I am both the storyteller and the subject. My faith story begins with my Grandmother, Shirley. Shirley was in the choir and I sat up in the loft with her by the giant organ on Sundays. I grew up in Calvary Lutheran Church in Southfield. My family lived in Detroit and my mother drove me to Confirmation classes every Wednesday and went to my grandparents nearby each week. Every Sunday we went to worship with my grandparents. My Grandfather walked to and from church and I often joined him on the way back for my grandmother’s tuna fish sandwiches.
My Aunt Meg introduced me to Paul. I was finishing college and he was in his second year of Seminary. She said, I have someone I want you to meet but you can’t until you are ready to get married. Getting married to Paul meant I not only became a wife but a Pastor’s wife. I was immediately embraced by Lutheran Church of the Master when Paul became the Intern the year before we were married. My faith was renewed in a new church family after hibernating for over 10 years. We were married at LCM and returned to Paul’s last year of seminary during our first year of marriage.
In our first year of marriage, I worked for EDS and Paul was taking classes. We were in married housing in apartments and he and his classmate and friend, Ben would cook dinners and run and up and down the stairs to chat or ask the other if they had heard a report on NPR. We formed a Sunday dinner and invited couples to bring a themed meal to our tiny apartments once a month. The community we built was grounded in the Seminary and the next steps of Parish Pastors and spouses.
Ben was the one who explained tithing to me. Paul said this was something we needed to begin practicing and I had no idea what it meant. Ben talked about giving to God, not a church building but always harvesting first to the grace of God to give back what God gives us each and every day. Our family continues to tithe. There is never a question if we can or if there anything left. It is the first bill to be paid followed by the mortgage. It is simply how our family chose to do it.
Being the single mom in the pews with three curious boys in three different congregations was a challenge. We wanted the boys with us to experience worship and the couple early churches Paul served didn’t have a nursery option. Soccer Sundays was not an option in our family. Getting to church every Sunday, getting all 4 of us out on time, was a huge challenge.
As I sit alone in the pews now, I feel the circle that Lutheran Church of the Master has enveloped me in. My new marriage started here, my empty nest is nestled here. I have grown with and through LCM. While we have been a part of every congregation Paul has served, LCM ushered me into that life and holds me tight in my next journey,