Dear Patch.com readers: This is my final Faith Matters column. December 2010 to March 2012 is a good run. I’ve met fabulous, faithful people who have graciously let me into their houses of worship and their hearts. Thank you and bless you. Rev. Kemery Baldwin Members of three local United Church of Christ congregations gathered for tasty pie and talent performances Feb. 26 and raised money for missions.   The fellowship hall of Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Weldon Spring had standing room only by 6 p.m. as people crowded in to watch the performance of friends and neighbors. No big …

Right now, it’s a large brown empty warehouse at 1735 South River Road in St. Charles. “It’s a big ugly building, but it’s ours,” said Trey Herweck lead pastor of Refuge Church. He was, I believe, quoting a parishioner. Earlier in February, the church closed on the lease. “We have a six-year lease with an option for renewal and will look toward a lengthy renewal.” Herweck took me on a tour of the building. It is a two-story structure with wide open floors of exposed beams, pipes, and concrete floors. Herweck described where the lobby, the children’s area, the offices and the worship space …

On Jan. 25, I took to the streets in St. Peters to look for homeless people. It was my first year to participate in the Point-in-Time Homeless Count for St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren Counties. Coordinated through the Department of Housing and Urban and Development (HUD), agencies such as the Community Council of St. Charles County agree to gather data and document homelessness throughout the United States. It is done the last week of January each year. Since 2004, Dottie Kastigar, the Community Development Program Coordinator at the Community Council has collected information about both …

Father Dominic Garramone has spent 20 years trying various pizza recipes on his fellow monks at St. Bede Abbey in Peru, IL. The practice started because the Abbey observes meatless Fridays throughout the year. Thursday evenings were spent talking and eating -- and Garramone dished up the pizza.  The former host of the PBS cooking show, “Breaking Bread with Father Dominic,” was in St. Charles County on Jan. 28, demonstrating his pizza-making skills at Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service in St. Charles County in front of a sold-out crowd. The live charity event was a fundraiser for the care …

It began with a chance meeting in Target. Mary Harrison, of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, and Kate McCoy, of All Saints Catholic Church, ran into one another at Target and started talking. Both are members of the social justice committee at their respective parishes. "They decided that social justice groups in individual parishes can’t do much, so let’s get the groups connected,” said Brenda Galloy. Soon after, the St. Charles Deanery Social Justice Network (SCDSJN) was born. Galloy, chair of the SCDSJN, started connecting the various parishes in the area with a simple post in the …

There is so much about the faith and religious experiences of St. Charles County that I do not know. For example, a small group of people from Haiti meet each Sunday to worship together in French, Creole and English. La Grace and La Verite Eglise Chretienne, which translates as truth and grace Christian church, meets at 1:15 p.m. in the chapel at Harvester Christian Church. Lamonste Jean-Baptiste leads the small group of three or four families who participate, although he is not a pastor. He was a broadcast journalist in Haiti which explains his exemplary communication skills in French, …

Many people turn to churches for help when they find themselves in tough times. Local houses of worship answer the call with food pantries, clothing closets, even funds to help financially. One St. Charles County church takes it even further, helping people find jobs.  New Hope Presbyterian Church started its employment ministry in 2009. It meets at 7 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.  Praying for work At a recent meeting, every seat was taken at long tables that filled the sanctuary. The seats were filled with people looking for work. Others there to network. Kirk Garten, …

A First New Year’s Eve Event St. John’s United Church of Christ in Weldon Spring held its first New Year’s Eve Party. The cost was $15.00 per person for dining and entertainment. The meal was catered by River City Catering; the entertainment was church members providing a “night club” atmosphere, said Bob Lutz, church member and one of the organizers of the event.  No alcohol served. “We talked about it and everyone was OK with not serving alcohol,” Lutz told me. The party was advertised as a non-alcoholic event. None was served and none was to be brought in. “We sold tickets under that …

With Christmas on a Sunday this year, my husband, son and I opened our presents in the early afternoon. As a minister, I had left for Christmas Day church early and after closing up and driving home, it was noon. Our son, Luke, is 21 years old and able to wait. He surprised me with his gift, a gift he chose himself, wrapped and put under the tree days before Christmas. My son gave to me The Action Bible. “I knew you didn’t have this one,” he said. He is right. Jesus as action hero. OMG. Among the three of us, we have 40 or so Bibles in our home: chronological, parallel, study, metal, story, …

Not everyone is feeling the "holly jolly" and the "ho, ho, ho" of the season. This time of year, the greetings of "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah" and the all-encompassing "Happy Holidays" can be difficult, even depressing for many people. This "most wonderful time of the year" is often not. There are various explanations why this is so, yet I think the underlying reason for the melancholy of many is loss. Loss of a loved one, divorce, loss of job, foreclosure on a home, loss of relationships with family and friends, loss of health and abilities, loss of the way things used to be. With …

