“Never underestimate the amount of pain and heartache that will come through your church doors on any given Sunday.” I remember those words distinctly, though I received them over 30 years ago now.

She handed it to me in a plain manila folder marked with my name. Inside it was a treasure trove of memory. It was a file folder kept by the late Rev. Henry Heinbuch, my pastor for the first 20 years of my life at Zion UCC in Waukon, Iowa. 

Story. Our faith would be nowhere without it. Our Biblical narrative is filled with the stories of our ancestors in faith. From the creation accounts, through the prophets’ proclamations, to the teachings of Jesus and on to the apostles’ letters, we are drenched in the stories of those who have gone before us.