Telling the Story of LaSalle Street Church

What comes to mind for you when you hear the words “LaSalle Street Church?”

Is it the faces of people you’ve met at LaSalle? Is it the sanctuary where we worship? Do you remember certain moments of service or praise that were especially meaningful for you? 

When you hear the words “LaSalle Street Church,” you might also picture our church logo or website. For the last many months, we’ve been working to update our church’s visual identity, covering all the ways we communicate who we are to the world. (I’ve been thankful to be part of the team, with Rev Liz and Lucas, working diligently to develop these updates. It’s been about 15 years since LaSalle’s last significant visual update!) Maybe you spotted updated designs for things like our Connect Cards or our social media posts in the last few weeks. Today’s newsletter features enhancements to make our communication more effective and fun. Soon, you’ll discover a renovated website, carefully crafted to serve the needs of people exploring LaSalle for the first time, in addition to the ways we all rely on our website for church info and livestream access.

At the heart of our updated visual identity is a refreshed logo for LaSalle Street Church. Our staff worked with an external designer who listened carefully through many conversations to help us express who we are today.

Take a few minutes to reflect on the logo with me. (Bear with me—whether you care deeply about graphic design or couldn’t care less, let’s take advantage of this opportunity to reflect on our visual identity to the world!)

Start with the words: “LaSalle Street Church,” has been our church’s name since 1973. Below it is the statement of identity we’ve used to describe ourselves for the last year: Expansive faith. Generous community. Invested in God’s justice. (You might consider clicking those links to revisit last year’s sermon series about these identity statements). Notice how the fonts convey a sense of vintage authenticity, modern innovation, and a joyful, playful ease.

Reflect on the round logo icon: At first glance, you might recognize it as a modernized evolution of our previous round logo. The shape is inspired by the top of our “Good Shepherd” window on the sanctuary’s east wall, and the black lines allude to that stained glass inspiration.

Consider it a little longer. We call this our “lotus” logo, and the lotus is a flower with symbolic significance across many major religions, including Christianity. The colorful brilliance of lotus blossoms against the murky waters in which they thrive makes them a meaningful image of life and resurrection. Their seeds are remarkably hardy, capable of lasting many centuries and then taking root when planted in the right conditions. LaSalle’s round lotus logo captures that sense of new life and rootedness.

Let your imagination wander. Notice the spectrum of vivid colors, reflecting our church’s commitment to multi-denominational, multi-generational, multi-ethnic life together. Notice how the black lines weave in and out, intersecting with each other, like the intersecting roads on a map of Chicago, or all the different identities and experiences and perspectives we hold in beautiful tension. Notice how the colors here are also represented in our Sunday rhythms, a subtle symbol of our church’s monthly worship life together. Notice the round exterior, how we are surrounded and hemmed in by the love of God into an integrated wholeness.

It’s my strong conviction that who we are matters much more than the visual identity we share with the world. Plenty of churches hide bad teaching and toxic theology behind the glow of a flashy website. (Scripture has a lot to say about what matters most to God.) Nevertheless, the way we communicate, both explicitly and implicitly, is an opportunity to tell others and to remind ourselves about the good news of what God is doing at LaSalle Street Church.

My hope is that anyone who opens our newsletter, or fills out a Connect Card, or glances through our website will encounter a beautiful and honest representation of who we are as a real community of real Christians: That our love for Jesus and our pursuit of justice are inextricably linked. That we steward a powerful legacy of the ones who came before us and open ourselves to the new thing God is doing here. That we take on trouble, that we’re a bridge, that (of course!) we welcome refugees, and all the other language we’ve used through the years to try and say: God is good, and there is more than enough, and we are making room.

Let’s tell our good story together.

Getting to Know Rev. Brandi Sanders

Last week, we learned a bit more about Rob Wildeboer, LaSalle’s new Artist-in-Residence and Coordinator of Music. This week, we’re excited to share about our Worship Leader Rev. Brandi Sanders! We’ve been blessed to have Rev. Brandi helping lead our worship in services for about a year now — learn more about Brandi and her family below!

What is your role in leading Worship at LaSalle? What do you love most about doing this role/what’s energizing about it?

I serve as the guest worship leader as the lead vocalist. I love singing and leading others in worship.

