My faith journey has led me here, while I believe the Lord has a plan and a reason for me to be here. I also know that the reason I am here in this wonderful community is all of the kind and welcoming people. I grew up Catholic went to Catholic schools into my high school years. I was a junior lector, head altar boy, and assisted my mother as the church sacristan. I was very involved with the church, the lessons of Jesus and the people of Saint Joseph’s church in Chicago Heights spiritually filled my cup.
In 1991 the Chicago archdiocese decided to close several churches and my small church and school were amongst them. I was devastated it was the only spiritual home I had ever known.
We attended a new church and I began studying at a new Catholic school. We were not as involved in our new church. I didn’t read or serve at services. I never really felt embraced or accepted in this new community. As time went on, we attended less and less frequently and as the Catholic church and my ideas of love and acceptance seemed to grow further and further apart I stopped attending service altogether. For years I would stop by different denominations, churches of all sizes and in different communities and nothing felt like home.
There is a balance to welcoming new people to your community. Often when I tried a new church, I was either completely ignored or immediately pounced on and asked to fill out documents with my new member information. It was either underwhelming or completely overwhelming.
My wife and I were new to the area and still didn’t have a spiritual home. I was skeptical, I hadn’t had a regular place of worship for over thirty years now, in fact I believed I wouldn’t find one again. We heard good things about Bethany Lutheran in Crystal Lake and we decided to give it a try.
The service was refreshing, familiar enough to feel right but the little things that made it feel different enough to spark my interest. A female lead Pastor was something I wasn’t used to but I appreciated the change. After service we were warmly welcomed and invited to coffee and snacks at community hour. We weren’t pressured for membership we were just given pleasant conversation and an invite to come back again. It sounds simple, and it is, it was effortless. It’s the natural kindness, and understanding I have become accustomed to here at Bethany and it’s the driving factor behind us eventually joining Bethany a year later.
I say all this to bring it back to what we are voting on in a couple of weeks at our congregational meeting. Take all the rhetoric and talking points aside, what this RIC vote is really about is people. Just like I was several years ago without a spiritual home. They may be beginning to doubt they will ever find a spiritual home. All people deserve to have a community. I know what it’s like to feel that void in your heart not having a community to embrace you. That’s really the bottom line, we are making ourselves publically known as a place of warm welcoming and respect.
It is not in our nature to be boastful or to speak about ourselves so allow me to say it for us. Bethany Lutheran Church is a pillar of our community and one of several influential congregations in our Synod. We are a leading contributor to our local Lutheran faith community. We are out front when there is need in our community showing that with enough kindness and compassion we can weather any storm.
That’s why this vote and this designation is so important not just for us but for our greater community at large. When Bethany Lutheran does something it gets attention, it sets an example. I want everyone to have the opportunity to see what drew me back into a faith community this genuine love and compassion for other people that can’t be faked or rehearsed. We can show everyone how to truly live by the words of inclusion and equality, and we do naturally here everyday. It is who we are and it’s long overdue that everyone else gets to know about it.
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