09 Apr Ready to walk with people and hear their stories – an interview with WCC’s new senior pastor, Rev. Paulo Gustavo França
We are thrilled to have Rev. Paulo here as our new senior pastor. We recently sat down for an interview to get to know him a little better, and to find out more about his faith journey as well as why he’s excited to be here at WCC.
Question: Frederick Buechner, we’ve heard, is one of your favorite writers and he once famously said:
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.”
So, start us off with telling us a little about when you first felt a sense of being called by God.”
Paulo: I grew up in Brazil, but actually I was the first person in my family to attend church. When I was in my early 20’s I was in the rainforest volunteering with people who were very poor. I was staying with a large family in a remote area of the rainforest. And it was there that I really felt that sense of awareness that my call from God was taking shape.
I remember bathing in this spring, you know, this crystal-clear spring. And there was this beautiful water, running to the river by the house. And it felt like…you know…this, this is sacred…this is holy. And it made me want to pursue this sense of call.
I love what the writer Anne Lamott says. She says, God is like this little stray kitten that follows you to your home and then you let it in, you put a little milk out and it stays and never goes away.
That’s sort of how it happened, for me. That sense of call was not just one and done – for me it’s been an ongoing process of becoming more fully aware of what God wants for me, calls me to.
Did you always think you would become a pastor?
Paulo: I went to Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and I did my Master of Divinity and then I stayed for my Master of Theology. My professors were telling me that I should pursue a PhD in Christian ethics, which was my passion.
But I really like to be with people! Being with people, that is something sacred to me. That people allow us into their lives in all kinds of moments, that feels like such a privilege for me, or any pastor.
I think there is a true beauty in our stories. To hear people’s stories for me is an honor. And I realized that I wanted to be in the parish where that happens almost on a daily basis.
So since graduating from seminary you’ve served churches in Chicago, Cleveland Heights OH, Hartford CT, Plymouth NH, and Acton MA. What led you to WCC?
Paulo: I was working at a church in Massachusetts, and I had just had a divorce, and I was kind of trying to figure out…you know…my life and what was going to happen next. I think it was a professor at Duke University who once said something that I thought was fascinating. He said that when you come together and get married that is a celebration, it’s public. It’s great. You invite your people — your people that you want to have there. But when you’re breaking up, it’s quiet… silent.
So, I was in that moment in my life, and I wasn’t really looking for a new position in a serious way. But I got a call from a friend who thought I might be a good fit for Winnetka.
I went to do some research and looked at this church. And honestly, I was blown away by what I read, their commitment to being an inclusive congregation, to the environment, to racial justice, to the LGBTQ community – which is certainly something very important to me as an individual. And also, their desire to be a church open to the community, not just closed and worried about this building and this structure, but that wants to go out there and be a presence in the world, a healing presence, not a divisive presence. A church that wants to embrace people where they are and not ask people to shape up to a certain mode before they can be part of the community. I was absolutely fascinated by that. It resonated with me.
When I came here for the interview, I felt the authenticity in the search committee members. And I felt a sense of joy about this place. It was not just a church. It was a church with a vision, a church with a willingness to move forward, a church that smells like people and you know, they were happy, together. They were genuinely happy to be there together. I was like, “You know, I want what they have. I want that sense of joy. I want that sense of being present in the world.”
You haven’t been at WCC very long, of course. But what have your first impressions been?
Paulo: Since I’ve been here – of course, that’s just been about a month – but there is a sense of – you know – there is a sense of gratitude for life here. I mean, this is a privileged church, and they know it, but there is a sense that they want to do something right in the world. They don’t just want to escape.
Like, I was talking on a recent Sunday after the service with a group of guys. We were talking about this large gathering of youth that happened in downtown Chicago a few days before that caused a lot of mayhem, and about how people don’t want to go into Chicago anymore because it’s so dangerous.
But someone in the group said “That’s why we have to go, because if we flee away, what is left?”
I so appreciate that sense of responsibility for the community I’ve found here.
What else excites you about being at WCC right now?
Paulo: This ability to walk with people is, for me, very important, and to learn their faith journey, and how they experience God. Because, I mean, we’re all theologians, right? In the end, we’re all theologians. We’re all asking the big questions: “Why am I here, what’s my life for, what’s the purpose of human life, how do I fit into this world? What am I accomplishing? What’s my legacy? What’s going to happen when I die?” I think we’re all asking and wrestling with all the big questions as all theologians do, and we come up with very unique answers.
I’m also excited about getting to know the Winnetka community a little better. I do not know the community outside the church yet, so what I’m trying to do right now is I’m reaching out to other pastors, and others in the area to connect to and say, hey, how are you? How can we partner? How can we be supportive to another?
I’m hoping to find ways to connect to a community that is extremely wealthy, well-educated, and that probably doesn’t need a lot of the services that churches usually think about. I mean, we think about helping the poor, right? So how do we connect with a community that does not need that, if they need something other than that? I would love to see how we could create soft entry points for people in the community to get to know us. Like, how could we address issues that are pertinent to families and kids growing up in a very competitive world, for example?
I’m excited about spending more time in the Winnetka community to see what’s going on and what the needs are here.
Any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with today?
Paulo: My whole idea is that the church is here not for the church itself, but for the world.
We are here for the world. We are here to be part of the conversation, to engage with the wider community and bring the gift of our Christian accents to the bigger language that is being spoken outside.
To get to know Pastor Paulo even better, join us in worship any Sunday, at 10 am, in the sanctuary or online.
Starting on Easter Sunday, April 20, we’ll begin exploring Easter’s call to A NEW LANGUAGE FOR LIVING. This is an invitation to leave behind how we’ve been moving through the world and to learn a new vocabulary, one grounded in love and compassion. In a world so often held back by mistrust and separation, it’s an invitation to embrace the grammar of grace, one that reflects an expansive faith and the radical, arms-wide-open love of Christ.