What else do you do with your time – day job, past job, interests?

I work in the missions department of the Evangelical Covenant Church. I work closely with our global personnel (missionaries) serving all over the world. I never ever imagined working with a missions agency. 5 years into this role and it still amazes me that this is where God has me. One of my favorite jobs was as a hospital chaplain. I’d like to get back in that field.

What can you tell us about your family?

My husband Leslie and I have been married for 13 years. We have 3 daughters, Sarabi (18), Rhyan (6), and Kiah (10 months). I still can’t believe I’m married to a pastor. Who does that?! LOL

What city/church did you grow up in? What music did you love as a kid?

I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago and attended Oakdale Covenant Church. As a kid, I absolutely loved music that I had no business listening to. Have you had an experience when you listen to music from your childhood and wonder how you were allowed to listen to thses lyrics??? Anyway, aside from that, I loved gospel music. It was what I knew. And that was back when I had to memorize music. There were not lyrics or song sheets!

What is one thing you want the LaSalle congregation to know about you – an interesting or fun fact, something surprising, or a creative genius you possess?

I am the granddaughter of an immigrant. I just learned that makes me a 3rd generation immigrant. I didn’t even know that was a thing!

Getting to Know Rob Wildeboer

Last Sunday we were excited to introduce Rob Wildeboer as LaSalle’s new Artist-in-Residence and Coordinator of Music! Rob has played with our worship band for a few years now, and we’re thrilled to have him in the office helping with our worship in the coming season. We asked Rob to share a bit about himself in this Q&A — enjoy!

What is your role in leading Worship at LaSalle? What do you love most about doing this role/what’s energizing about it?

I love playing music… I love gospel and jazz music and church music with a solid gospel or hip-hop beat. I love playing piano, bass and I love trumpet and I’m terrible at trumpet but trying to learn it and will probably look for opportunities to impose it on everyone from time to time. 

What else do you do with your time – day job, past job, interests?

I spent 19 years working for WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago. A year ago I quit to spend more time learning music and developing my skills. I currently take music classes and piano lessons and have been spending a lot of time practicing piano here at LaSalle so I don’t drive my wife crazy playing music for several hours a day while she’s working from home!

What can you tell us about your family? (names/ages, or whatever you want to share here.) 

My wife is Christine. We met 29 years ago at school at Calvin College, now called Calvin University in Grand Rapids. She is an information architect at Northwestern University where she helps design the layout of the school’s many web pages. Christine’s parents live in Northwest Indiana (about 40 mins from downtown). She has a brother, Mark, who lives in Northbrook with his wife Susan. My parents live in a suburb of Toronto where I grew up. I’m the youngest of 5 kids. I have 13 nephews and nieces. 

Who is one of your favorite singers, songwriters, or instrumentalists – and why?

Lee Morgan – He’s a jazz trumpet player. I happened to buy a tape of his in high school because it was in the bargain bin at the Sam The Record Man downtown Toronto on New Year’s Eve 1991. It was on heavy rotation on my sony walkman. His solos are accessible and singable and yet they have enough surprise to keep you interested and stretch your ear melodically. 

What city/church did you grow up in?

I grew up in a denomination called The Christian Reformed Church or the CRC. My dad was the minister of the church and my mom was the organist. I often played drums so the music team was me and my mom playing hymns on organ and drums. It wasn’t ideal. 

What is one thing you want the LaSalle congregation to know about you – an interesting or fun fact, something surprising, or a creative genius you possess? 

I like ping pong and pickleball so let me know if you want to play! 

