregation that was racially
diverse – more than 1/3 of the members are African American,
Hispanic, and Asian – Open and Affirming – half LGBT, half
straight – and blessed with lots of children and youth. We
began vital ministries with persons in recovery from drugs and
alcohol, including turning our parsonage into a three-quarter
house for women transitioning to independence. And we became a
church famous in Cleveland for our annual food drive that
included putting me into the 85-foot tall, open-air steeple as a
“hostage” until our front steps were filled with thousands of
pounds of food. For six years I spent 24 hours straight in that
cold, sometimes wet, steeple. Church members began taking turns
with me after six years by myself.
In 14 years, we collected 50,000-60,000 pounds of food, plus
tens of thousands of dollars in cash for our hunger center. We
received ample TV coverage every year, such that people would
come up to me and say, “aren’t you…” but they weren’t sure what
it was they knew me or Archwood
about.
During my years
at Archwood I completed my Doctor of
Ministry degree at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC
and conducted seminal research on the experiences of 59
predominantly-straight UCC churches that had called openly gay
and lesbian pastors. My study is available below for anyone who
wishes to read it – but the brief results include statistics
that churches who called openly gay pastors grew far more
significantly in membership, worship attendance, stewardship,
and size of the Sunday school than the UCC as a whole, which in
most cases actually was in decline during the same period.
In 2007 my
partner Art and I concluded that we were ready for a new stage
in our lives and we had a beautiful church Ceremony to Exchange
Covenant Vows in July. Our decision to have a wedding after six
years together coincided with a feeling that we were ready to
move to a new part of the country. I had for years hoped to
move West to be closer to family so I
began to search for a new church to serve. Almost immediately I
learned about the opening at Park Hill. I submitted my profile
and just a few months later, in August, was offered the position
upon the vote of the congregation. I said a difficult good-bye
to my church family in Cleveland and moved everything to Denver,
starting in my new church in November. Art, with his nephew
Lance, came just a month later after securing a new job.
Part of what
attracted me to Park Hill was their long history of engagement
in racial justice activities in their neighborhood, their
progressive values, years of affirmation of LGBT persons, and
their desire to increase their diversity and membership. Having
served a congregation that began as an all-white,
mostly-elderly, but willing body, I felt that my experience and
gifts would match Park Hill’s needs and hopes. I believe God
brought us together to do just that.
For a further
glimpse into who I am, I spent two
months of my sabbatical in 1999 at a Benedictine monastery in
Pecos, New Mexico. It was a spiritually enriching and
challenging experience unlike any I had had before. It deepened
my faith and expanded my spiritual horizons. I returned for a
few weeks on a second sabbatical in 2005, while I wrote my
doctoral research project, and look forward to being just a few
hours away now that I live in Denver. While in Cleveland I
frequently visited the Benedictine Sisters in Erie,
Pennsylvania, spending several days at a time in one of their
hermitages for reflection and rest.
I also love
music – singing, playing the piano, and, when inspired, writing
music for worship. During the holidays I have fun making
Christmas crafts – baskets, wreaths, etc. – for gifts and for
the church to sell for mission projects.
If you’d like
to know more, just ask! Ask about our senior high youth trip to
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Or…
Just ask.
