Hello from your Administrative Assistant: Claire R. Schoepp

I'm very excited to be on board as the Administrative Assistant at St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square.  I love to use my gifts to serve in the church and to lift up the good work of all the people of God.I'm a Lutheran Deaconess from the Lutheran Deaconess Association and as a Deaconess I am dedicated, in whatever I do, to serve for the sake of Christ in others.  This, of course, is the call of all of the baptized -- to serve as we are called and able.  And so I often laugh when people ask me "What is a Deaconess?"  So if a child asks me, I tell them to guess and usually they say "a person who works in a church." Then, I get the distinct pleasure of explaining how "Yes, that is one way a person can be a Deaconess."  In fact, that's how I am one at St. Luke's and Luther Memorial where I am Administrative Assistant and Youth and Family Minister respectively.Deaconesses and Deacons (like all Lutheran clergy types) are trained in theology and pastoral care.  Deaconesses and Deacons are also formed into community where they find support for their particular call to "Faith and Service in Christ."  We are also encouraged to find ways to serve that are not always considered "traditional" clergy jobs.  Some Deaconesses and Deacons are lawyers, social workers, stay at home moms, grad students, nurses, school teachers, missionaries, and more.So what does being an Administrative Assistant have to do with being a Deaconess?  Deaconess comes from the Greek diakonia meaning service.  I love using my gifts of organization to do just that -- to serve.  There is no particular job or position that can't be treated as service to God and God's people -- all are made in the image of God and it is the gift of the baptized to serve God in others wherever we might be.  That being the case, I believe that we all serve together.  Nobody has a monopoly on service or serving.I just get to be a particular living reminder of that call to diakonia and am intentionally reminded of it by my community of Deaconesses and Deacons.So that's a lot of me.  I am also a spouse of a theater artist (see my husband pictured above), a person with a MA in Theology: Biblical Languages & Literature, a lover of music (I play cello and sing), a person who loves eating out more than is reasonable or responsible, an advocate for fair trade, dog lover (though I don't have a dog), and a person who uses far too many parentheses.I look forward to getting to know all of you over the coming months.Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.  If I don't know the answer right away, we'll find it together.And thank you for inviting me to serve with you at St. Luke's.  What good work we have to do together!

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I'm in the office from 9am-1pm, Monday-Friday.

office@stlukesLS.org / (773) 235-5420