Welcome – What's Up with Will VerDuin? Will VerDuin, a long time member of Federated, recently began his studies at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.  He hopes to be ordained as a UCC minister.

As part of the ordination process, Will will meet regularly with the Church and Ministry Committee of the Western Reserve Association of the Ohio Conference of the UCC to monitor his progress and ensure he is a suitable candidate for ordination within the UCC.  Another part of this process is being “In Care,” where Will aligns himself with a “sponsor” church.  Will has asked Federated to be that sponsor. 

Will VerDuin, a long-time member of Federated has completed his studies as United Theological Seminary as well as the "In Care" step of the ordination process for which Will aligned himself with Federated Church as his sponsor.

Will has been called to serve a UCC church outside of St. Louis.  His ordination service will be held here at Federated Church on November, 22 at 3pm in the Sanctuary.  All are invited to attend this celebration as one of our own begins his new ministry as an ordained pastor of the UCC.

Here is the latest update from Will along with a personal invitation to his ordination:

November 3, 2009

Hello church family!

What a whirlwind these past couple of months have been. Since my last update I have graduated (as honorary valedictorian, how did that happen?) from United Theological Seminary. It was such a blessing to be part of that institution as it wasan  invaluable part of my spiritual and intellectual formation. I'll treasure my time there always.

After that, the next step was to meet with the Western Reserve Association Department of Ministry boards to seek approval for ordination. After several meetings, a worship service, and an hour-long question and answer grilling...I mean "quite amiable session", I was blessed to be approved for ordination pending a call.  So the next weeks and months were spent sending my profile (the UCC's version of a resume) around the country.  I was looking particularly for a position of Associate Pastor while also being able to be the Youth Minister as well (very similar to Mark Simone's position for all these years).  I soon found out that this was not going to be an easy discernment task.  I selfishly (though hopefully with Godly intentions) asked God to give my wife and I confirmed excitement about where we should go.
 
We received invitations and interviews from all over the country; literally California to Maine. It was a lot to digest and pray about. We looked at about 50 different churches in three weeks' time. Some looked interesting, some would be a great challenge, some small, some big, the list went on and on. But one church stood out. One church gave Alicia and I that "gut stirring, pulse-quickening" excitement that we had prayed for, and because of that, we acted.  It was a church just outside of St. Louis, Missouri called Evangelical United Church of Christ.  They were looking for an Associate Pastor who would also be the Director of Youth Ministries.  After the first phone interview I felt something special.  The senior Pastor and I were finishing each other's sentences.  They were/are a church whose theological and social-minded ideologies line up perfectly with mine. 

After a few more interviews, trial sermons, visits, and even a trip to Buffalo, NY to a church that looked fantastic on paper but didn't give that prayed-for excitement, and lots of prayer later, I accepted the call to EvUCC outside of St. Louis.  I have been serving here for a little over and month and just love it.  The Spirit is surging here.  The church is growing, and works hard to reach out to its members, the community and world at large.  The youth programs that the Spirit has helped start through me are thriving.  We are just very, very thankful to God. In light of that, my ordination has been planned (since I have now officially accepted a call) and will be held at Federated shortly.

My ordination service will be: Sunday, November 22 at 3pm at the church. ALL are welcome to attend. There will be very light refreshments and a meet-and-greet immediately following.  I am so thankful for the support of the church through this whole process, I couldn't have done it without you. I hope you can come celebrate with me on the 22nd as God moves me and all of us through yet another chapter in this adventure of life!


Pastor Will VerDuin
Evangelical United Church of Christ
618-882-8390 (cell)

-Rock and Roll was essentially invented when on the third day the boulder was moved away from the tomb
entrance-






April 15, 2009

To my most esteemed Federidians,

Greetings in the name of all that is good and holy, which (Spoiler alert!) turns out to be God.
Well, it's been a roller coaster of blood, sweat and tears, but the end of my seminary career is rapidly approaching. And no, it's not due to the Academic Dean's house "accidentally" burning down when I "happened" to be in the neighborhood...

This last semester has proven to be one of great joy as I am taking courses in the Work of Worship, New Testament, and Systematic Theology. Did you know that the UCC is one of the few denominations which require the intellectually pragmatic course of Systematic Theology (a symbiotic merging of Philosophy, Critical Reasoning, and Theology) for ordination? You did? Oh...well, you're quite well informed.

Besides graduate work, I still lead the school's weekly Community Worship and was jokingly awarded recently the "most used symbol of marketing and advertising used in the history of United Theological Seminary". I am currently serving as Director of Worship at Green View United Church of Christ, a rural church in Piqua Ohio, which has been a blessing as well.