Navigating Change: Trusting, Healing, and Growing Together

Beloved church –

Beloved – 

We had a recent Skills Lab at church on Change Theory & Growth (thanks Amber and Tanya!), which contained some fantastic space to reflect, sit with, and learn tools for how to navigate the grief, joys, and work that all accompany change. I was reminded that so much has happened in the last five years for so many of us – including personal, congregational, and national change. Making room to feel, grieve, learn from, and release the work it takes to walk through these changes is valuable – it helps us honor our experiences, and then grow the capacity for building and enjoying what is next. In addition to all the personal and congregational changes many are walking through, we’re also living during a time of huge, paradigm-level shifts impacting our nation and globe – notably impacting communication patterns, technology, mental health, and institutional trust. For example, did you know that the average US congregation now has an attendance of 65 people, down from 137 twenty years ago? And religious “nones” – those who claim no faith affiliation – now make up roughly 50% of the US population. We’re experiencing what is being called “The Great De-Churching” by many sociologists and theologians, where over 40 million people have left church since the high point in 1994; more people have now left the church, than all those who joined churches since the time of the Great Awakening in the 20th century! Now 15% of the US identifies as “de-churched” – those who used to attend church at least once a month who now attend fewer than once per year. And you likely can think of grandkids, friends, colleagues, or family members in your own life who fit either the “de-churched” or “none” category. These shifts are personal and significant, they bring grief and work with them, and these changes have forever altered the landscape that American congregations now walk through.          

To be honest, I have often not enjoyed navigating change in my own life. I’ve learned a few things that make it easier – like trusting God with the big stuff and trying to let go of the small stuff, having some voice and agency, traveling through change with others, and being able to lean into my identity and gifts during it, but there’s always a measure of risk, work, loss, or energy that change brings. Even good change demands work, have you noticed? It is also helpful to remember while we’re in the midst of the change, it is after we walk through the grief and work that we often see clearly how God brings more than enough on the other side. I’ve seen God profoundly at work through change – when we trust, follow, lean in, and support each other; on the other side of the work comes new blooms, new community and new norms, often even new capacity for things that we maybe didn’t made room to dream about being an option before. After trusting and following God through change, we experience growth. On the other side of the unknown and taking risks, we find rest, and new root systems taking hold.    

Our church leadership is focused on walking through the multi-layers of change in our world in healthy ways in this season; we all need to feel some agency, travel through change with others, and lean into our gifts and true identity as individuals and as a congregation. We can also all encourage each other by remembering how God has shown up – and shown out! – at LaSalle in the past – over and over and over again! This expansive church, with generous community, and a long-term investment in justice, has never quite followed the “norms” for church; indeed at various times, LaSalle has helped set a new pace or make a new way when others could not. As we look deeper at the realities of this “dechurched” group in the US, there is an invitation to consider as well. One article said that the “dechurched” contain two groups: the casually dechurched – those who moved or had schedule changes; and church casualties – those who stopped attending after conflict or experiencing harm. I can think of friends and family in both of those camps; maybe you can too. Across five broad categories of those considered dechurched (mainline, mainstream evangelicals, ex-vangelicals, BIPOC, and Catholics), the main reasons that people reported for why they left the church were: did not feel like they fit in, had bad experiences in church, did not feel much love in church, gender identity, church scandal, schedule was not convenient, or they moved. And the reasons people cited for considering attending church again include looking for friendships, spiritual practices, outreach programs, and want a healthy and stable congregation.  I wonder – what of these findings feels familiar to you? Where do you see the potential for God to use LaSalle’s gifts and identity as we walk through change this year? 

Beloved, we have all lived through a lot of change, and we are still learning how to do this in healthy ways together. It’s a time to remind ourselves that God’s economy works differently, and that while we always honor where we’ve come from, we’re now living into a new thing together. Every time we sow seeds of trust, following, waiting, being patient with one another, and taking the next faithful step toward what God is doing, we are building deep roots of faith, health, authenticity, and joy! We are creating more room at the table for many more to taste and see the abundance, the healing, the possibilities of joining an expansive church like LaSalle. If you’ve got ideas, thoughts, or questions about how we can best walk through all these changes together, please feel free to reach out to me or another staff member – and keep watching for invitations this fall to welcome each other on the journey as we launch fall programming and lean deeper into God’s call on our Body for such a time as this. We need one another to change – heal – and grow – together!  

With great expectation – RevLiz    

Embracing the Rhythm: Our Fall Calendar

Beloved church –

Plans for the fall are in the air, as schedules, schools, travels and weather all shift and turn toward the upcoming change of seasons! At our home we’ve got Target bags and groceries piling up, and new shoes and backpacks in the entryway. And at church we’ve been praying, planning, and getting excited for the upcoming fall season and seeing more of our Body back in town after the summer break. All of this rhythm is good and necessary – including the abiding, resting, the vacations away, the time not in town and not in regular schedules before we return to the fall. As we make these preparations, I wanted to share our LSC Fall Calendar that lays out key dates for Sept-Dec, as well as give a bit of the framework behind how we’ve designed our worship rhythms for this fall.

