Sheryl and Steve Froehlich
Location: Ithaca, NY
Duration: Full-Time
About
Sheryl and Steve Froehlich continue to devote their lives to teaching, discipleship, shepherding, and mentoring. Their journey has taken them through seasons of service at Precept Ministries, Reformed Theological Seminary (Steve as executive vice president), and most recently New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY (Steve as senior pastor) and Chesterton House Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University where they both continue to serve as mentors to student residents. Having met in college, Steve and Sheryl married in 1978. They have 3 children and 7 grandchildren, most of whom live in Ithaca. In 2020, Steve was diagnosed with an aggressive sarcoma in his right shoulder. After 2 months of radiation, surgery, and 6 months of in-patient chemotherapy at Roswell Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY, Steve and Sheryl give thanks that Steve is NED -- that is, there is no evidence of disease. Thanks be to God! But in God's providence, in 2022, the toll of the chemotherapy required Steve to retire from full-time pastoral work much earlier than they had anticipated. However, confident that there is more work to be done, they are investing their gifts and vision as YES partners through Grace Unscripted.
Grace Unscripted In January 2023, Sheryl and Steve launched Grace Unscripted to build on their 30+ years of service in the life of the Church. As YES partners they want to continue to teach, preach, and mentor although in more focused strategic ways given Steve's post-chemo limitations. Through personal engagement (listening and praying) as well as through seminars, preaching, coaching, and leadership development they have a heart for encouraging and equipping local congregations to live as communities formed by the gospel. The Spirit has used their experiences of brokenness, hurt, hardship, and failure to shape their pastoral voice and vision and to kindle their desire to see God’s people living patiently, sacrificially, fruitfully, and hopefully in a creation longing for completion. They also have a conviction that vocation is essential to the mission of God in the world. As Dorothy Sayers wrote: “In nothing has the Church so lost Her hold on reality as in Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world’s intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion.” (“Why Work?”) Vocation and calling have been central to pastoral work in their strategic university community. Through the life of the church, Sheryl and Steve have sent men and women all around the world to serve in their vocations, their holy callings, and to show the kingdom and character of God. Now, as God enables, they want to visit those they have sent to encourage them to maintain a faithful presence to the glory of God and for the common good.
ContactGrace Unscripted In January 2023, Sheryl and Steve launched Grace Unscripted to build on their 30+ years of service in the life of the Church. As YES partners they want to continue to teach, preach, and mentor although in more focused strategic ways given Steve's post-chemo limitations. Through personal engagement (listening and praying) as well as through seminars, preaching, coaching, and leadership development they have a heart for encouraging and equipping local congregations to live as communities formed by the gospel. The Spirit has used their experiences of brokenness, hurt, hardship, and failure to shape their pastoral voice and vision and to kindle their desire to see God’s people living patiently, sacrificially, fruitfully, and hopefully in a creation longing for completion. They also have a conviction that vocation is essential to the mission of God in the world. As Dorothy Sayers wrote: “In nothing has the Church so lost Her hold on reality as in Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world’s intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion.” (“Why Work?”) Vocation and calling have been central to pastoral work in their strategic university community. Through the life of the church, Sheryl and Steve have sent men and women all around the world to serve in their vocations, their holy callings, and to show the kingdom and character of God. Now, as God enables, they want to visit those they have sent to encourage them to maintain a faithful presence to the glory of God and for the common good.