Rev. Rick King: Senior Minister

Office Phone: 303-776-4940
Fax: 303-776-2738
Contact Rick by e-mail

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Rick has served as the Senior Minister of First Congregational UCC in Longmont since 2008, when he and his family moved from Winona, Minnesota, where Rick served as Pastor of First Congregational UCC for ten years.

His passion in ministry is helping the local church recover its central focus on Faith Formation by helping people of all ages encounter the Holy. He sees the church as an extended family, and enjoys connecting longtime people of faith with “de-churched” people returning to organized religion after years away—including ministry with LGBT folk, people in recovery, and through UCC Longmont’s focus on homelessness and people living in poverty.

Rick is active with the St. Vrain Valley Safe Schools Coalition as it works to make schools safer for all students, especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth. In April 2011, Boulder County Public Health recognized Rick for this work with a Healthy Community Award.

Ordained in 1990, Rick grew up in Alliance, Ohio, attending Western Reserve Academy, Mount Union College, and Yale Divinity School. In addition to Minnesota and Colorado, he’s served churches in Palatine, Elmhurst, and Chicago, Illinois. Rick has also done technical writing, taught English and writing to high schoolers, worked with homeless youth with The Night Ministry in Chicago, and practiced for four years as massage therapist.

Rick is married to Linda Kopecky, a health educator and phenomenal cook, seamstress, gardener, and co-parent of three boys: Elijah, Samuel, and Gabriel. They live in Longmont with three cats, a guinea pig, and two mice. Rick can most often be seen riding his 1988 Peugeot 12-speed just about everywhere, and he enjoys hiking and camping with family, swimming, yoga, reading, movies, and vegetarian food.

Preparing for the Dawning

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

These words accompany the giving of ashes in the traditional Ash Wednesday service.  As I wrote this, we were preparing to celebrate the life of one of our members, Janet Mahlman, who died of multiple myeloma on January 2.  As one who, like you and me, came from the dust of the ground and, through her life’s experiences, became a diamond bright and shining in her brilliant compassion, humor, and courage, Janet showed all those who knew her one example of what God is capable of when life is seen in a larger context.

Far from being a “downer,” death for Christians is a reminder of the way in which this life is not all there is, but is connected with the lives of all those who have lived and served God and neighbor in the past—those who make up the “cloud of witnesses” referred to in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews—and the lives of those of us living and serving now, as well as those yet to come.

Our culture does not like to confront death, although through the Hospice movement and the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross we have come a long way in our reckoning with it.  But this month, with our Shrove Tuesday celebration on February 21, we’ll mark the end of the season of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent, a time for looking within ourselves and confronting the shortness and uncertainty of our life on earth.

Instead of being morbid or somehow scaring us into a faith-journey, confronting the finiteness of our earthly life can place our lives in a larger context and community—that of eternity and the cloud of witnesses, what the broad Christian tradition has come to call The Communion of Saints.

Rev. Luke Grobe: Associate Minister of Faith Formation

Contact Luke by email.

Lucas Grobe accepted the call to be our Associate Minister of Faith Formation after leading the worship service on July 17, 2011 and the congregational vote approving the call. Luke was the unanimous candidate for the position chosen by the Search Committee.

Luke was raised in Wheaton, IL. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, MO where he studied Political Science and Religious Studies.

He completed his Master of Divinity Degree at Eden Theological Seminary. His experience includes work as a chaplain, youth director, and as a student pastor.

Lukes’ greatest passion in life is people. He strives to learn about their desires and their faith. In some of Luke’s past work experience, he was able to share his faith with some, advice with others, provide a listening ear to those in struggle and his friendship to all. He believes that a minster must be current in the way they practice ministry and that the church must be rooted in the world that people interact with on a daily basis. He seeks to bring creativity to the worship service.

He enjoys running, rowing, and weight-lifting, reading, piano, and is learning to play the guitar.

Pastor Luke began his ministry at First Congregational United Church of Christ – Longmont, CO in early August, 2011. Pastor Luke’s Installation Service is Sunday, January 22 at 4 pm at the church, with a reception and meal to follow. Join us in celebrating and affirming Luke’s call to ministry here!

To learn more about Pastor Luke, please see www.lukegrobe.com and Youth Ministry http://www.lukegrobe.com/First-Congregational-Youth.html.

“Investment”

Investment is a term that is often misused. Many times I will hear people use this word to describe any large purchase, i.e. “The new car I bought was quite the investment!” However, according to my dictionary published, investing means “to put (money) to use, by purchase or expenditure, in something offering potential profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.” A new car purchase cannot be an investment because its value will only diminish when you drive it off the lot.

What does it mean, then, if we say that we are making an investment in our future? What is it that we are investing and what is the potential profitable returns we are hoping to gain?

A focus on faith formation is so important to a vital and growing church like our church because it has the potential to craft every part our church’s life into an investment. It helps us to understand that we do not just spend resources on programs, missions or ministries. Instead, it forces us to ask: what return do we receive for an investment in the specific ministries of our church.

This was a significant driving force for the preparation of the Christian Education budget for 2012. The goal is to put our time, energy and resources into the investments with the greatest faith formation returns because the investments that we make now will have significant impacts on the future of our church and our members. To maintain vitality, momentum and growth we must be making smart investments that lead to the most impactful returns.

Just as the church investment committee regularly reviews the mutual funds and stocks of the endowment portfolio to ensure that they are invested in the best ways we can regularly inspect the investments in our lives. Consider the various ways that you spend your time, energy and resources and ask yourself, “Are these good investments for me?” Whether it is asking about time in front of the television or computer screen that could be used in another way or money spent on material things that could be used to magnify the reach of a particular church mission or charity, we must all regularly step back and put a magnifying glass over our various investments. Search for the investments that provide long-term steady growth in your own personal formation. Pray that we can all be led to worthwhile investments.

 - Rev. Luke Grobe