Farewell to Maddy Tyler

When Maddy Tyler arrived at St. Paul in January 2025, she came with an eagerness and a lot of questions she didn’t yet know how to ask. Eighteen months later, she’s heading toward her next call with new skills, great friends, stories to share, and a newfound confidence.

Maddy grew up in Chicago, formed by folk music and the tight-knit community of the Old Town School of Folk Music, where both of her parents worked. She studied history and Nordic studies at Luther College, lived in Norway, served a gap year in Cambodia through Young Adults in Global Mission, and eventually followed a persistent nudge toward seminary at Wartburg in Dubuque. By the time she arrived in Davenport, she’d lived all over. St. Paul, she said, became the longest place she’d lived since she was 18 years old.

“At St. Paul, I’ve gotten to settle into who I am outside of being a student. From day one, people stepped toward me,” Maddy said. “My time here has been a blessing in boosting my confidence and reaffirming this is who I am called to be in the world.”

Life in the Quad Cities has included square dances in Iowa City and Bettendorf, jazz shows at the Redstone Room with Common Chord, River Bandits games, and plenty of evenings decompressing on her balcony off Jersey Ridge Road. She found musicians to play with, new friendships, and a sense of place.

The old time music community brought Maddy and St. Paul member Liv Carrow into each other’s orbit before they ever crossed paths at church. A mutual musician friend had mentioned Maddy, a talented guitarist newly arrived in the Quad Cities, and Liv reached out with a warm welcome. When Liv and her family found their way to St. Paul not long after, there was Maddy. Since then, the two have played dances and festivals together, and the connection has only deepened.

“Seeing Maddy serve a church — knowing she will move on after two years — and still dive in, create relationships, lead, serve, and teach with her whole heart is inspiring. There are no dress rehearsals, your community is who you are with, and Maddy has embodied that kind of immediate enthusiasm and spirit of participation,” Liv said. “Having a friend who bridges two very different worlds created a sense of vastness in terms of what a community is, and how we are all connected in big and small ways. There are no such things as strangers!”

The residency itself brought a steep and rewarding learning curve. Maddy joined senior pastor Mark Niethammer, who was also newer to his role, and the two found a kind of shared footing.

“Both of us coming from similar newness helped us work together and discover together,” she said. “It helped me figure out how to ask when I don’t know the answer to something. That prompted action and connection from the very beginning.”

She preached. She led worship across the sanctuary, helped coordinate and lead adult learning in the chapel, and facilitate Theology Pub once a month later in her residency, adapting quickly from one room and register to the next. She helped run Vacation Bible School music, guitar in hand, for more than 100 kids. She planned and led the Appalachian Service Project trip, a week of home repair in rural Appalachia that she called one of the highlights of her entire ministry.

St. Paul helped her find language for what she’d long carried but couldn’t quite articulate — her pastoral identity, her sense of call, the particular shape of her gifts.

“My pastoral heart, who I am, my sense of call, St. Paul affirmed it in every way,” she said. “I feel well-equipped with what I’ve been given while also feeling open and ready to keep learning. St. Paul has helped guide the formation of my learner’s heart.”

Her job, as she understands it, is a straightforward one. She’s been practicing it for 18 months now, in worship spaces, on mission trips, and in rocking chairs.

“I get to tell people: God loves you,” she said. “That’s my job and that’s what I get to do every day.”

 

Resident farewell gift: If you’d like to donate to a gift for Maddy, please write a check to St. Paul clearly marked for “Resident Gift.” You’re also invited to send individual cards or notes to the church, or drop a written expression in the basket on the farewell weekend, July 18 & 19. After each service that weekend, a reception will be held in the Gathering Area. Please stop by and wish her well.