Grace and Truth - How Pastor Chip Urmacher Teaches

I have been attending Prairie Lakes for a few years now, but since creating this blog I’ve been looking for ways to dive deeper and learn more about faith. What better way to do this than to meet with one of my pastors and get to know him better? Prairie Lakes has a rotation of three different pastors who give a message each weekend. Senior Pastor John Fuller teaches about half of the time, Pastor of Campus Development Jesse Tink teaches about a quarter of the time, and Cedar Falls Campus Pastor Chip Urmacher teaches the remaining quarter. I met with Chip to talk to him about what it’s like to be a pastor at Prairie Lakes.

Prairie Lakes started as the Cedar Falls Baptist Church over 150 years ago. The church moved around to different buildings, but by 2000 it was outgrowing its facilities. In 2005, the church finished building the campus it resides at today near Prairie Lakes Park, and adopted the name Prairie Lakes Church. Prairie Lakes is a multi-generational church and has campuses all across Iowa. Like I’ve heard Chip say many times, it is a “no-matter” church, where they say, “no matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what’s been done to you, God loves you, and you can look for God.”

Chip Urmacher provides leadership and guides all ministry areas at Prairie Lakes in Cedar Falls. With a masters in counseling, it is clear he was made to help people. He attended a Lutheran Church when he was growing up, but after he went to college, said he felt moved to become a pastor. “I was a freshman and I was a secondary education and coaching major, so I wanted to be a science teacher and a coach,” he said, “and then I had a really cool experience where I stepped over the faith line and trusted in Jesus for the first time, and at that point I felt called to ministry.”

All Chip had known at this point was Lutheranism, so he wasn’t sure at first if being a pastor would suit him. Encouragement from friends and family pushed him on though, and has since been in ministry for nearly twenty years.

Prairie Lakes is a very welcoming, accepting church, but that doesn’t mean that they shy away from tough subjects and what the Bible says about them. Chip said, “The Bible tells us that Jesus was full of grace and truth, so that’s what we strive to do here- to be full of grace and truth.”

Topics like sexuality, gender roles, and salvation can all be difficult subjects to tackle, but Chip does so by first stating what the Bible says, what those words mean, and then deciding what it is that the people need to hear. This three-step process is what shapes how Chip presents any message. Prairie Lakes aims to be loving and accepting to all, but to also tell the truth about what the Bible says even if it may be confrontational. “This isn’t for the sake of confrontation,” Chip said, “but for people to know the word of God.”

One of his favorite topics to talk about is forgiveness. Having been to services where he talks about this subject I can confer that he is a very powerful speaker about forgiveness. To forgive can be a very difficult thing, but extremely important to living a happy life. Chip said that he has been on quite the journey in his life when it comes to forgiveness, so he likes to teach others about it not only for their benefit, but also as a reminder to him.

Outside of church life, Chip is an outdoorsman. He loves to fish, hike, and be outside with his family. We talked about fishing for awhile as I also love to fish, and we both agreed that we hope it warms up soon so we can enjoy it more! Chip loves his job as a pastor at Prairie Lakes, and the front row seat it gives him to the most important moments in people’s lives.

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

- 1 Corinthians 15:58