First Congregational Church of Wilmette is a congregation open and affirming of all people who seek to follow the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Ours is a church where people of all ages are welcome to gather with their faith and their doubts, bringing their questions, creativity and energy for spiritual growth and service.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT A GLANCE

Our Mission

We, the members of First Congregational Church of Wilmette, strive to be a reconciling, healing community, seeking to bind together followers of Jesus Christ for the purpose of joyfully worshipping God and serving God’s vision of peace, justice, and well-being for all creation.

We are committed to the transforming message of Jesus who proclaimed Good News to all people and responded to pressing human needs by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, liberating the oppressed, and confronting the powers of injustice.

We are committed to ecumenical cooperation with all individuals, organizations, and institutions working toward the wholeness of humanity.

We are committed to assisting persons in developing a personal relationship with God, in discovering their spiritual gifts and enabling them to serve others with their gifts.

Staff

Rev. Stephanie Perdew VanSlyke, Senior Pastor

Stephanie has served as senior pastor of First Congregational Church since November 2004, after serving as our associate pastor from 1996 to 2003. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and life-long member of the United Church of Christ, she was ordained in the Nebraska Conference, UCC.  Stephanie earned her B.A. in religion and women’s studies from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, and her M.Div. from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.  Her passion for worship that is prophetic, pastoral and historically grounded led her back to Garrett-Evangelical, where she is currently a PhD candidate in Liturgical Studies and Early Christian History.  Stephanie is a co-author of The Work of the People: What we do in Worship and Why (Alban Institute, 2007).   Her service to the wider church focuses on preparing seminary students to be thoughtful ministers and effective worship leaders.  She serves as an adjunct faculty member at McCormick Theological Seminary and at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, teaching in the areas of Christian worship and Early Christian History. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, golf, and mystery novels.  Stephanie is married to Todd VanSlyke, a professor at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.  Together they enjoy traveling by train or motorcycle, cooking together, and cheering for the Northwestern Wildcats football team.  As Nebraska joins the Big 10, theirs will become a house divided.

Adam Ericksen, Youth Pastor

Originally from Forest Grove, Oregon, Adam earned a B.A. in religious studies from Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon and a Master of Theological Studies in theology and ethics from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, where his master’s thesis was titled Love and Nonviolence in Christianity and Islam. In addition, Adam has completed coursework in K-12 secondary education at National Louis University.  Adam works with our youth in grades 7-12, helping them navigate the challenges of friendships, family, school, and popular culture in light of their faith.  Adam is also employed as the Education Director at the Raven Foundation, an institution focused on forming people in practices of peace and nonviolence.  He brings the benefits of this work to his ministries with youth and adults at FCCW. Adam is married to Carrie Ericksen and they are the busy parents of two young boys.

Kathleen Cetrone, Director of Children's Ministries

Kathleen “Kat” Cetrone joined the First Congregational Church staff as director of children’s ministries in July 2008. Kat received her B.A. with K-9 teaching certificate from Trinity International University in 2006. She has served in many capacities with the Avoca School District 37, including special education paraprofessional, summer school coordinator, and assistant to the director of pupil services. In addition, Kat has taught in the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and has served as a teaching associate at Chiaravelle Montessori School, also in Evanston. First Congregational Church children know that Kat creates a learning environment where creativity, individuality, and attention to ritual and story make faith come alive. 

Kurt Mockenhaupt, Director of Music

Kurt is director of music and organist at First Congregational Church. He plays for all worship services, and directs the Chancel Choir and Handbell Choir. With 30 years of church music experience, Kurt served three churches before coming to First Congregational: Granville Avenue United Methodist Church in Chicago, Berry Memorial United Methodist Church in Chicago and St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church in Skokie, Illinois. Kurt holds a Bachelor of Music in Education from DePaul University and taught general music (K-8) for eight years. He is a member of The Agape Ringers, an auditioned community handbell ensemble from the greater Chicago area, and has served on the state committee for Area VIII of The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR).  

Rev. David Hogue, Men’s Ministry Facilitator and Pastoral Counselor in Residence

Rev. Hogue leads a monthly men’s gathering and an annual men’s retreat. In addition, he periodically presides in worship and preaches on Sunday mornings. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), David is a pastoral counselor and Professor of Pastoral Theology and Counseling at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, where he teaches courses in pastoral care and counseling, marriage and family counseling, ritual studies, and theology and science. His most recent book Remembering the Future, Imagining the Past: Story, Ritual, and the Human Brain (Pilgrim Press, 2003), draws on the brain sciences for a deeper understanding of worship and pastoral care.  David maintains a practice of pastoral counseling using office space at FCCW.  Clients see David on a fee-for-session basis, with priority given to FCCW members as time and schedules permit.  To schedule pastoral counseling with Rev. Hogue, contact him directly at dahogue@gmail.com or (847) 492-8265.