These calendars are printed out and ready for you to pick up in person in the Sanctuary, or you can take a look online here. You’ll see that we’re working with our same four worship rhythms this year, with some small changes. Our main goals for this fall were the following: 1) to have a regular, plannable, consistent schedule for worship, kids and families, and classes that we all know ahead of time and don’t have to think about too much, 2) to create regular space for formation/classes for all ages two times a month to fit families/everyone’s busy schedules, 3) to keep the unique ways both Serve and Sabbath Sundays form us spiritually and have become favorite weeks for some of us, while building out and adding to the intentionality of music/sermons/projects happening those weeks, and 4) to respond to what we’ve learned about the gifts and challenges of people’s time commitments, creative options needed for different ages of faith formation, and the diverse needs within our Body for building community, belonging, and healing.

To those ends, here are some things to notice in this fall’s calendar.

• 1st and 3rd Sundays are for Belong: each month these will be our full worship gatherings that include worship, communion, and spaces afterwards for adult ad, kids and youth programming, and hanging out/snacks and fellowship time.

• 2nd Sundays are for Serve: every month the 2nd week will be Serve Sundays, with a thicker worship/sermon/project experience while also still relying on and centering our kids and youth in leadership these weeks.

• 4th Sundays are for Sabbath: the 4th/last Sunday is when we rest with our more contemplative, shorter service, to be enjoyed either in the Sanctuary with others or online at home/gathering with others. These weeks we’re adjusting somewhat as well to include new practices, guest preachers, and other creative elements.

• Banquet Sundays will be roughly 1x per quarter: making space for big meals, parties, and gatherings where we get to linger and enjoy food and fellowship together around key holidays, our fall launch, and more!

• A few exceptions to the schedule will happen on months with 5 weeks or for Advent/Easter Season.

We’ve got some more exciting updates to share soon about our changing worship team, new opportunities for Newcomers and Young Adults, tools and prayer to ground us during this national political season – and more! But for now, add this calendar to your own preparations for the fall and know that we will be sharing more soon as we continue to plan, prepare, pray, vision, and adapt to the goodness and challenges of this season.

Beloved, know that God is continuing to move and speak to LaSalle in the both/and – through both our legacy and our innovation, in both our growing and in our rooting, as we both make mistakes and are surprised by what works, and as we both rest/abide and act/get busy. God is doing more then we could ask or imagine, and I remain grateful! Much love – RevLiz

Thanks for joining us at the Wild Mile

We had an excellent Serve Sunday last weekend assisting at the Wild Mile! The morning’s project was commissioned in the sanctuary by Peter VerHage, who shared about environmental stewardship:

 

 

Then we went to the Wild Mile to help trim some overgrowth, distribute rocks and mulch, and help with upkeep projects for the eco-park. Check out some pictures from the project captured by our pastoral staff below — thanks to everyone who served with us!

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Summer Youth Trip Update

Shared by Rev. Alicia

Last week Pastor Brent and I took five of our youth on a trip to the area around Starved Rock. We rented an Airbnb in Ottawa and spent 48 hours together building community, enjoying nature, and having fun. Both Pastor Brent and I were in awe of these students and the ways in which they served each other, laughed with one another, and reflected on our scripture and spiritual practices. I wanted to give you a little taste of what our trip was like with an update.

On Thursday we visited Starved Rock State Park, where, despite the humidity and the heat, we hiked to the top of Starved Rock and looked out on the Illinois River. We learned more about the history of Starved Rock before heading out on a short hike to the French Canyon, where we took some fun pictures and enjoyed the beauty of nature. 

During this trip, we broke up into two teams in charge of planning, shopping for, and making dinner together. The students created two delicious meals over the course of our trip including pasta with red sauce, meatballs, salad, and garlic bread and tofu/chicken bowls with broccoli and edamame.

Other highlights of the trip included singing in the car together, hanging by the pool, a Dairy Queen Run, Karaoke, oven s’mores, and lots of silly games. Each night we explored a spiritual practice and talked about how taking the time to abide with God deepens our faith relationships.

