100 Years of Worship: Tom Ferry

As Como Park Lutheran Church celebrates 100 years, many of its stories are about the people who have helped shape the spirit of the congregation over time. For more than 25 years, Director of Music Ministries Tom Ferry has helped shape one of the most recognizable parts of worship at Como Park Lutheran Church, the music. For Tom, music is not a performance for the congregation, it is the congregation’s voice lifted together.

In the Lutheran tradition, the long-standing title for a Director of Music Ministries is cantor, literally a leader of congregational song, and that idea sits at the center of how Tom understands his role. “My goal always is to facilitate the voice of the congregation in worship,” he says. Music is not something performed for a congregation, it is something the whole community offers together. “Choirs are not singing for the congregation,” Tom explains. “We are singing for God on behalf of the congregation.” Worship music, in Tom’s view, is not entertainment, it is part of the congregation’s shared prayer. “Music can be prayer, it can be praise, it can be adoration,” he says. “It can also be teaching. It speaks in ways that words cannot.”

That philosophy shapes not only what music is sung, it shapes who feels invited to sing it. Tom emphasizes that while preparation and care matter, worship is not about perfection. “The thing I’ve always told anyone who participates in music here is that we are called to give our best to God,” he says. “That doesn’t mean you’re expected to be Liberace or Celine Dion.” What someone’s “best” looks like can change from week to week. Illness, sleepless nights with children, difficult weeks at work, life inevitably finds its way into Sunday morning. Worship makes room for that reality. “All we’re called to do is give our best at that moment,” Tom says, “not to compare it to some other person or some other time.”

In many ways, that approach reflects something deeper about the spirit of Como Park Lutheran Church itself, a community marked not just by musical excellence, but by humor, humility, and a shared willingness to show up as we are. That spirit of participation is something many members notice right away. In last month’s centennial story, member Lori Purdham described feeling invited into worship through music, not because of skill, but because everyone’s voice mattered.

Tom first arrived at Como Park in 1998, drawn by two things he noticed right away, the congregation’s long history of valuing music and its strong commitment to mission and generosity beyond its own walls. It did not take long for the community itself to make an impression.

At the time, Tom’s son Ethan was just six months old, curious and energetic. During a service not long after the family arrived, Ethan managed to crawl away from the pews and make his way all the way to the front of the sanctuary. The pastor, standing on the floor during announcements, simply scooped him up, set him on his hip, and continued without missing a beat.

Tom still laughs when he remembers it. “It was like, yeah,” he recalls. “This is home.”

Moments like that confirmed what Tom had begun to sense, Como Park was a place where both music and community mattered deeply. Over the years, the congregation’s love of music has taken many forms. From Bach and large choral works to contemporary praise music, mission concerts, and an annual Messiah sing-along that once filled the sanctuary with more than 200 voices, Como Park has embraced a wide range of musical expression. “It’s been a good place to speak in many musical languages,” Tom says.

Music may be the most visible part of Tom’s ministry, yet what has kept him at Como Park for more than two decades reaches beyond music itself. “The community,” Tom says simply. Within the congregation, friendships grow naturally, and a quiet culture of care surrounds those relationships. When someone faces illness or hardship, support often appears without much fanfare. “Somebody might have cancer, and unless you’re aware of what’s going on you might completely miss the fact that people just step up,” he explains. Meals are delivered, rides are arranged, and help appears where it is needed. “It isn’t always the same people,” Tom says. “It just happens.”

Looking ahead, Tom hopes that spirit continues long into the future. “I hope that when someone walks through these doors, they feel welcome,” he says. “I hope worship is a place where people can both be accepted and have a voice, a way to speak to God in prayer and in praise and supplication and adoration. All of those things are part of worship.”

After more than two decades of music at Como Park Lutheran Church, that vision remains the same, a community where every voice matters and worship, offered together, continues to shape the next hundred years of Como Park Lutheran Church.