How a Life in Crisis Led to Re-discovering God and 2024 Memoir “Losing Faith, Leaving Ministry, Loving God”
October 24, 2025
Elisabeth Sherwin -- ensherwin@gmail dot com
Columnist
Not many people change their philosophy of God in mid-life.
But Ralph Patrick says he made that change in large part due to a personal spiritual pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona, Scotland.
Patrick, 64, is the pastor at the Allenspark Community Church in Allenspark, Colo., where, he says, all are welcome and no judgments are made.
That’s a far cry from the pastor he used to be.
“I was raised in the Lutheran faith,” he said in a recent interview at his church office. The Lutheran church he belonged to had a very conservative view of the Bible and its teachings.
He grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from Concordia University, St. Paul, in Minnesota. He later earned a Master of Divinity from Concordia Theological Seminary and a Master of Theology from Glasgow University, Scotland.
He was steeped in tradition and ready to follow wherever that narrow road might lead.
He married, had four daughters, and accepted the trajectory he was on as an up-and-coming minister in the Lutheran Church. He was very successful, moving from one position to another. He even served as a missionary, with his family in tow, in Papua New Guinea.
But eventually the metrics that boosted his clerical career stopped being important to him.
Patrick says his transformation from a closed, rule-bound, black-and-white thinker changed as his life journey underwent catastrophic upheavals.
His professional life as a pastor became fraught with difficulties. His congregation was divisive, fractured by power struggles.
His personal life was falling apart as he faced a divorce, the death of his mother from Alzheimer’s, and the prospect of his last child leaving home.
“I tried to find support in the church, and it wasn’t there,” he said.
His search began.
“By the grace of God, I went on a retreat and read ‘Invitation to Love’ by Thomas Keating,” Patrick said. This book, by the late monk Keating, serves both as a spiritual guide and a theological reflection, aimed at helping Christians transition from a rule-based faith to a deeper, interior transformation rooted in love and relationship with God.
This was the change Patrick was looking for.
“I saw the difference between my false self (in the church) and my true self. I realized my false self was driven by ego,” he said.
And a years-long process of re-discovering God began. This was helped by several pilgrimages to the island of Iona in Scotland. And by quitting his career as a Lutheran pastor.
“My pilgrimage marked the end of one life and the beginning of another,” he wrote in his 2024 memoir “Losing Faith, Leaving Ministry, Loving God.”
Warning: If you read this memoir you will want to go to Iona, too. The remote car-less island, home to monks and mystics, has been weaving its magic for 15 centuries.
“At Iona, everyone is warmly welcomed into the community,” he wrote. Everyone is accepted; no one is judged. This is church as a community.
While home to many sects and ancient religions over the years, The Iona Community that Patrick joined was founded in 1938 as an international, ecumenical Christian movement working for justice and peace, the rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship.
“I experienced at Iona what I couldn’t get at church – acceptance -- a community that embraced everyone,” he said.
At Iona, Patrick saw the kind of church he wanted to be part of. So, in 2015, he resigned from the Lutheran Church.
“I could not stand the internal hypocrisy,” he said. “I stayed on the clergy roster for a while and then began working for The Alzheimer’s Association in Colorado as regional director.”
Patrick was giving talks and workshops about Alzheimer’s when he met a couple in Longmont associated with the Allenspark Community Church.
“They asked if I would fill in for a month at the church,” he said.
One month led to another and then another as he became the back-up pastor and finally the full-time pastor.
“I’ve been here almost five years now,” he said. “I like the congregation and I like the quirky community. I was not sure what to expect…but there really is a spirit of unity, kindness and love here.”
Patrick says he was soured on the traditional church that he followed for many years. But he is still a Christian, just a kinder and more caring Christian without the burdens of judgments and rules.
“If you’re looking for someone to follow,” he says, “the best we’ve seen is Jesus.”
Therefore, he welcomes everyone to the Allenspark Community Church where a service is held Sundays at 10 a.m. Come to the mountains.
And for more information on Patrick and his work, go to TheCelticCompass.com where you will find that he also is a motivational speaker, a dementia counselor, a spiritual director and a man who can address the problems and solutions in cases of pastoral burnout, addiction and divorce.
He is a man who changed his philosophy from one of exclusion to one of inclusion.
-- Reach Elisabeth Sherwin at ensherwin@gmail.com
For More Information, Visit These Links:
No links were submitted for this column.
|
