Pastor Neil Ellingson is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. His ordination status has also been recognized in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and, if all goes well, will soon be recognized in the American Baptist Churches USA. Neil earned a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He started a dinner church in Chicago, Root and Branch, that is still growing strong. He’s never bored trying to combine three things the world says can’t go together:  1. Deep, faithful engagement with Christian theology and tradition. 2. Openness to critical thought, science, and radical doubt, and 3. Bringing spiritual and social “outsiders” in. He was born in Minneapolis, grew up in the western suburbs, and now lives out in the sticks with his wife Allison and three kids, Hans, Glory, and Moses.