Celebrating Jason & Radhika
This past month, I've been thrilled to help honor our two retiring Elders, Radhika Rawat and Jason Baker. They have different stories and lengths of time being at LaSalle, but both represent and hold in their experiences key parts of our shared LSC narrative.
Radhika joined LaSalle about five years ago, entering first through Breaking Bread. After regular participation in that evening ministry, getting to know our neighbors, some church folk, and loving Pastor Julie, it was through that "front door" that Radhika decided to give LaSalle Sunday morning worship a try. She quickly jumped in, engaging on Serve Sundays, speaking about advocacy and justice from the pulpit, helping host Young Adult events, gathering folks and making connections on WhatsApp, and then even saying yes to serve as an Elder last year. Her strategy, wisdom, creativity, courage, and lens as a young working professional woman of color was invaluable to our leadership team. She leaves the city this month to do her medical residency in LA, beloved by her colleagues and teachers at Northwestern and also leaving a huge hole at LaSalle, after being here for just a few years but engaging in so many ways. She often speaks of how much LaSalle means to her, has developed her faith, overcame some previous judgments she had about the church, and now has become part of her community that will continue across the miles. Through that weekly engagement of Breaking Bread, a busy academic living downtown found her place, and then subsequently found multiple ways to give back. Thanks be to God!
Jason Baker started at LaSalle 25 years ago, with young kids and an attraction to Sunday morning worship. The creative music and drama captured his attention, and as he and Adrianne both kept attending worship, they learned that each week felt different. More importantly, each shift in leadership or musical styles or other changes week to week felt - authentic, and handled with care. They kept being well cared for. Instead of a church that always knew what to do or had it all together, Jason named hearing from the pulpit confessions of getting it wrong, or the church not always being right, and the openness and willingness to try again kept drawing them in. Their family weathered many seasons at LaSalle, and he named times when the church's tangible community saved them - after spine surgery, delivering meals with young children, helping them grow into parents and working professionals. The ongoing years of friendship, embodied faith, and that thread of creativity engaged Jason's own heart for music and acting, and met their needs as a family. They both spent time leading, serving in turns on both the Nominating and Elder Board, attending events and retreats and making LaSalle central to their story. This month, we will say farewell to the Bakers as they move to Rockford for a new chapter with their adult kids, a new home, and will remain their Chicago home base church even as they shift to a new location. This multi-ethnic family from Oak Park spent decades of family life giving and being given to through LaSalle, and holds so many of the stories and laughter and experiened of what shaped this community for 25 years! Thanks be to God!
I am beyond thankful fo the time I got to know both Radhika and Jason, and for their stories - different and yet, woven together at LaSalle through some common threads. I know others at LaSalle who have come through the door of Breaking Bread, or through our historically creative and liberating history of worship, and I know that you too, you all are all needed! You, too, are helping build and shape this community into who God is calling us to be. And we will keep listening, and learning the stories, and also sending with deep thanks those who move on, find fantastic houses or get top tier neurosurgery residencies! :) We need one another and I treasure our diverse stories that are being woven together into one witness, of LaSalle Street Church.