Faith Lutheran Church

Pastor Shannyn started at Faith in 2016, moving from the Midwest where she grew up with two older brothers and an identical twin sister. She received her MDiv from Luther Seminary, with an emphasis in Children, Youth, and Family Ministry and her BA from Luther College in Elementary Education. Prior to her call at Faith, she served a congregation in Iowa for six years.  

 

Pastor Shannyn has a love for children, youth, and family ministry. She also enjoys collaborative leadership, equipping people to use their unique skills and gifts in ministry, and providing leadership that bridges the larger community and the congregation.

 

With a passion for health and wellness, Pastor Shannyn coaches ministry leaders in holistic health for

long-term sustainability within ministry

and to form habits for healthy

leadership. She also models self-care

and self-compassion for the betterment

of the congregation.  

 

She is an avid backpacker, runner,

skier (cross country and downhill), and

weightlifter.  She adores her two dogs,

Lucy and Millie, and will eagerly share

pictures. Her favorite food is oatmeal

and favorite drink is dark coffee. 

 

Pastor Shannyn and her husband,

Pr. Jeremy Fuerst, who was also a

Lutheran pastor, enjoyed collaborations

between their churches during the

pandemic.

In September of 2021 Pastor Jeremy tragically died in a mountain climbing accident. It was a big loss for both congregations. The grief experience has shaped the shared leadership, ownership, and care of one another within the congregation of Faith Lutheran. We do not run away from the hard, but rather enter with compassion and understanding for the challenges life holds. 

Before relocating to the Pacific Northwest, David Buice was Performing Artist-in-Residence at Oglethorpe University and Harpsichordist-in-Residence at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, and Minister of Music at Church of the New Covenant in Doraville, Georgia. He has served as Director of Music at Faith Lutheran Church, Seattle, since October of 2017.

 

In addition to directing the Faith Lutheran Music & Arts Ministry, he has performed solo keyboard and chamber music with resident instrumentalists in the Faith Sanctuary, as well as presenting harpsichord and lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) recitals for the Anacortes Arts Federation.

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His collegiate organ studies were with

Warren Hutton at The University of

Alabama, with Larry Smith at Converse

College, and with John Hamilton at

The University of Oregon. His

harpsichord studies were with George

Lucktenberg at Converse College and

with John Hamilton at The University of

Oregon.

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He made his New York City debut in

two recitals at The Metropolitan

Museum of Art, playing the Museum’s

historic 1830 Appleton pipe organ, as

well as becoming the first solo

harpsichordist to be presented on the

exclusive Patrons Lounge Recital

Series. He returned to The Metropolitan

Museum of Art in 2004 to play a lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) recital for the Patrons Lounge Series.

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Other performances have included recitals and master classes at The University of Memphis and The University of Mississippi, and up the Atlantic coast to Washington, D.C. and New England, while his West Coast tours have taken him to Las Vegas, Nevada, and to numerous venues in California, including Berkeley, Claremont (Pomona College), Monterey, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, Redlands, and Malibu (Pepperdine University). His performances have been broadcast on Public Radio and Television as well as on the Turner Broadcast System. From 2001 to 2017, he played numerous historic keyboard performances on harpsichords, lautenwerck, clavichord and fortepiano, at Oglethorpe University’s Museum of Art.

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David Buice was a founding member of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society; he has also served on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Early Music Alliance. His numerous awards and honors include a major grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the National Endowment, which commissioned for his use a concert harpsichord by Richard Kingston, heard in recitals and master classes throughout the southeast.

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Recordings include La Sylva and Other Seductions, featuring his large Kingston harpsichord, Go Calmly into Christmas with Sally Chapman Phillips, Soprano, and Heaven and Earth: Ancient Music for Relaxation and Meditation, in which his playing of a lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) by Anden Houben evokes the 17th-century use of the lute and its music to induce altered states for healing and enlightenment.