Introducing michelle whelan!

Interim Director of Student Ministries

We are pleased to announce our Interim Director of Student Ministries: Michelle Whelan! Though we posted the permanent position in a number of places, none of the candidates we interviewed is the right fit at this time.


To ensure that student ministries is robust, and to free Jake Putich for his additional responsibilities of creation care, we are grateful to Michelle for taking on this role! She has often filled in for Jake in his absence, and has now graciously agreed to take this on at 15 hours/week.


Michelle is a psychotherapist in private practice, focusing on family counseling. Married to Brett Whelan, their two children (Juliette, 17, and James, 13) have been part of WPC since Preschool. Their family has been active in many different ways. Our search for a permanent Director will continue. Please extend your thanks to Jake and Michelle!

Finding our Way together

We are a community of students learning to walk humbly, to love kindness, and to do justice (Micah 6:8). Together we are creating a safe space where we can learn from one another, support one another, and build a better world with one another. Together we love, heal, and embrace the world in the Spirit of Christ. Together we pray, we doubt, we grow, we share. Together we stand with those on the margins, with people of color, with the disabled, with our LGBTQ+ friends, and with all those who thirst for justice.


We are a community of students finding our way … together.


The Westwood Youth Collective gathers every Sunday at 10:00am in the Youth Lounge at WPC for fun, reflection, and honest conversations about faith. We hope you'll join us!


If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter — ☀ The Atlas — for more information about our gatherings and events, please email our Director of Youth, College & Adult Faith Formation, Jake Putich, at jputich@westwoodpres.org.

Downloadable Lessons & PRayer Guides

If you're looking for some spiritual nourishment at your own pace, please enjoy these downloadable lessons and prayer guides!

  • Creating Safe Space: Session 2

    One part of creating a safe space is learning how to nurture emotional care and wellbeing for ourselves and for those we love. One way to think about this is in terms of nutrition. Just like our bodies require good, nutritious foods to remain healthy, our minds require a consistent "diet" of good emotions, experiences, and feelings to remain healthy. This is called emotional safety, and it's a key component of relational and mental health.

  • Prayers for Safe Spaces: Session 2

    In this prayer guide, we will focus our hearts and minds on the values of empathy, inclusion, justice, and love. Before each prayer, try to find a place to sit comfortably for 7 - 10 minutes. You may wish to prepare a candle or some soothing music to play in the background.

  • Creating Safe Space: Session 1

    Safe space is about cultivating compassion and empathy for all people, no matter how different they might be. Empathy is attempting to see from another person's perspective and to understand their emotional states. Creating safe spaces is about infusing the practice of empathy into our group gatherings, our learning environments, and our places of worship.

  • Prayers for Safe Spaces: Session 1

    In this prayer guide, we will focus our hearts and minds on the values of empathy, inclusion, justice, and love. Before each prayer, try to find a place to sit comfortably for 7 - 10 minutes. You may wish to prepare a candle or some soothing music to play in the background.

  • Solidarity: Black, Indigenous, Latinx & POC

    Solidarity means finding ways to cultivate radical dependence rather than trying to go it alone. We are all born into this world physically connected to another human being. We cannot survive as individuals, which is another way of saying that "individuality" is a myth. To make our world better, we must realize that we need one another, that we are dependent on our neighbors, and that we must work together to flourish in justice and peace.

  • Prayers for Racial Justice

    These prayers were assembled to guide our hearts and minds as we collectively work to dismantle the systems of white supremacy that bear upon the bodies of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People of Color. May we all engage this work with minds that are open, hearts that are humble, and hands that are ready.

  • Solidarity: The Incarcerated

    Solidarity means cooperating with our neighbors rather than competing with them. Solidarity means seeing the peace, freedom, and justice of my neighbor as my peace, freedom, and justice. Solidarity means we're all in this together, so we must care for our neighbors that are most deeply harmed by the world we live in, especially the poor, sick, incarcerated, and marginalized.

  • Prayers for Prisoners

    Please use these prayers either as a family or individually, whichever you prefer. Perhaps you might light a candle and pray one of these prayers per day for a few days this week. Each one will only take a minute or so to read. Spend some time in silence after. Take some deep breaths. Slow down and focus your empathy on those behind bars, separated from their families and communities.

  • Solidarity: The Unhoused

    Standing in solidarity with your neighbor means taking on their needs as your priority. Sometimes this may require that you stand against — or protest — whatever is harming them, whether that's a person, an institution, or a system.

  • Solidarity: Essential Workers

    Solidarity is showing compassion, unity, and care for those around us. It is standing with those who need our help. It is giving a voice to those who need to be heard. It is seeing the needs of our neighbors as our own needs.