Nov. 16—DIXON — As church attendance declines across the United States, St. Paul and Immanuel Lutheran Churches in Dixon are taking an experimental approach by working together in a partnership led by a married couple as co-pastors, serving on 1 November they started their new roles.
“It’s different and as a young person it’s really cool to try this new thing,” said co-pastor Riley Reed-Windau.
About two years ago, both churches needed a new pastor. The story goes that Scott Johnson, president of the Immanuel Council, and John Strom, who was St. Paul’s council president at the time, were having dinner together and wondered, “What if the two churches came together,” said co-pastor Anthony Windau .
For Anthony and Riley, who had just left school, this opportunity was too exciting to pass up.
Anthony, originally from Milwaukee, entered seminary – a graduate school that prepares students for ministry – in 2019. A year later, Riley, originally from a rural community in Montana, started at that same school, and that’s how the couple met.
In 2021, Anthony interned at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Mendota and then served as interim pastor until 2023. The two married in November of that year.
Anthony then served as interim pastor at Faith Lutheran in Andover, Iowa, while Riley completed seminary school. Then the opportunity came at St. Paul and Immanuel Lutheran Church. The two were chosen unanimously, “which doesn’t always happen,” Anthony said, as co-pastors of the new chapter.
Both St. Paul and Immanuel have been in the community for over 100 years and the church can financially support each building, so the church did not want to close one completely and move into the other. Instead, St. Paul and Immanuel will share two pastors and work together while maintaining the separate identity of each congregation, Anthony said.
The couple didn’t plan to work together, “but it was great how it worked out,” Riley said.
Riley’s office is located at Immanuel, 1013 Franklin Grove Road, where a total of about 250 people are members and about 60 people attend Sunday services. Anthony is in St. Paul, 421 Peoria Ave., where there is a slightly smaller congregation, with a total of 184 members and about 40 people attending Sunday services.
Since they started, the couple has been busy leading worship on the weekends while figuring out what this partnership will look like on a day-to-day basis and getting to know the congregations, the Dixon community and their new home.
A member of Immanuel’s congregation recently passed away, so Riley has been “involved in planning funeral services,” while Anthony has been working to make all the services similar, Anthony said.
There is one Saturday service each week at 5:30 PM, switching locations between Immanuel and St. Paul. Both churches hold a Sunday morning service. At Immanuel the service starts at 9:00 am and at St. Paul at 10:45 am
At the moment, some services are a lot more traditional, while others are more contemporary. Anthony is looking for a middle ground between the two, he said.
Working together, Anthony said they look to the churches’ youth programs for guidance. Although the two churches have separate programs with two different directors, they hold confirmation and host events together, he said.
Going forward, they look to grow the church and its involvement in the community, Anthony said.
For more information, visit the websites of St. Paul and Immanuel Lutheran Churches online at ilcdixon.org and stpauldixon.org.
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Married co-pastors Anthony Windau and Riley Reed-Windau will lead both congregations at St. Paul’s and Immanuel Lutheran in Dixon. (Alex T. Paschal)