Congregational Leadership

The members of First Congregational Church are the governing body of the congregation. Members of the congregation meet twice each year to conduct the business of the congregation, and at other specially called meetings as needed. Upcoming congregational meetings include the Annual Budget Meeting on Sunday, January 22, 2012, and the Annual Business Meeting on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Board of Trustees

The congregation’s Board of Trustees is responsible for the stewardship of the church building and finances, as well as for the management of the church between semi-annual meetings. The board meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:15 p.m. in the Library Lounge.

Class of 2014
Barbara Chipman Miller
Leslie Johnson
Andrew Stewart

Class of 2013
Gary Benz
Lars Greiner, Moderator
Merry Juell

Class of 2012
Paula Delehanty
Carol O'Donnell
Cathy Skala, Vice Moderator

Church Treasurers
John & Ann Molyneaux

Assistant Treasurer
Nancy Metzger

Subcommittees of the Board of Trustees

Stewardship Committee
Charles Ieuter, Chairperson
Lars Greiner
Mike Hoover
David Miller
Donna Williamson

Finance/Investment Committee
John Molyneaux, Chairperson
Laura Bokhof
David Howell
Ann Molyneaux
Keith Ross

Property Management Committee
David Martensen, Chairperson
Steve Austin
David Burnham
Neil Ferrari
Doc Parker
Bob Pfutzenreuter
Jeff Riemer
Suzie Van Cleave

Liz Ferrari, Gardening Coordinator

Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee proposes a slate of Trustees and Nominating Committee members to the congregation each May. The Nominating Committee works with the staff and various ministries of the church to assist members in finding ways to volunteer and serve in the congregation.

What Matters

To find out our members and friends' ideas about What Matters at First Congregational Church, please click here.

Partners In Faith

United Church of Christ
First Congregational Church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, also known as the UCC, which came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches - each of these the result of two earlier unions.

Each of the historical denominations contributed to the current identity of the UCC. We are a uniting church as well as a united church. Expressions of the unity of the church are as diverse as there are individuals, but the common thread that runs through all is love.

To learn more about the United Church of Christ, please visit www.ucc.org 
 

Congregation Sukkat Shalom
For over a decade, First Congregational Church proudly shared worship and educational space with Congregation Sukkat Shalom, led by Rabbi Samuel Gordon. This partnership in faith, which began in 1997, was recognized by the Chicago organization Inspired Partnerships in May 2000, when our congregations received the “Best Use of Shared Space” Award.

Congregation Sukkat Shalom currently worships elsewhere in Wilmette as they renovate their newly purchased building at 10th and Central Streets.

Our congregations continue our partnership by co-hosting a guest lecture each year, and sharing a variety of other educational and social justice activities and worship services each year.

“For me, the relationship of Congregation Sukkat Shalom with First Congregational Church is not just about a shared building or shared programming. We use our distinctive vocabularies of Judaism and Christianity to explore our shared commitment to creating a better world, a community of faith that cares about each other, and groups of friends who learn, study and grow together. Through this encounter of two faith communities, we have found that our spiritual lives have been made more meaningful and our respect for and understanding of our differences have helped deepen our lives.”
                 -Rabbi Samuel Gordon, Congregation Sukkat Shalom

To learn more about Congregation Sukkat Shalom, please visit Congregation Sukkat Shalom.

Edisto Island Outreach Center

Edisto Island Outreach Center, a volunteer-based service agency, opened in October 2003 with the purpose of responding to the needs of residents of Edisto Island, South Carolina, with practical help and referral services aimed at meeting basic needs and equipping people with the tools to improve the quality of their lives.

On-hand services and referrals to other agencies address education, employment, transportation, health care, senior citizen needs, housing, and emergency financial aid. Two members of our congregation, Steve and Claudia Austin, helped to found the Outreach Center.

Our congregation’s commitment to Edisto Island began with a mission work trip undertaken by the senior high youth of First Congregational Church. In the 1980s, they traveled to Edisto Island and worked through the Rural Mission Institute to carry out home repairs for local residents. Our youth returned full of enthusiasm about the people they had met on the island, where the major population of African American residents are descendents from the original Gullah settlers.

Since then, First Congregational has offered an annual Family Work Camp during Wilmette schools’ spring break. Our Senior High youth often take their summer mission trip to the island. In 2008, they offered a day camp for island children at the local elementary school.

In 2006, our congregation made an ongoing commitment to support the Edisto Island Outreach Center Scholarship Fund. Each year, we provide $5,000 toward scholarships for island youth who are engaging in post-secondary job training or college.

The Raven Foundation

Founded by First Congregational Church members Suzanne and Keith Ross, the Raven Foundation is a not-for-profit educational organization that seeks to foster an understanding of social influences and positive ways of addressing conflict by advancing the awareness of René Girard’s insights into mimetic theory among the general public. Briefly, mimetic theory states that, because humans are naturally social creatures, we influence each other in a variety of positive and negative ways, including what we desire and how we interact with each other.