You may have noticed more youth and kids in leadership here at LSC, whether that be on Serve Sundays, reading scripture, or leading us in worship. Our young people are learning what it means to be active participants in our services and church body. Making room for our students to thrive in our midst is statistically proven to have a deep impact on their faith development. Making room for them starts by noticing that they are present and being good followers – letting them flex their leadership muscles and discover or develop their gifts. 

Midyear Treasurer’s Report

It’s time for a mid-year Treasurer’s report. First, let me say thank you for your consistent, steady, generous giving to this church and its ministries. It is only through your generosity that we are able to keep our various ministries moving in the right direction. 

Mid-way through the year, contributions to LaSalle Street Church are higher than expected. This is largely due to a 25% increase in non-pledged giving compared to the same period last year, which is really great news. Seems to indicate there are some newer people who have decided to start giving to the church. 

Church expenses year-to-date are about 2% higher than expected. This is mainly due to health care costs and some front-loading of expenses for Church Life. Church staff is looking closely at expenses and working hard to ensure they are lower in the second half of the year. 

Cornerstone Center, which has a separate budget of its own, is tracking very close to budget for both revenue and expenses – actually slightly over for revenue and slightly under for expenses. No worries there. 

Both the church and Cornerstone Center have cash reserves equivalent to about four months of expenses (5.5 months of unreserved cash.)  

That’s a pretty dry and dusty report. Not sure how to spice it up. I’ll just say that it feels like we’re moving the right direction from the depths of the post-covid days. We face the same challenges that many churches across the country face, but Sunday morning at LaSalle feels very different to me than it did 18 months ago. 

One other comment about giving. Two key areas that directly affect our ability to help people in need – Benevolence (which is used to support church members with specific immediate needs) and Breaking Bread (our largest Outreach and Advocacy ministry feeding Near North residents each Wednesday) – have not received the kind of designated giving they have in the past. We’d invite you, if you’re not sure where to give outside of the general fund, to consider giving in particular to these two core budget items that support folks within our church walls and also those in our larger community. (You can give online at the Give tab on our website, or by contacting Katie at the church office.)  

We’ll be sending out Q2 giving statements in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for those.  

Any questions or comments please feel free to contact myself or Rev Liz. 

Karl Lauger 

Treasurer 

Important Staffing Update

Beloved Church –

I hope you’re having a beautiful summer and enjoying some rhythms of rest or travel or the difference of the seasons this time brings. Our family recently spent time on the West Coast and had a fabulous time, and now I’m enjoying being back in the swing of things at church and seeing so much beautiful active ministry happening even during – and maybe in part because of – this season of rest! I also have an important staff update to share with you about a transition from our Worship Staff, and an invitation to save the date of Sunday August 4th to help honor this change.

Jonathan Ulanday recently turned in his resignation, effective July 31, in order to take a full-time position at a nonprofit located downtown (called COFI, an org that organizes parents of color around social, racial, and economic justice issues like education reform, healthcare access, and more – in Chicago and beyond). While this is a sad loss for our congregation, I am grateful he’s found a good fit for his growing gifts in social and racial justice work that’s local and means we can still grab coffee 😊, and that we are in a season as a church where we’re well prepped and covered for this transition.

Moving forward at LaSalle, I am already in some convos with various folks on our music teams about ways to cover worship in both the short and long term, and thankfully it is looking good. I also have some preliminary ideas being shared with the Elder Board on how to fill this role in the future as a part-time collaborative role that focuses on planning our worship music and arts. I am grateful for the ways that worship has been growing and shifting this past year, for all the volunteers and musicians who support worship week to week, and for the possibilities up ahead as well! Our music teams were also emailed this, but in the interim after July 31 volunteers can contact Rev. Alicia for any scheduling questions or info, and I will be in touch about longer-term plans as they develop – and I am happy to field any questions with the wider church. We are also canceling the Aug 4th Music Improv gathering, and hope to reschedule it later on.