Hmm, what else, what else? Oh that's right, I GOT MARRIED 3 WEEKS AGO! Talk about undeserved blessings, Alicia VerDuin continues to bring unspeakable joy to my life and spiritual walk. We went to Ireland for our honeymoon and got to (in optimum nerdly fashion) walk through countless cathedrals and churches from the 5th century onward, not to mention rolling green hills, stone walls and bountiful rain. It was beyond wonderful.

So graduation is right around the corner (May 30) and my candidacy for ordination is down to the last two (God willing) sessions on May 21 and June 18 where I will give a brief worship service, sermon, and will be grilled, I mean "gently asked" by the entire Board questions of faith, theology and church. From there on out it is up to the leading of the Spirit. If all goes according to plan, Alicia and I will be searching the country to where God leads us. I will be specifically looking for a position as Associate Pastor of Youth and Children's ministries so that I can work with the little sweeties as well as preach, lead Bible study, etc. However, recent evaluating committees told me they saw strengths of mine in Church-Planting as well as acting as Senior Pastor; both of which strike me as a tad daunting at the moment so we shall pray diligently and fervently.

I want to thank the Federated community so much for its prayerful support and thoughts and again affirm how cherished my memories are of the church which all those years ago, helped form my faith to where it is now. I especially want to thank the Reverend Mark Simone, who has specifically been instrumental in my faith formation as a youth, and continues to be not only my Adviser for my Ordination process, but a wonderful friend. If you haven't told Mark how gifted he is lately, give him a high-five for me.

Many blessings, Will VerDuin"

William VerDuin
Honorary Doctor of Rockology
United Theological Seminary


November 20, 2008

"Life is busy isn't it? Down here in Dayton, the level of craziness ceases to subside (even despite frequent attempts to beseech Life to "slow down"). As a senior at United Theological Seminary, I have been busy but blessed beyond belief (how's that for alliteration?). I am the worship leader at the seminary and have been charged with the formation and maintenance of a new contemporary worship service. The Spirit has been wonderfully moving through that since these things take time to become acclimated to. In conjunction with leading worship, I am the secretary for United's Worship and Spiritual Life Committee which plans and coordinates each year's liturgical chapel services. I continue to do recruiting on a part-time basis and seem to routinely get my picture or video on our promotional literature and DVDs (it must be to show that Jesus loves "even the least of these"...)

I have completed my time of being the Youth Pastor at McKinley United Methodist Church and now do a sort of "freelance worship leading" in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky on the weekends. My time at McKinley was joyous and the Spirit as well as the people taught me invaluable lessons (like an invitation to "make yourself at home" during the sermon, doesn't actually mean you can audibly belch at your discretion). This past spring I was commissioned by the seminary to create, direct and act in a play on the Biblical book of Jonah for the city of Dayton. Though quite time consuming (who knew writing an hour-long play would take so long?), it was a huge blessing and a blast, and I have been approached to do this again in the spring of 2009 on the book of Ruth.

I have been diligently continuing on with the UCC track of ordination and have met with my subcommittee in Cleveland as well as Federated's Deacon Board several times and plan on presenting my ordination paper, while also taking my ordination exam in the spring of 2009.

In case you thought the fun stops there- I will also be getting married in March of 2009 to my unbelievably incredible fiancee, Alicia. Besides ordination, seminary graduation, and marriage, if the Browns win the Superbowl, 2009 could be the best year in human history.

My current classes at seminary include Biblical Greek, UCC Polity and History, Ethics, Issues of Evangelism, and Foundations in Church Renewal. I absolutely love learning (because sometimes it seems like the more I learn, the less I realize I truly know...) and the classes at United have been extremely beneficial in my spiritual, social and theological growth.

This past summer I was offered a job at Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, the 5th largest Methodist church in the country. Not particular about denominational affiliations, they wished me to oversee their entire High School youth program of over 3000 kids, including mission trip planning (23+ per year around the world), discipleship groups, worship leading, weekly message giving, etc. After much prayerful consideration (since this was quite an opportunity), the Lord clearly pointed me to staying focused on my studies at United, my soon-to-be marriage with Alicia, and my journey towards graduation and ordination (the job required 50+ hours/week). I felt blessed and confident in God's providential hand my decision to graciously decline that position. Since then I have been offered a Youth Pastor positions in Indiana as well as in North Carolina. I have felt called to simply wait on the Lord in these decisions to see where Alicia and I will be led after next May, confident that the Spirit of God knows much better than I where to go.

All in all, I have been learning that in this world of independence, saturated pride and mentalities that "anything goes", the closer I cling to the power of the Triune God and give up control, the stronger the Spirit moves. Whenever I think that I am in control, I am mercifully humbled into a blissful submission where the Spirit takes the proverbial wheel. I am a broken, sinful jar of clay, who is on FIRE for the work of the Lord and will unapologetically proclaim that from any rooftop you let me stand on. God moves the most sometimes, when we open up our hands and say "Here we are, Lord. Use us."

