Hello! I’m Joan Sulser, the interim pastor of Cheney United Church of Christ. Welcome to our website!
I began serving the church on Easter Monday 2010, so I don’t know a lot about the congregation yet. My predecessor described the congregation this way:
We are welcoming and accepting of all different kinds of people. We love to sing folk music, to be inspired by artistic expression, to think and talk about the connections between politics and religion. This congregation leads with their brains, always seeking to learn, to think, to reconsider old assumptions. We often agree to disagree, and try to create a safe space to share both our differences and our agreements.
We are passionate about mission and justice, and we work together to make the world a better place. Past projects have included helping build homes for Habitat for Humanity, sponsoring Muslim students from Azerbaijan as they pursue degrees at Eastern Washington University, and collecting items to provide Church World Service health kits for people in dangerous and deprived areas of the world.
We are a congregation that loves children, from nursery through youth group. And we are a people of faith, seeking to share both our faith and our doubts, learning from the teachings of the Old and New Testament, inspired by the connections between religion and culture.
If you're looking for a church that will give you all the right answers, we are probably not that church! In our church, you are invited to question -- question why we do what we do, question what you believe and why you believe it, question the historic assertions of faith that you may have taken for granted throughout your life.
We invite you to walk with us, to struggle through life's complexities with us, and to find acceptance, compassion and support within our community, as you work through your own faith in God. Our congregation is composed of individuals from the entire spectrum of faith, conservative to liberal, evangelical to barely Christian, traditional to contemporary. What holds us together is our passion for God, our commitment to follow Jesus, and our belief that together we can make a difference in a suffering world.
If you think Cheney UCC might be a good fit for you, please come visit! I would welcome a call or an e-mail.
I serve the church half-time, so my normal schedule is:
· Sunday mornings for worship and coffee hour
· Mondays in the office 1pm-9pm
· Tuesdays in the office 5pm-9pm
· Sermon writing at home later in the week
Of course, I’ll be present other times if there’s a wedding, funeral, special occasion, emergency, etc. I live on the west side of Spokane, and can be in Cheney in 20 minutes. I can be reached anytime at joansulser@gmail.com or on my cell phone.
Now for a little about me … I grew up in Illinois, was an English major at a small college in Iowa, earned my Master of Library Science at U of Illinois, and worked as a high school librarian for seven years before changing careers. In 1988, I received my Master of Divinity from Yale. I served as a UCC minister in Massachusetts for two years and in Wisconsin for 18 years, before moving to Spokane in October 2008 for my husband’s job. I have served churches as large as 1,700 members and as small as 80 members. I like to read, travel, walk our dog (Karma, a 2 ½ year-old Labradoodle), eat out and watch movies.
Wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome at Cheney UCC!