Phil Haslanger

Phil is the full-time pastor at Memorial UCC. He spent most of his adult life working in journalism for The Capital Times.  He began his journey into the ministry in 2003 and served his pastoral internship at Memorial in 2004. After being authorized as a lay pastor in November 2004, he served a number of area congregations, including McFarland UCC, First Congregational UCC in Madison and Lake Edge UCC in Madison. He was ordained to the ministry in October of 2007. Phil began working as a half time associate at Memorial in May of 2007 and became full-time pastor on Jan. 5, 2009.

He is married to Ellen Reuter, who works as a spiritual director and also has worked with liturgical art and polymer clay. Phil has two grown children from his first marriage, then two more grown children with Ellen.

He loves reading and music, is learning photography and remains an avid consumer of news.

Visit Pastor Phil's Place (a blog)
Pastoral reflections from our newsletter

Leah Lonsbury

Leah grew up in the Kansas City area and originally set out to be a high school English teacher. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in 2000. She taught from 2000 to 2002 in Kansas City as a communications arts teacher.

Then in 2002, she responded to the call she felt to explore vocational ministry. She entered Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga. to pursue a Master of Divinity degree. While she was at Candler, she became part of the community at Oakhurst Baptist Church, one of the congregations on the cutting edge of creating a progressive movement among Baptists in this country. Leah’s experience in Clinical Pastoral Education was a bit outside the usual - she was in a program serving Atlanta's diverse homeless population.

After her ordination in 2005 at Oakhurst Baptist Church, Leah received a call to be minister of discipleship at First Baptist Church in Madison. She served there from August 2006 until December 2009. She has also been deeply involved in the community groups like Dane County United, the Greater Isthmus Group and Madison-area Urban Ministry. Leah currently sits on the board of the Alliance of Baptists, an ecumenical and progressive fellowship of faith communities that has a partnership with the UCC and the Disciples of Christ.

Leah is married to Justin Lonsbury, who is working on his doctorate in educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They have two children – four-year old Aiden and 9 month-old, Mara. She likes to cook, travel, read, and spend time with family and friends.

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Read her sermons

Bringing a passionate and creative spirit to Memorial