Banking on a
local church R. Mark Taylor, raised Episcopalian, for a while joined his wife, Clara, at a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod congregation and school, where she worked. “When I naively and publicly celebrated ELCA Lutherans tackling the difficult ques- tion of human sexuality, I was told: ‘Wrong Lutherans,’ ” he said.
A move to Montana brought him to the local bank. “A teller asked if we went to church. … She informed us there was a little Lutheran church just six miles from town.” Sure enough, tiny Barber, Mont., had a little white church, but the sign said, “Reverend Kristi Bummer, pastor.” Wrong Lutherans again? Nope. Once in the door “it was as if we had attended our whole lives,” he said. Taylor eventually entered the Theological Education for Emerging Ministry program, an alternate route to ordination, and “served the parish that raised us up” until 2012. Now he is pastor of Plentywood [Mont.] Lutheran Church.
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belonged. I still feel that way, nearly 50 years later.” Frank C. Perry Sr., born into a devout Southern Baptist
family, was walking home from school and past Kimball Memorial Lutheran, Kannapolis, N.C., in 1935 as a truck was unloading the church’s new organ. His piano teacher, also the church organist, was there. As a 9-year-old piano student, he not only began prac- ticing on the organ but was soon substitute organist. “My teacher insisted that the console not be locked because, as he put it, ‘Organs deteriorate more from lack of use than overuse,’ ” Perry said. Fast forward to age 90. Perry, a member of Holy Trinity in Chapel Hill, N.C., has been a church organist and pas- tor: “It’s a pleasure now to claim [Lutheran] as my church and to have served it in various ways for over 60 years.” When Christopher “Kit” Hutchinson got his first full-time teaching job in Little Falls, N.Y., there wasn’t a United Methodist church in town. One of his students invited him to her confirmation at Holy Trinity Evangeli- cal Lutheran Church around the corner from his apart- ment—he has stayed ever since. That student presented him to the congregation for Hutchinson’s affirmation of baptism when he officially joined.
“God has given me this gift of grace and a faith com- munity … I also get to play my ukulele with the praise band,” he said.
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www.thelutheran.org
Jim Ketchum was a college sophomore at Michigan State University, East Lansing, when a young woman invited him to University Lutheran. He had no church background but had accepted Jesus via a Billy Graham crusade on TV.
“My relationship with the woman ended, but by then the church had a hold on me that has never wavered,” said the member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Port Huron, Mich. “Wherever we have lived, the church has become a family with whom we have shared our joys and where we have found a very present help in times of trouble and deep sorrow. It provided the start in life for our three chil- dren, and it continues to stand them in good stead. “The ELCA is not perfect—no denomination is. But the church provides the spiritual nourishment I need to continue on this journey of life. It has seen me thus far, and it will see me until the day I stand in the Lord’s presence.”
Author bio: Sevig, a section editor for The Lutheran, is grateful to all who responded to the reader call, and although only a portion were used, all were read and helped shape this story.
LEA BARRICK
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