Pastor Rebecca was raised in Waunakee, WI, in a very musical, Lutheran home. She went to Luther College in Decorah, IA, planning to complete a degree with the hope of becoming a band director. However, she received the call to ministry in her first semester at Luther and switched majors to Public Communications and minors in Biblical Greek and Music. Her plans to attend seminary changed when she was called to become a youth director at Fifth Ave UMC in West Bend, WI, where she recognized her affinity to the heritage and theology of the Methodist denomination.
When she was living in Illinois, she attended a two-year program for congregational development as a lay person. While studying there, she was encouraged to follow her pastoral calling, and went on to seminary school in Ohio, while serving as a pastor in Plainfield, IL. She earned a M.Div. with a concentration in church renewal, graduated in 2014 in Ohio, was commissioned as a Provisional Elder in Northern IL, transferred to the WI Annual Conference, and was appointed to serve New Hope UMC, all within one month! She was ordained in 2016 and has served the WI Annual Conference in a number of ways since that time.