Thank you, Federated Church for all of your prayers and support.

March 27, 2008

Hey Federated Church Family!

What's happening? What's that? Oh, this is a monologue format? Well, in that case, allow me to give you some juicy tidbits on the life of this overly-boisterous but zealously passionate seminary student as of late.

Currently, I have been serving as the Youth Pastor (and once/twice-a-month preacher) for a church in downtown Dayton, called McKinley UMC.  It is an urban church that had little to no youth programming when I first arrived, but now I joyously give God all the glory for providing us with forums for children ages 6-18.  We have two separate yet fantastic youth groups, Sunday School, a Youth Church, leadership for youth in worship, nursery care, Praise Dancers, and a Youth choir.  The Lord is so good, and I am greatly blessed there.  It's a wonderful and challenging dynamic as I am the only Caucasian at the church so I get to laugh, learn, and put my foot in my mouth regularly being in fellowship with a variant culture to my own. The congregation there has been nothing but overwhelmingly supportive and loving and if I were to complain for one second, I would deserve to be slapped in the face....

I now have about one year left in seminary until I graduate with a Masters of Divinity and will be ordained (fingers and toes crossed) in the UCC.  Also in less than a year, March 21 to be exact, I'll be married to what "some" might say is the most wonderful girl that could possibly exist in the entirety of history.  Jealous?  You should be.  So yeah, 2009 is going to be a good one!

Stemming from my early days in Federated's Praise Band, I continue to play music on a semi-professional level (if it is appropiate to call it that).  During college, I played in a band that was blessed enough to play around the country for a few years, hopefully spreading God's truth, joy and fun through rock and/or roll.  We put together two albums and were again blessed with occasional radio-play.  I now play music solo at various locales in the Dayton/Cincinnati area but have played along the East Coast this past summer and throughout the Midwest.  A self-produced solo-album is in the works, but you'll have to wait until December 2008 for that.  But don't rush me, ok?  Sheesh.

For other United Theological Seminary (where I attend) news, I act as a part-time recruiter for the school which has been a great experience, lead the praise worship, am part of a Spiritual Life and Woship committee, work on social endeavors (I'm currently transposing a 1970s dinner-play into modern terminology, to be perfomed this May) and was also asked recently to co-teach a class on the Missional Church this summer with Pastor Mike Slaughter (kind of a big-wig in the Methodist social justice tradition).  So they keep me busy there, God love em'.

I also recently visited the Middle East, including Jordan, the West Bank and Israel for a little over two weeks this past January. While there, I was immersed not only in culture drowning in violence, but interacted with and loved a people of God who desperately wish for peace yet whose governments refuse to allow such a request to find fruition (ring any bells, America?)  The trip was an interesting juxtaposition between learning about the political nuances at play in the Middle East, while also meeting with people who hold positions of Attempted Reconciliation (i.e. those who faithfully stand up and say "enough is enough"- seen through formations of programs like Breaking the Silence), speaking out against needless violence against Palestinians, B'tsalem (a human rights group working with impoverished families of all religions and ethnicities), House of Hope (yet another program calling for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians in the name of God's grace and love) and many more.

While there, I also got to visit some Biblical hot-spots...the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jericho, Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity (hosting the cave in which Christ's birth is attributed), the Church of the Holy Sepulachre (where Christ's crucifixion is traditionally remembered), Golgotha/Place of the Skull), Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found), and tons of other places.  My thoughts?  Powerful.  Imagine spending a lifetime reading about the teachings and preachings of the one to whom you attribute true salvation.  All of the stories, the hills, the rocks, the smells, the atmosphere, that you have imaginatively conjured in your mind and then you are able to bring those images to life!  I will forever be able to associate vivid pictures and anecdotes with the very stories that I cling to so closely in the life of Christ and of Biblical narrative.  It was an experience that was far greater than just "neat".  After all, this was where the "Man" walked, talked and lived (and I use "man" loosely of course). 

The sites, stories and lessons are bountiful and part of what trips like these encourage is education.  So I would love to be able to tell anyone and everyone about some of the great things I saw, learned and experienced while in the Middle East.  Not least of which is some of the misnomers our American media wishes to indoctrinate us with to further breed war-time sympathy against the Palestinians.  As you might imagine, I have no qualms about relaying positions such as these, as it was an overwhlemingly universal sentiment conveyed to me by Palestinian, Israeli, Jew, Muslim and Christian alike over there.  Peace is their hope, and peace should be our goal if we claim to live in the humble shadow of Christ.  Am I right about it?

So all in all, life is good and God is better.  And through it all, I can't stress enough how fundamental my Federated upbringing and nurturing was to bring me to the place where God has me now.  I praise God for those experiences and covet your thoughts and prayers.  Feel free to contact me anytime and I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Blessings, Will VerDuin