Ann-Louise Haak, Associate Minister

Ann-Louise Haak was called by Lake Street Church to be its Associate Minister in December of 2003, and has served in that capacity since January 1, 2004. She initially joined the staff in June of 2003 as the Director of Youth Programs, and continues to work with youth and their families in her ministerial role.

Having been raised a “generic Protestant” – initially raised in a Methodist church, confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran church, and fervently active in a Presbyterian church during her youth – Ann-Louise cherishes the open and inclusive spirit of Lake Street Church. Although the United Church of Christ is Ann-Louise’s home denomination, she is honored and joy-filled serving a congregation affiliated with the American Baptists.

The Baptist distinctive of “soul liberty” perhaps best describes the path Ann-Louise wandered while coming to understand her own calling to ordained ministry. The seeds of faith that her parents planted in her during childhood blossomed into a passionate commitment to God and church during her teen years. Wanting to serve, Ann-Louise suspected that she would be a pastor’s wife one day. When she entered college and realized that she wanted instead to have a wife, the picture became more complicated. A sense of God’s presence outside of the walls of organized religion sustained her during a decade of self-imposed exile from the church. Struggling to reconcile the truths she had once been taught with the emerging truth of her life, she came to understand the words of 1 John 4 – “Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” – in a new light. Following the path of her own conscience, and listening for the voice of the Divine in those around her, Ann-Louise realized that she was being called back into the church to work for wholeness and healing for all of God’s people. Enrollment at Chicago Theological Seminary soon followed, and eventually the path led her to Lake Street Church.

A commitment to following the radical inclusivity of Jesus flavors all of Ann-Louise’s work, not only in the pulpit, but also when leading youth trips, coordinating study groups, planning peace and justice events, or unlearning her own racism. In the words of the poet Mary Oliver, Ann-Louise says, “When it's over, I want to say all my life/I was a bride married to amazement./
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms./When it's over, I don't want to wonder/
if I have made of my life something particular, and real./I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,/or full of argument./I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” In her sensational experience of this world, Ann-Louise delights in the company of her partner Shelby Hatch, and is thankful for the grounding that her family provides.