Hi!  I’m Adam Webber, the pastor of the Open Prairie United Church of Christ at 25 East Marion Street in Princeton, Illinois, USA.  I’d like to invite you to come to my church, which meets at 10:30 on Sunday mornings.

But here are some good reasons why maybe you should not accept this invitation:

  • If you already have a church community you love, please say a prayer for us, but ignore this invitation, and keep right on loving your church. I don’t encourage people to church-hop.
  • If you believe that the Bible is always right about everything, please say a prayer for us, but ignore this invitation. I’m probably not the right guy to be your pastor. Reading the Bible, for me, is like having a conversation with our faith ancestors. I respect them, and I treasure their wisdom — but I don’t always agree with them.
  • If you think God judges people according to their gender identity or sexual orientation — well, we don’t judge people about things like that, and we don’t think God does either.

On the other hand, here are some good reasons why maybe you should accept this invitation:

  • We welcome skeptics. If you don’t trust institutions, especially religious ones; if you have questions, but are suspicious of people who claim to have all the answers; if you think of yourself as spiritual but not religious — you should definitely check us out.
  • We welcome diverse beliefs. For my part, I don’t think Jesus cared that much about what his friends believed. He cared much more about how they behaved: feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, welcoming the stranger, helping the poor.
  • And then there’s our pastor. Modesty forbids me from saying what a dynamite preacher I am — entertaining, earnest, moving, musical — but what the heck: come and see.

If you want to learn more about me, you might visit my personal web site.  I do a video blog there called The Merry Mystic, and you can also read about my books and CDs and so forth. I hope you’ll take a look there — but frankly, you’ll learn a lot more just by spending an hour with us at Open Prairie on Sunday morning. That’s because I’m just one member of the Open Prairie community. The fascinating people here are, by far, the best thing about this church.

Now may God bless your path, wherever it leads you. I hope it leads you to our door!