For many Christians, the four weeks before Christmas are considered the season of Advent, a word that means “coming.” The traditional themes for these four weeks of preparation prior to Christmas are hope, peace, joy and love. After four months of preaching each Sunday at Emmaus Homes West Campus, I know much more about these majestic themes of faith than I did before. Hope Bobby asks each Sunday, “When’s Christmas?” He doesn’t want to miss it. That’s edge-of-your-chair anticipation. It’s that hope and waiting for Jesus’ birth wrapped up in a few words. This is holy expectation, of the hope …

It was my first Las Posadas. I was fortunate to find Virgil Heinle of St. Ann standing at the corner of Main St. and Boone’s Lick last Saturday evening. This was number 12 for him, the fifth one for his daughter and the first time for her friend. As we were talking, an event official came right up to Heinle and the girls and asked, “Would you help pull the Yule log in the procession?” “I’m your good luck charm,“ I said as the three of them left to join the main event. St. Charles boasts multiple ancestral lineage: French, German and Spanish. For a number of years the Christmas Traditions …

Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus together—St. Francis of Assisi named it "crèche," the French word for cradle. The very first crèche was a living one, using real people, an actual manger and live animals. It was an object lesson of the incarnation, where God came to us in human form. That was in the 13th century. The crèche was an immediate and identifiable image of the holy celebration that is Christmas.  And it still is for us today. More than 340 nativities were on display in the St. Joseph Catholic Church School cafeteria in Cottleville this weekend. I was enchanted, and so were the …

This is the time of year for church bazaars, craft shows and bake sales. A time for silent auctions that provide presents for Christmas and a way to raise money for a mission of a church or a charity. The Sister2Sister Ministries of First Baptist Church, Wentzville, offered an opportunity for home-based businesses to showcase their products at a shopping mall set up in the church on Thursday evening. Mistletoe Madness was different from other events, but not in any way obvious to the public. Nichole Haug, a member of the church, took the lead in organizing this event. She said that this …

The recently released movie, In Time, has not received many favorable reviews from film critics. From what I read in those reviews, I wanted to watch the movie through the eyes of faith. Questions of making the best use of our time while we are alive, of how to live a full and meaningful life and what happens when we die are questions of faith. I went to the movie theater hoping to be challenged to consider and reconsider those faith and religious issues in meaningful ways. I was not disappointed. In Time is a science fiction movie with no precise time setting. It seems to be earth in the …

“Give us this day our daily bread“ is a verse in The Lord’s Prayer. It is a well-known prayer usually whispered when prayed. And this phrase is usually whispered, too: “Oh good. Toilet paper.”   Toilet paper is an answer to a prayer to clients at Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service Food Pantry. Bread and toilet paper.   In my home, these items are necessities. They probably are in your home, too. When my family and I sit down together for dinner and say a prayer before we eat, we always thank God for “the food in front of us,” among other things. I’m thinking I’ll add paper products. In the new…

Vicar Micah Miller, 36, arrived at Immanuel Lutheran Church in August. Miller is a third-year student at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and is fulfilling his "vicarage," or field placement requirement at Immanuel. When Miller met with the Rev. Scott Schmieding, senior pastor of Immanuel, he learned that a lot of his time would be developing outreach to Lindenwood University students specifically focusing on international students. “As the Vicar, I said ‘Yes, sir!’” Miller said, with a smile and openness of a person ready to serve. Opening the church Connections Café to the students one night…

Music matters in worship. It sets a tone and a mood. It energizes or calms down. The Bible has many examples of people singing for joy and praise to God. There are many reasons to include music in worship. One reason to sing in worship is that it is a quick way to bring people together as a group. Singing together is a shared experience and even three or four verses of a hymn or song starts to form a sense of community in that place at that time with the people gathered. I’ve planned a lot of worship services as a pastor but I’ve attended more worship services than I’ve planned. Church music …

Both Melanie Forbush and Sydney Bentley want people to know that yes, women do serve as missionaries in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They do this because they want to, not out of duty or obligation. The motivation comes from the heart, from a deeply felt call to serve others and to share the Gospel of Jesus and the message of their faith. And to share something else. Happiness. That is a word I have not heard or used in a while, but Melanie Forbush used it, and that’s the word I thought of after I spoke with Sydney Bentley. I interviewed each woman about her calling to …

The Bridge is community, coffee house and fair trade market combined in a corner location in New Town, St. Charles.  I would describe it as a place to tangibly live out faith values and principles while living out your life. Over dinner out with their spouses, the Rev. Stephanie Doeschot,  a minister of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Rev. Jim Erdman, a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), shared their separate visions of a new outreach ministry: both spoke of starting a collaborative ministry located in New Town.   The Bridge started as a small kiosk …