Greetings to All!

Welcome to St Stephen’s, and welcome to this week’s E-Courier!!

I wanted to take a few moments here, to introduce myself. 

Many of you may know of me, and some of you I have not yet had the privilege to meet just yet. My name is Tim Gough, and I am your current Council President. 

I have been attending St Stephen’s Lutheran Church for approximately 3 years now, and the “warming up“ process was a bit slow, it was necessary. I have two points I want to share as it pertains to my journey with St Stephen’s and arriving at the role I am now at. 

One, St Stephen’s does an absolute perfect job at adhering to our Motto “To Love, To Invite, To Serve.” If you are new to St Stephen’s, just take a few weeks, sit back and relax, and you will feel these very three attributes come to life. 

For myself, many of you know that I identify as Gay, and have a Husband, Juan, who also is a member of the church now. (That’s another story for another time). When I was a child I had a couple of opportunities to engage with churches, unfortunately, all of them did not foster the Motto that we here at St Stephen’s hold; they were very strict and judgmental, all of which left me to live my childhood years feeling out of place, unloved and ultimately rejected by God, and anyone who had a relationship with him. This challenge continued into my adult years, though I gave less thought or attention to rectifying it, for I felt it was a loss cause. Until, one day, I did a Google search and came across St Stephen’s. From the moment I wandered helplessly into the Church, Karleen greeted me and led me through the church to where service was and engaged with me in such a genuine and compassionate way, free of any judgement, by the way.  That began the process of my three-decades long healing with church and God. This Motto became true in every aspect of St Stephen’s, to the Pastors, and to every member I came in contact with, not one of them has ever made me feel unloved or unwelcome. This relationship that I have formed with St Stephen’s is not a coincidence, it was God-sent, and it has changed the trajectory of my life forever. 

Why I decided to become more involved in St Stephen’s is simple. It’s because of the people we serve and the people we worship with. You all have made me want to be around you more often, to further establish and grow my relationships with you all and with the church and with God and his son Jesus. As I became more comfortable at St Stephen’s, and my constant tardiness bothered NO ONE, I realized I am here to stay, I LOVE THESE PEOPLE, and clearly they love me! SO every few weeks someone else was coming up to me and encouraging me to take on another component of Church, from being the Assistant Minister, to assisting with different events the Church is involved in, to joining the Council; little did I know that would lead to me being voted in as your Council President. 

This is a role that I will not and do not take lightly, and though it came to fruition quickly, I do not have any regrets. Frankly this has solidified my healing journey with the Church and God and has led to so many people I now call my family. I look forward to supporting you all in this role and in general and furthering the establishment and growth of our relationships with each other and with God. 

Go with Peace. There is Room at God table for ALL!

With Love,

Tim Gough Jr. 

Council President