100 Years of Belonging: Lori Purdham

When Lori Purdham talks about Como Park Lutheran Church, she starts with the people.

She and her husband first came here in 1991 so they could be married in the sanctuary. What they didn’t know then was how naturally the church would become part of their lives. Over the years it became a place of music, shared meals, friendships, and everyday moments that connected their family to the community around them.

As Como Park Lutheran prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary this April, Lori’s story reflects how those connections build quietly over time.

Soon after their wedding, work took Lori and her husband to Chicago for a few years. When they returned to Minnesota, they began visiting churches again, hoping to find something closer to home. Still, they kept finding themselves back at Como Park Lutheran.

Lori remembers immediately noticing the smallness of the congregation and the sense of community. “It just felt right,” she says. They visited some larger churches, but none of them felt the same. There was something about this place that felt comfortable right away.

That feeling came largely from the way people welcomed one another. It wasn’t just a quick hello at the door. People stopped to talk. They remembered names. They asked about your family.

“There’s just a genuine welcome here,” Lori says. “You walk into some places and someone says hello at the door, but nobody else talks to you. Here people really want to connect. You feel like you belong pretty quickly.”

From there, getting involved didn’t feel like a big decision. It simply happened.

Music was one of the first places Lori felt drawn to get involved. She began by accompanying the children’s choirs on piano, which soon led to accompanying the adult choir and eventually directing the children’s choir. Music had always been an important part of her family life, and it quickly became a meaningful way for them to connect with others in the congregation.

“We love music as a family, so music has always been really important to us here,” she says. “Choir, bell choir, the kids’ choirs, all of it brought people together. It never felt like a performance. It felt like something we were doing together as part of worship.”

At the time, the church building was busy throughout the week. Wednesday evenings especially brought people together. Meals were served downstairs, youth groups met, children rehearsed for choir, and families often stayed afterward just talking with one another.

“It was a pretty rocking place,” Lori says with a laugh. “You had kids running around, people eating together downstairs, youth group meeting, choir rehearsals going on. There were always people here. You really got to know each other.”

Those connections slowly turned into friendships that became part of everyday life. Many of the people Lori spends time with now are people she first met through church, relationships that grew through rehearsals, shared meals, volunteer projects, and simple conversations in the hallway.

“Those relationships just grew over time and became a big part of our lives.”

That same sense of belonging extended to Lori’s children. She remembers her son gravitating toward longtime member Mark Gagné when he was still young, eager to help wherever something needed to be done. Whether it was setting up chairs for outdoor worship at the Como Pavilion during the State Fair or helping with church dinners, Aaron simply wanted to be part of whatever was happening.

“He always wanted to help,” Lori says. “Mark would be setting up chairs and Aaron would be right there with him, even when he was really little.”

Moments like that helped Lori see something important about the community that had formed around her family. As the years went on, the encouragement her children received from other members became just as meaningful as the activities themselves.

“I always say the church raised our kids,” she says.

After choir performances, people would make a point of finding the kids to tell them how well they had done. Lori especially remembers people like Rosemary Johnson making sure every child felt noticed.

“Rosemary would run around making sure every child heard how wonderful they did,” Lori recalls. “The kids would just light up.”

Over time that sense of belonging spread beyond Lori’s immediate family. Her parents, after years of attending events with their grandchildren, eventually joined the congregation themselves.

Looking back now, it isn’t one big event or program that stands out most. It’s the steady accumulation of ordinary moments, music rehearsals, meals downstairs, conversations in the hallway, and children growing up surrounded by encouragement.

Those everyday experiences built the community that’s kept Lori connected to Como Park Lutheran for more than thirty years. In many ways, they’re the same kinds of moments that have shaped the life of the congregation for generations.

And when Lori reflects on what the church has meant to her family, she comes back to the same simple truth.

“So I really feel like if they’re happy or if they’re hurting… this community is the one that will lift them.”

Purdham Family, CPLC 1999 Directory