Our Interim Minister Welcomes You

Interim Minister, The Reverend Dr. Lisa Presley

Our Interim Minister's Professional History

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Presley grew up in a Detroit area suburb where her parents were founders of one of the local Unitarian Universalist congregations. Lisa often blames her going into the ministry on the fumes from the mimeograph and addressograph machines that lived in their basement in the early days of that church’s existence. Her father was a photographer for General Motors, and her mother was a teacher in alternative schools. 

After her first year of college at the University of Michigan, Lisa relocated to Canada where she lived for most of the next twenty years. During that time she was a paralegal, studied accounting, and did volunteer work in her congregation and for the AIDS Committee of Toronto. In was in her early 30s that Lisa realized that she was called to the UU ministry, and so she returned to college and completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto with a double major in psychology and sociology. Lisa then attended Harvard Divinity School where she earned her Master of Divinity degree.

Lisa received her Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School in June 2007. Her project in ministry was on the tensions that exist for those UU clergy who choose to be either military or police chaplains. She also chairs the newly formed Committee on Military Ministry that has been created to support UU military chaplains and their families.

Lisa began her ministerial career with a two-year interim ministry in Calgary, Alberta. It was during this ministry that Lisa also obtained her Canadian citizenship. Following Calgary, Lisa became the minister at Northwest UU Church in Southfield, Michigan, only five miles from where she grew up. Lisa served NWUUC for eight years. Subsequent to this ministry, Lisa has been the interim minister in our congregations in Rochester, Michigan, and Naperville, Illinois. She has most recently completed a two year stint as the Interim District Executive of the Heartland District. 

When not doing interim positions, Lisa lives in a 100+ year old house in Michigan, where she actually enjoys the snow, the neighbors and the lake on which she lives.

In her spare time, Lisa enjoys kayaking, walking, watching sunsets, dining out with friends, reading trashy detective novels, Sudoku, needle crafts and napping.

Special Ceremonies

Our Minister is available to perform special ceremonies, such as weddings and services of union, child dedications and memorial or graveside services.

Minister's Newsletter Column - June 2008

In the Interim

My, how time flies when we’re having fun! It is hard for me to believe that we are coming up to the tenth month of my time with you—I’m still baffled by what you call “seasons” here in the Bay Area. It doesn’t get cold enough in winter; and in Michigan we don’t have a prolonged spring. My body is totally confused, so the end of the church year is catching me by surprise. It’s only the eagerness that grows in my heart as I consider being home for several weeks that makes me realize that our first year together is truly coming to a close. I imagine sleeping in, no alarm clocks, spending time with my sweetie, paddling around the lake, and remembering what the cat looks like.

 

But I’m not gone yet. June will see me doing more continuing education (this time in Appreciative Inquiry), and working with the leadership to consolidate plans and ideas in the fall. What programs and events will be necessary to help UUCM move more confidently into the search process for your next called minister? What will help you to become an ever increasingly healthy congregation? Two immediate answers are: vision/mission work to help you understand where you want to be, and also the creation of a behavioral covenant to remind yourselves how you want to travel into the future together. The Appreciative Inquiry training will come in handy in both of these processes—learning how to build on strengths rather than concentrating on weaknesses can build a better sense of congregational self. There will be more, I’m sure, and all of it will be revealed as we continue our work together next year.

 

So my advice to you: rest up! We’re going to have a full year next year. It will be full of new questions and answers, but also of the variety of life—the laughter and tears, the joys and sorrows, the everyday-ness of life itself. Rest up, but don’t forget to come to church!  

In faith,

Lisa Presley