Why Church?
Why WCUC? Just Ask Us!

Melissa – Mom and new member

Melissa found West Concord Union Church shortly after moving with her husband and two young daughters to West Concord.

“I was intending to shop around, and this was the first church I went to,” she says. “After going one time, I knew this was the church for me. Having been raised as a Catholic, I thought having a young woman pastor was awesome. The talent in the congregation is overwhelming, the girls love Sunday School and my daughter Lauren adores the children’s choir.”

Candy – Mother, grandmother, and volunteer

Traveling to New Orleans with 10 other congregants and the pastor just six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated that city was a scary prospect for Candy, a longtime member. But it was one more way that West Concord Union Church stretched and challenged her.
“I remember being nervous beforehand, about whether I could really handle it — I wasn’t really sure I could do it,” she says. But she made two discoveries: Her body was strong enough to rip the walls out of ruined houses and her spirit grew through the group’s reflections and prayers each evening.

“Having everybody share and really ground our work in the fact that it’s our faith above all that calls to us — that it’s God who calls us to do it — was really helpful. It helped me put all those devastating images we were bombarded with each day into some sort of perspective and to experience God’s hand in what we were doing.”

Katie – Junior in high school

Katie is a teenager who finds Sunday worship “relaxing,” a peaceful hour in which she doesn’t have to think about homework. “It’s nice to see your friends, listen to a good sermon, and get a break from school, playing an instrument, looking for colleges.”
She went through confirmation class and was pleasantly surprised to find that she wasn’t being told what to believe. “Some other churches teach you what you should think, whereas ours lets us think for ourselves,” she says.

Ann – Vocational rehabilitation counselor for people with disabilities
“Because of West Concord Union Church, when clients come in, I look at them – whatever their past – as children of God. I view them in a way that’s colored by WCUC and what God is calling me to do. The idea that people deserve good things in their life… that’s what we learn from our relationships with each other at church as well as the specifics of the Bible.”

Joyce – University chaplain and mother
Matt – College counselor, dorm parent, basketball coach, and father

Matt, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, and Joyce, who grew up Lutheran, have been part of West Concord Union Church since they came to town in 2002. They have three children.

“We wanted a church where everyone was welcome, whatever stage of life they were in,” Matt recalls. “The intellectual and spiritual engagement of the preaching was important, too, and of course we wanted a place where our children could start their own faith journeys without the restrictions we had growing up.”

The couple feels that WCUC is a place where people can come as they are and be challenged and nurtured as they explore and grow in their faith.