I want to end this update with focusing on our deep gratitude for all that Jonathan has meant to this church community, and invite the wider church to join me in this on Sunday August 4th, when we’ll pray for and bless Jonathan in our worship service, and afterwards have a light cake and coffee reception in the church lower level in his honor. Please plan to join us to thank, congratulate, and help send him well into this next chapter, and/or reach out to him with your own thanks. For eight years Jonathan has served LaSalle in a key role, through significant changes and transitions on staff, helping spearhead the racial righteousness team and ongoing advocacy work, making so much of church happen throughout the strain of COVID and moving worship online, developing an online Sabbath Sunday service, managing new projects such as Church Center and staff tech needs, and so much more. His technical skills, care for people and training others, engaging our kids and youth, and friendship on our staff team will be missed and have made a lasting impact. So join me in thanking Jonathan, and in praying over this next season in his life and in the life of LaSalle Street Church. We know that in God there is More Than Enough to respond to both the losses and the potentials that change brings, and for that I am so thankful.

Holding the both/and of the in between with you – RevLiz   

Reflecting on Summer Skills Lab: “Intentionally Preparing for the End-of-Life”

shared by Dr. Kathy Neely

Pastor Julie and I were honored to meet with about fifty LaSallers this past Sunday as part of the Summer Skills Lab. Our discussion centered on how each of us might work toward “Intentionally Preparing for the End-of-Life”.  Pastor Julie shared some of the impetus toward setting up this presentation: her recent rollercoaster journey with her mom and the life-threatening uncertainties  tossed in their paths. Julie’s encouragement for us all was to have early-and-often conversations with those we love regarding our heartfelt, important values.  

What would these conversations entail? Some of us are imminently or currently “walking a dear one Home” – a privilege and to be honest, also a sacred burden. In our conversations with these dear ones, we would encourage them to share what they value at the end-of-life so we can do our best as their spokespersons. And also, all of us, being mortal, would do well to have conversations as well. We would begin with conversations with God. As we get some spiritual clarity, we would  initiate further conversations with those who may in the future care for and decide for us. 

We also discussed the process of shared medical decision-making, which begins on the foundation of a trusting relationship between the patient and health care provider. To this process, the patient brings their personal values. What, to me, is a “life worth living”? What medical interventions to preserve life are “worth it” and what are excessively burdensome? The health care provider brings expertise – diagnosis, all the interventional options that address the diagnosis, the burdens, benefits, risks, and likely outcomes of these interventions. With the patient’s and provider’s cards all on the table, as partners in this process, they make a choice. Undergirding this process is the legal and ethical right of the patient to decline life-sustaining or life-saving interventions that the patient determines are disproportionately burdensome and/or do not restore a sufficiently good quality of life.  

Uncertainty is the backdrop of any decision-making. If we knew the future, say, of today’s weather, or the stock market, or that new relationship we’re getting launched, we could make perfect plans, and make them well in advance. In the same way, uncertainty clouds planning for our health care in the future.  Decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment are the most ethically and clinically sound when done in imminent, real-life contexts as opposed to guessing at distant future hypotheticals. That leads us to the most important advance decision we can make: in the event we lack capacity to make medical decisions ourselves, who is the WHO we choose to bring our values to the table, in real time, with real data? The State of Illinois provides us with the means to create a document to give legal traction to our choice of WHO: the IL Health Care Power of Attorney (HCPOA). In class, we reviewed this document, which can be completed free, without an attorney or notary, step-by-step.  

https://dph.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/idph/files/forms/powerofattorneyhealthcareform.pdf 

Once we have determined the WHO, it is time for more conversations! We do well to begin with the WHO we’d like to legally authorize in our HCPOA document, to let them know of the role we want them to play, and to give them what they need to know about the values we would want lifted up in medical decision-making. If they agree to serve in this role, we can proceed to make the HCPOA document widely accessible in times of crisis. Unfortunately, accessibility is on us (there exists no central repository – go figure). Suggestions to get our HCPOA quickly on the radar screen include submitting it to our health care systems (to be scanned into their electronic medical record) and doctors’ offices, saving on our cell phones, sharing it with a whole number of trusted loved ones  (not only with our WHO), and putting it in a plastic bag in the freezer for easy access. We also talked about accessibility through the LSC office, which might be a site for parishioner end-of-life info; when alerted about a parishioner’s hospital admission, the pastoral team will have permission to contact the WHO and perhaps other loved one’s as previously directed by the parishioner. Stay tuned for more regarding this idea.  

Pastor Julie and I are eager for feedback as the pastoral team considers next steps evolving from this workshop. We would be glad to hear from you!