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...
Dear Westwood Church family, Today's a big day in the Methodist Church calendar: Aldersgate Day. It was on May 24, 1738 that John Wesley, an Anglican Priest in England, attended a gathering of Moravians in Aldersgate, London, England. As they were reading from Martin Luther's preface...
Dear Westwood Church family, Singing and music have long been a foundation part of our worship; next to the Bible, our hymn books have shaped our theology and our community at least since early Methodists printed some of the first English-language hymn books that were designed...
Dear Westwood Church family, One of the reasons I need church most every week is that it helps me stay grounded in hope, and open to possibilities. I know that churches haven't always cultivated open-hearted hope; we have sometimes let fear, grief, and anxiety distort the message...
Dear Westwood Church family, This past Sunday, our Westwood Kids participated in a Toy Swap; they did so after hearing about how early Christians shared all that they had, as described in the book of Acts. I was moved to hear about what happened on Sunday...
Dear Westwood Church family, I was on a call this afternoon with board members of the Foundation that operates my extended family's organic farm in central Nebraska. I found the conversations -- about planting red oak trees, new calves being born, and the need for rain...
Dear Westwood Church family, Last Sunday in the Loft, our band led us in singing words written by St. Francis of Assisi, from the familiar hymn, "All Creatures of our God and King." It's wild to think that these beautiful, poetic words are more than 800...
This week, our Note from the Pastor comes from Pastor Diana Holbert. Rev. Dr. Holbert is an ordained elder in the UMC, who led congregations in the Dallas area before retiring to LA. Lucky for us, her commitment to ministry with children drew her out of...
Dear Westwood Church family, I am excited to invite you to participate in our Easter celebrations this year; this is such a meaningful time to experience the grace-filled hope of our faith, as a community. It’s such a gift to gather together, to claim hope and embody...
The prophet Micah describes a vision for peace with compelling details: then, we will sit under our vines and fig trees, unafraid. We will know security and taste its sweetness. In preparation for that hopeful moment, the people of the world will "beat swords into...
This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District has closed our schools for three days; a strike by the lowest-paid school workers, and supported by our teachers' union, left the school district unable to open safely. With the schools closed, I'm grateful that my twelve-year-old is...
This week, Claremont School of Theology finalized and announced their plan to relocate to our campus this summer. I am excited that this news is now public, and glad for the possibilities it opens up for our congregation and the school. I wanted to share...