The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek – FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

March 30, 2025

A few days before the election on April 1, I had the privilege of attending a Monroe, Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce open forum meeting. The purpose of the meeting was for the candidates running for a Monroe Council seat to introduce themselves and then answer questions during a Q and A session. I am not a resident of Monroe, but attended the meeting in order to support a certain candidate. That candidate was Corinne Wartenweiler, a friend and member of our church. At the time of this writing, I do not know if she won or not, but regardless, I wanted to share her opening statement at that forum. Following is her speech (used with permission).

I am Corinne Wartenweiler and am currently a member of Monroe City Council and have been for the last two years. I am a wife, a mother,  a grandmother and my career is as a registered nurse. I was born here in Monroe at Saint Clare Hospital, (now SSM). I grew up in Lafayette County, went to school and graduated from Black Hawk High School in South Wayne. I have deep roots here. My father was a farmer. His father was a farmer. My mother was a school teacher. Her father was also a farmer. My grandmothers were homemakers. My mom taught all eight grades in a one room schoolhouse, here in Green County. I went to a one room schoolhouse for first grade. I had two boys in my grade with me, and three of my siblings in other grades in that one room – Jennings schoolhouse. My how times have changed.

None of those things however qualify me to be an Alder person on the Monroe City Council. The only thing that qualifies me is that I am a citizen of the city of Monroe in Green County in Wisconsin in the United States of America. That, after all,  was our founding fathers vision for a government of, by, and for the people. That the people would be the ones to govern and represent themselves in their community. That a regular person, a citizen in the community, would accept the responsibility to be a part of the government of his or her community, state, or even the nation. Just a regular citizen, not the smartest person or the most athletic person or the most popular person or the most religious person or the least religious person. Just a regular average Joe or Josephine, if you will. The  design set up by our founding fathers was that a person would do this work, do a civic duty in her community for a time, To make the decisions that are required of civic leaders based on the information that’s given to them, brought to them, based on their understanding of the world, based on their life experiences, and then to make a decision that affects the community, but the best decision that she or he could make. 

All that to say, a person would step up and make those decisions and then step back and someone else will step up and make those decisions for a time. So that’s a little bit about why I’m here and a little bit about who I am, where I’ve come from, what kind of experiences I’ve had. But I can’t go very far without mentioning that I am a follower of Jesus. I am a student of the Judeo Christian Bible. It is where I get my hope and my peace. It is what informs my worldview. Every person has a world view whether you intentionally develop that or whether you just have ideas and thoughts and experiences that create your world view. My worldview happens to be a biblical worldview. I won’t apologize for that. I believe our nation was founded on the principles and ideas in the Judeo Christian Bible. I believe that it is clear from founding documents and the writings of our founding fathers. For better or for worse, that is our history and our heritage as a nation, and even as a state and a city. The Wisconsin state constitution says “Grateful to Almighty God for our freedoms.. . “ I believe there is security in that foundation, in knowing where we have come from as individuals and as a people group. It is important to know where we have been in order to know where we are going, as individuals and as a community.

I’m told the two things people aren’t supposed to talk about in public are politics and religion. So I talked a little about religion. Now I’m going to talk about politics. I heard a definition of politics once, a very simple definition, is who gets what when and how. I think that’s a fair definition. It is what we are doing and have done on Monroe City Council. We make decisions about what to do with our budget, what to do about taxes and fees, what to do about home values, what to do about the staff and their salaries, about the different departments and what their needs are. I will say that our department heads in the city of Monroe and Administrator and our Mayor Donna Douglas are all very capable and very steadfast and are doing a great job. They are to be commended. But what they and the city council do is decide who gets what, when, and how. I think they’ve been doing a pretty good job since long before I was a member of the City Council. Our budget is solid. We are able to meet our financial obligations. A great deal of effort, and work, and discussion goes into decisions about tax increment financing districts, and about developer agreements, and with people who want to come and bring development to our city.

I have been pleased to be a part of Monroe city council for the last two years. It has been a good experience. I would like to continue to be a part of Monroe city Council in the work that they are doing. You’ve been very kind in listening to me and to all of us by giving us your time. I wish you, grace and peace and joy in abundance.

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).