JANUARY 5, 2023

Dear First Congregational Church,

This coming Sunday, January 7, we will be saying farewell to Rev. Deborah Voss as she retires after 26 and a half years as our Director of Christian Education. She will preach on Sunday during our 10:30 am Worship Service. We will present gifts to her, release her with vows of farewell, and bless her on her way. Following worship, we will gather in Plymouth Hall for more festivities at an Open House, from noon until 2 pm. We hope you will join us as we express our most heartfelt gratitude to Deborah for her many years of faithful service to our children, youth, families, and congregation.  

As we say farewell to Deborah, we are also preparing to welcome a new member of our staff. Earlier this week, at a special meeting on Tuesday, January 2, our Church Council voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Search Committee to hire Lianna Campos as our Minister of Faith Formation. 

Lianna earned a Master of Divinity degree from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis in 2022, a B.S. in Education from Eastern Illinois University in 2014, and is in the final stages of the process leading to ordination in the Southeast Association of the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the UCC. Currently, Lianna is working as the Director of Faith Formation and Office Administrator at St. John’s UCC in Indianapolis, and previously she served as Communications Director and Christian Education Director at two other local churches, after working as a public elementary school teacher for four years. 

Lianna demonstrated to us that she has the experience, the skills and the dedication to guide our children, youth, and adults as we seek to grow in faith together. She says that our job description for Minister of Faith Formation, including its emphasis on intergenerational interaction and lifelong learning, is her dream job. Lianna has a calming presence, is a careful listener, and is wonderfully articulate about her work and vision. She has experience and a commitment to developing intentionally diverse faith formation opportunities that bring people together creatively through shared interests across generations.

Lianna and her spouse Joshua have three dogs – Zaggi, Puff, and Sally. When Lianna and Josh were here with us in the days just before Christmas, Katie Wilkerson took them on a tour which included pointing out the best dog parks in neighborhoods in Boulder and surrounding towns. Lianna and Josh are now making plans to join us on March 1, 2024. Meanwhile, we are enormously grateful to Susan Wilkinson, Louis Matthias, Julia Wirth, and Ginger Johnson for sustaining our Sunday morning program for children and youth during the interim.

As we prepare to say goodbye and then hello, we give God thanks that our congregation is blessed by the gifts and dedication of both Deborah and Lianna.

With gratitude,

The Search Committee

Jessica Austin, Bob Brown, Katie Wilkerson, 

Rev. Linda Kowatch, and Rev. Chris Braudaway-Bauman