Dear Westwood family, This coming Sunday August 6th, Pastor Diana and I will be speaking in The Loft about the role and importance of creating a community where all people - including our children - feel like they belong. In my preparation for this Sunday I...
Greetings Westwood Community, I'm getting ready for a family trip to France, which I'm pretty excited about. Vacation planning is one of my favorite hobbies, and I've been working on this one for a while. We have the privilege of traveling as tourists, with the assurance of...
Greetings Westwood Community, Last week, I visited my parents' home in Colorado, and then drove from there to the farm my dad grew up on in central Nebraska. I visited to help host our annual Field Day for the non-proft Grain Place Foundation we started to...
Dear Westwood Church family, Every summer in The Loft - well, every summer since I have been here! - we spend a few months reflecting on one of the four value-pillars that inform the life of our worship community. Those values are Compassion, Conversation, Belonging, and Decolonization, and...
Dear Westwood Church family, While hanging out with my family yesterday, I ended up laying back on a grassy lawn, grateful for the shade from a tree that covered me, and for the breeze blowing by. Plus, the leaves of the tree were lovely as they...
Dear Westwood Church family, I had an incredible experience last week, with young people from our church participating in the Sierra Service Project on the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. I'm inspired by our Grapplers, who showed commitment and compassion during the experience. On our way home, we stopped...
Dear Westwood Church family, While Pastor Molly is away with our youth, she invited me to write the pastoral note this week. Earlier I had made the list below at the behest of my adult children who have me writing each week for Storyworth. I’ve been...
Dear Westwood Church family, This week, our regional church gathers for our Annual Conference; our theme this year, "Nourish," responds to the vision we've named together: "Ending Spiritual and Physical Hunger." I'm always glad to connect with old friends at Conference, including leaders from churches who helped...
Dear Westwood Church family, This Sunday, in the Church calendar, we begin "Ordinary Time." I've always found the name of this season, which stretches all the way from Trinity Sunday to past Thanksgiving at the first Sunday of Advent, amusing. It amuses me because of the...
Dear Westwood Church family, "Do all in your power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love." These words are spoken to the gathered community as a part of the baptism liturgy in our United Methodist Church. Last Sunday, they were spoken in...