Feb 3, 2004

New pastor at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Willow Glen

The Reverend Beate (Bea) Chun was installed Jan. 25 as the new pastor of Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (CGS).

Pastor Chun comes to CGS with 12 years experience as a Lutheran pastor in Texas and Wyoming congregations. For the past three years she lived in San Francisco where she worked as a youth counselor and was most recently working for the San Francisco Night Ministry. She was educated in Germany (Goettingen and Hamburg) and the United States (United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio). She is married to Matthew Chun.

She comes to CGS with many desires, including making the church a place of “radical welcome” to all people. She also wants to equip and support lay people for ministry in daily life; to support parenting as a spiritual practice and to support youth and family ministries. The pastor is eager to honor the experience of women, especially their life cycle events and to maintain a multicultural context for the church that will appeal to all segments of the CGS community.

She desires to reach out to and support the gay and lesbian community as well as people who are currently unconnected to the church and to maintain a strong ecumenical partnership with other faith communities while advocating for the poor and homeless in the community. 

“Compassion and loving-kindness are the two most important qualities that I like to see continually nurtured and deepened in myself and others so we can bring these qualities to the community around us,”  she said. “We are looking for God and God is looking for us. So there is this constant dialogue going on with questions back and forth.” 
Pastor Chun should fit in well at the church based on one of the slogans found on the CGS Web page (http://www.cgslc.org): “You have questions. So do we. CGS is a church that is committed to searching for meaning in life through its members’ struggle to serve those around us and by striving to understand the Gospel and how it is relevant to all of us living here in Silicon Valley. CGS strives to be a place of progressive Christian spirituality where we can work together to define what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the 21st century, a place where all are welcome.  

For further information contact Pastor Chun at CGS at 266-8022 or e-mail her at church@cgslc.org. Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (CGS) is at 1550 Meridian Avenue in Willow Glen.