Pastor Lisa Kopanski Harmon on Wedding Cake Theology: Making the World a Sweeter, Better Place

We are not meant to live life on a meditative cushion. We are called to live a purpose-filled life - one that leads to change and transformation, both for ourselves in the world. When we aren't sure how to do it, the person we can look to is Jesus. He sets an example for us to follow. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." When we follow his example, we find the way, we find the truth, and we find life.

Pastor Lisa passionately helps guide us towards this truth. She reminds us that no one goes without suffering - that is a part of life; but she also reminds us that no suffering goes without use. We all have hard times but we need to pay attention to what it is that God is teaching us, and how we will grow from the suffering. So many of those lessons help us work towards strengthening not only ourselves, but our communities.

You might want to grab a piece of cake before listening further into this interview, Lisa has a viewpoint on theology and believes that it is like wedding cake - you have to have a strong foundation, and then when you add all the ingredients together, it can bring joy and nourishment to all who partake.

Grab your cake and join in as Pastors Lisa and Kelsey take us through what it means to follow Jesus' teaching and how doing so can lead to making the world a sweeter and better place for all.

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Lisa Kopanski Harmon has been pastoring Billings First Congregation Church since 2017. She is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor and her ministry includes teaching trauma-informed yoga to incarcerated women with  substance abuse disorder, at Passages, a Yellowstone County, women’s detention facility. Lisa also teaches studio classes at Limber Tree Yoga Studio and community classes at her church. A proud entrepreneur, she founded an all-natural, gourmet cookie company in 1990 which she co-owned and operated with her two sisters, and garnered awards such as Montana Small Business Persons of the Year award, and two Addy awards in the state of MT for branding and point-of-purchase display items. She was named SBA Small Business Champion for the state of Montana in 2018.

Some of Lisa's accomplishments include an awareness and education initiative, Spare Change for Real Change,created to alleviate poverty and homelessness in the city of Billings, and a city-wide initiative, Community Innovations, an inclusive, cross-sector collaborative created to assist vulnerable populations, especially those with substance abuse disorder, in accessing safe, stable, and culturally appropriate resources and services, with priority on our indigenous community. As a result, the Motivated Addiction Alternative Program (MAAP) was created and implemented in the City of Billings to induce treatment options and jail diversion. She firmly believes we have an incarceration problem in the country, especially as it relates to people of color and to the poor.  She is a long-time advocate of Native American empowerment and of the LGBTQI+ community.