The foundation reads and studies current events, books, movies, politics, business, sports and family life through the lens of mimetic theory to create educational resources for everyday use by teachers, government officials, attorneys, executives, religious professionals, therapists, parents and others who have an interest in resolving conflict with justice and peace. Among the foundation’s resources are curricula, study guides, summaries of presentations and books by experts on mimetic theory and its everyday applications. The recently released The Wicked Truth: When Good People Do Bad Things, authored by Suzanne Ross, makes use of the characters and language provided by the Broadway musical, Wicked, to introduce the concepts of myth, scapegoating, violence and acquisitive desire.

Headquartered in Glenview, Illinois, the Raven Foundation periodically provides educational offerings at First Congregational Church.

For more information, please visit the Raven Foundation.

Also in our Building

Wilmette Community Nursery School (WCNS)    
Boy Scouts, Troop 2                 
 

Educational Resources

Common Lectionary    
Godly Play Church School Curriculum 
The Thoughtful Christian  
Chicago Theological Seminary, U.C.C.     
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary     
Colloquium on Violence and Religion  
The Alban Institute     

Mission and Social Justice Agencies

Connections for the Homeless         
Interfaith Council for the Homeless          
Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs      
Community Renewal Society               
Protestants for the Common Good         
The Warming House         
The Night Ministry                  
 

Spirituality

Taizé                                   
Iona Community        
Faith Practices, UCC               
Practicing our Faith                 
Renewal in the Wilderness                

History

The First Congregational Church traces its roots to the 1870s and the beginning of the Village of Wilmette. In 1870, a train station was established, linking the North Shore with the City of Chicago and allowing the growth of Wilmette as a commuter village. A year later, residents formed a Protestant Evangelical Alliance with professors from Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston (now Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) serving as the Alliance’s first preachers.

In 1872, the Village of Wilmette incorporated, and on June 3, 1875 First Congregational Church was founded at the home of A. T. Sherman, 1136 Greenleaf Ave., with 19 members. The Chicago Association of Congregational Churches immediately recognized the founding of First Congregational Church of Wilmette; on June 13, 1875, Dr. J. E. Roy preached at the first communion service and presented the congregation with a communion chalice from the Congregational Church of Oak Park. Three years later, in 1878, our congregation called its first pastor, Rev. Edward P. Wheeler.

Over the next five years, the congregation met at the one-room schoolhouse where Central School now stands (10th and Central Streets). The first church building was constructed on 11th St. in 1883, across the street and down the alley from our present church building. In 1895, Mrs. Mary Gates donated a triangular plot of land at the southwest corner of Lake, Wilmette and 11th St., and on April 4, 1904 the congregation broke ground on the existing Sanctuary/Pilgrim Hall structure. On January 1, 1905 the first worship services and Sunday school were held in Pilgrim Hall. Four years later, the sanctuary and basement were complete.

Other highlights of our ministry and mission include:

Architecture

Set among the historic houses of the Village of Wilmette, First Congregational Church sits comfortably among its neighbors. Constructed in the Tudor Revival Style, a derivative of English Renaissance buildings of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was designed to be direct and unpretentious. The exterior, built of a combination of wood, brick and stucco, is simple and humble. Its residential scale and character blend with the surrounding neighborhood.

Inside, the sanctuary is extensively trimmed in oak with craftsman detailing which creates a warm and glowing setting for worship. The intimate quality of the space is enhanced by its small size and slightly tilted floor that brings all corners of the congregation together around the table in worship.

The adjacent Pilgrim Hall serves as the congregation’s primary fellowship and meeting space and can accommodate overflow sanctuary seating when the operable wall that separates the two rooms is raised. The stained glass features representations of the four gospel writers, the eight gifts of the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 8: 7-10), and the alpha and omega (Revelation 21: 6), as well as images of lilies, roses, vines and branches in the arts and crafts style.

The church was designed by an architecture firm that is the outgrowth of the firm of Patton, Fisher and Miller. Several architects flowed into and out of the firm around the turn of the 20th century, and so the exact constitution of the partnership at the time of First Congregational’s design and construction is not definitively known. Patton and his various partners were known for education and library architecture and completed two other church buildings of note in the Chicago area - Pilgrim Congregational Church in Oak Park and Morgan Park Church of God.

First Congregational’s original building, including everything north of the Wilmette Avenue entrance, was begun in 1905 and completed in 1909.

“What I love about this building is its utter lack of pretension”
      -Walter Eckenhoff, Eckenhoff Saunders Architects

Open and Affirming

In 1985 the General Synod of our denomination, the United Church of Christ, called on member congregations to prayerfully consider becoming “Open and Affirming” churches. The “Open and Affirming” designation indicates that a church is explicitly and intentionally welcome of all persons regardless of sexual orientation.

First Congregational Church became an “O&A” church in 1989, one of only 16 in the Chicago area. Since 1989 we have lived out our Open and Affirming faith by supporting openly gay and lesbian seminary students, celebrating their ordinations and performing marriage commitment ceremonies in our sanctuary.