About Us

Ames United Church of Christ is a congregation of roughly 300 members located in downtown Ames, Iowa. We are a liberal Protestant church with a warm welcome and a passion for social justice. We come from diverse religious and family backgrounds, and we gather to celebrate the presence of God in our lives through worship, education, serving others, and building bonds among us. The congregation was organized in Ames in 1865 as the First Congregational Church of Ames. Along with other Congregational churches, we joined the United Church of Christ in 1957.

February 21, 2012
From the Pastor
I grew up in Eastern Massachusetts where Roman Catholics were the predominant religious group. I always knew it was Lent because the dining hall at school would start serving fish on Fridays, and some kids showed up at school with dark splotches on their foreheads.

Invariably in the weeks leading up to Ash Wednesday, I would overhear my classmates saying to one another, “What are you giving up for Lent?” The question was so commonplace in my high school that I remember one of my Jewish friends deciding to give something up for Lent because it seemed like everyone was doing it. That is what Lent was for me as a kid, a time when Catholics gave up something, like chocolate or soda.

My home church in Wellesley, a UCC church in the Congregational tradition, would mention Lent in the bulletin but do little else to recognize the season. I vaguely remember a change in the liturgical colors, but people in the church rarely focused on that type of thing. Perhaps the church of your youth had a similarly tenuous relationship with Lent.

In New England, Lent seemed altogether too Catholic for many Protestants, but there are other reasons to be wary of Lenten observance. We proclaim that the cross is empty. Jesus is raised. The work is done. A penitential season like Lent, during which we refrain from singing “Alleluia,” implies that Jesus is back in the tomb and that Easter has not occurred. Then there is the practice of giving up temptations for Lent, which reeks of works righteousness for Reformed Protestants. God will not reward us for giving up chocolate, and, without God’s grace, we will give something up only to go back to it when our will wears thin.

Since the liturgical renewal movement of the 1970s, mainline Protestants have embraced the liturgical calendar, including Lent. Lent has its advantages. It provides an opportunity for self-reflection, an invitation to introspection.

Are you looking for an excuse to read through a book of the Bible and to make notes on its spiritual significance for your life? Go for it! It is Lent! Lent also offers us the chance to meditate on the passion, i.e. the suffering, of Christ and its implications. When was the last time you read through any of the four accounts of the passion? They take up the lion’s share of the gospels, but how well do we know them? These next few weeks, during the lead up to Easter, is the time to consider the cross.

I invite you to pray about what that might mean for you. Perhaps you will choose not to observe the season, and that is fine. If you do, tell me about your insights. Going forward it would be beneficial to consider what we want to make of Lent in our communal lives together. I wish you God’s blessings on your own Lenten journey, whatever it might be.

--Jonathan Page