Laurie Kenyon Woods

Pastor Laurie was installed at Balsam Lutheran Church on Sunday, November 22, 2020, and has been serving both Balsam and nearby Elim Lutheran Church ever since.

Pastor Laurie was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She graduated from Valparaiso University in 2012 as an International Service and Chemistry double major and spent some time after college living and working abroad as a teacher in South Africa. After coming back to the US, she discerned a call to ministry, but before attending divinity school, she decided to spend a year as a chaplain in the national parks, including Death Valley in California and Glacier in Montana. In Death Valley, she met Adam Woods, her now husband.

Together, they left the parks and moved to North Carolina, where Pastor Laurie attended Wake Forest Divinity School and Adam was a student at Duke Divinity. They both graduated with our Masters of Divinity spring of 2018 and moved to Chicago where she started classes at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago to fulfill requirements for candidacy and Adam served as a hospital chaplain. Adam is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and is serving Parkview UMC in Turtle Lake.

Pastor Laurie and Adam, along with our dog Lexie, enjoy anything outdoors. Running, hiking, camping, biking, skiing, you name it, they do it! Her other hobbies include reading, practicing (and teaching) yoga, and spending time with family and friends.