Pastor Liz Hanley
Liz grew up in East Texas, inspired by Longview’s First Lutheran Church. She earned a business degree from Baylor University in 1995, and then left Texas for St. Paul, Minn. to attend Luther Seminary where she completed her master’s degree in 1999.
For 11 years she served churches first in Sutton, Neb., and later in Cameron, Tex. In 2010 she visited Spirit in the Hills and “was struck by the sense of adventure and drawn by the willingness to risk and explore what it means to being church differently.”
With the necessary sense of humor and a gift for building meaningful relationships, Liz became the Spirit in the Hills mission developer in September, 2010. She leads our weekly worship, supports active member volunteers, and visits prospective members offering what she calls “a life of significance.”
For leisure, Liz plays golf, travels and shares her household with a “neurotic” (her words) Yorkshire Terrier named Emma.
Her extended family includes twin sister Jennifer in Arkansas, who is a teacher, wife and mother to Liz’s favorite niece. Younger brother Matthew is an accountant, husband, and father to Liz’s two favorite nephews. Their mom Ann still lives in Longview with fond memories of their dad who died in 2004.
Liz seeks to preserve Spirit in the Hills as a place to share those things we long for, a place where we find meaning, and a safe place to tell our stories. While we all serve as active ministers at Spirit in the Hills, Liz’s collaborative leadership anchors our efforts and provides a welcome theological richness and depth.
Music Director Jackquie Tomhave
After 50 years as a church musician, Jacquie Tomhave retired in 2007. She had played for churches since she was 14, and the part-time gigs had first served to pay for her college teaching degree at San Diego State University, then supplemented her teacher salary. In the end, sacred music became an irrepressible avocation.
By day she taught biology or counseled students. But on the weekends, she brought churches alive with music. She eventually married and moved often to follow her husband’s job. Their family grew to four children and eventually, added four grandchildren. All the while, the spirit that moved her nimble fingers on the keyboard, and fed her gift for rhythm and melody, inspired congregations from California to Illinois, Arizona and finally to Texas.
“Music has always been the best way for me to express my faith,” she says. Nevertheless, she thought 50 years was a good stopping point. She would sing from the pew now, next to her husband.
Then she got a desperate message from an unfamiliar small town—Spicewood–30 miles away. “It’s a funny thing. I didn’t even think about saying no. It seemed like they were in a bind, so I’d planned to help out for a few weeks. That was three years ago.”
Her goal is to encourage as many people to become involved in the music as possible. She offers variety to allow people of all backgrounds to feel at home.
“Each week I spend a lot of quiet time with the next Sunday’s music to determine what it will express,” she says. “I want it to create a closeness to God, and the more people I can involve in that, the better.”
