Plymouth United Church of Christ Making a more loving world
	Open and Affirming 2010 Moholt Dr. (Directions) Eau Claire, WI 54703 715-835-5475	Worship at 10:30 am Sunday Fully accessible

Pastor David J. Huber

Greetings!

I am fortunate to be the pastor of people who have lots of questions (and aren't afraid of them!), but who do not question Jesus' command to feed the hungry and to love our neighbors as we try to make the world a more loving place.

And that's what it's all about, I think. Jesus asked us to make the world a more loving world. It has enough hurt in it already. We ought to be about mending and healing, not piling on.

There is a book called "I Am a Holocaust Torah", about a Torah that was burnt in Germany during WWII. (Torahs are scrolls of sacred texts used in Jewish worship). It has these words: "Some scrolls live fortunate lives, happy lives. They are carried around during services... Rabbis dance, holding them aloft. Other scrolls are unlucky, pushed to the back of the ark, unloved, silent. Still other scrolls suffer a tragic fate and go through fire and suffering, die, or survive in a damaged condition. Yet, all contain the same sacred words, all are holy in the eye of the beholder."

That could easily be talking about us. Some of us are fortunate, some of us are damaged. Some of us are happy and healthy, some of us struggle day to day with mental illness or abuse from others or poverty. Some of us have healthy and functional homes, families, and churches, some of us have dysfunctional and painful homes and families, or have been abused by the church or in one way or another been made to feel unwelcome or unworthy.

But the truth is that we are all sacred. We all carry a sacred story, our story, with us. And we are all loved by God. You matter to God, the beholder who sees your holiness. Plymouth is a place of welcome and love. A place of healing for those wounded by the church or life in general, and a place of love that lives out Jesus' desire that we feed and take care of one another. We are a people who believe that our lives are best when we live for the betterment of others, as Jesus calls us to do. A place where asking questions is safe and encouraged, where doubt is welcome (God knows I have my moments of doubt!), and where difficult situations are confronted with the question, "What is the most loving thing to do?"

I invite you to join us for worship! If you are curious what to expect, check our New Here? page. I also invite you to contact me by facebook, twitter, or email if you have any questions or would like to talk. I'm always happy to share a coffee and a conversation and get to know people better. Please let me know how I can help you.

Pastor David

I am also available for speaking engagements, prayers, etc..

More about me, if you're really interested. But I won't feel bad if you don't read it.

At my blog The Pastor's Pen, at which I post my sermons, articles, and occasional ruminations. Farther down this page are some articles I have written.

My path to being a pastor started as a teenager and being active in my church. I always felt like an outsider at school, but in my church I found profound acceptance of my oddities and nerdiness (Star Trek, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, scifi and fantasy, comic books, science... all the stuff that was totally uncool to my peers and family). Through their acceptance I learned to accept myself as I was, because God accepted and loved me. I was a science and computer nut, so I earned a degree in electrical engineering and went to work. It never felt "right" in the way that being "at church" felt right, though. I wasn't sure what was right for me. So I quit engineering and went to work at a grocery store to spend three years finding myself. I became even more active in my church during this time. I went back to college and studied music theory and quantum mechanics. Having struggled for so long, it became clear that I was happiest when I was serving Jesus. Others started asking me if I had considered going into ministry, because they felt that perhaps that was God wanted for me. I thought about it, prayed over it, talked with many people about it, and decided to answer the call to ministry.

I moved to New York City to attend Union Theological Seminary. Since then, I have served Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn Heights, NYC; Broadway UCC in Manhattan, Scarsdale UCC in Scarsdale, NY, and Central Union Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. I also spent a few years as the Executive Assistant to one of the Partners of the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., and then was Executive Assistant to the Head of Equities Strategy at Lehman Brothers (no link to that company, since they went bankrupt in 2008...).

I am intrigued by the dialogue between science and religion, two fields which have been unfairly separated over the years. I am part of the Chippewa Valley Dialogue on Science and Religion, a group of clergy, professors, and interested lay people that reads books on science and religion. I have written a number of articles on this topic as well (see below for them).

One of my passions in the church is worship leading, especially exploring how to bring our contemporary daily lives into the worship life of the church while maintaining the integrity and mystery of our ancient rites.

My partner of 18 years currently lives in Japan, serving as Chaplain at all-girls college in the city of Matsuyama.

I serve the wider church as the secretary for the Northwest Association of the Wisconsin Conference UCC. I have helped with our summer Outdoor Ministry as a camp director for MADD (Music, Arts, Dance, and Drama) camps and Adventure Camps, doing workshops on drama and writing. And I have led workshops around the Conference, and at our Conference’s annual meetings, on youth ministry, inclusion of LGBT people in the life of a congregation, and leading worship and writing liturgy.

Locally, I volunteer at the Eau Claire Arts Center, am part of the local ecumenical clergy group, write articles for our local newspaper, the Leader Telegram, and chair the Board of Directors for Northern Spirit Radio, a local non-profit that produces religious/spiritual radio pograms on music and social activism broadcast around the world that explore personal spiritual journeys through interviews. I serve as the local liason for Equality Wisconsin, a social justice organization for LGBT rights and inclusion, and am involved with the Second Tuesday Partnership, a coalition of local service organizations, religious institutions, police, social workers, probation officers, political leaders, business leaders, and concerned citizens that is building relationships between the many agencies that serve people so that we can be more efficient with resources, be more helpful to those who need our help, and share information with one another to reduce deuplication of efforts and wasted resources. I recently became involved in OurWalmart, a grassroots group of WalMart employees and their employees fighting for a $15/hr wage and full-time employment with healthcare for those who want it.

I sang with the Master Singers choir in Eau Claire, but am currently on a hiatus. I served for six years as the Chair of the Wisconsin Conference Youth Ministry Team and led the Conference’s Youth Drama Team for 7 years.

Please read or listen to my sermons and/or my articles, or my blog. You can find me onfacebook twitter, too. Apart from tweeting and religion, social, and science news and ideas, I also send out a daily Shakespearean insult. A friend gave me a Shakespeare insult generator as a gift at the end of last year, so I make a new one each morning and tweet and facebook it. You may also subscribe to my podcast, Sermons and Sounds of Plymouth, which is usually the Sunday sermon, but sometimes also includes special music or worship services or other audio files.

Pastor David

Tweets by @revdavidhuber

Contact

Phone 715-835-5475 or

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Plymouth United Church of Christ
2010 Moholt Drive
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 54703
715-835-5475