Practical Ministry

Hello all -

In my systematics reading for today, we were discussing the church and it's role as an institution of healing for broken sinners - how the church is innately "sinful" because of the people who inhabit it, while paradoxically "holy" because the church is defined as being where God dwells - and how we can best serve those who enter the church doors.

I found it funny - this book "Constructive Theology: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Themes", was written by a team of astute theologians, professors, and pastors - and for all their talk and high-lofted ideals of what God is and how ministry should look, I find it wanting, in a sense. Where does the talk end and the practical, hands-on ministry begin?

We in church circles talk about declining membership and about how the church is becoming increasingly irrelevant in today's post-Christendom, humanistic society. It's long been a question where my curiosity has been peaked - how do we, as Christian church/community leaders engage people with the church and start to correct the long-held negative image of Christianity planted in secular America's mind?

I suggested in my paper for the systematics class that we as a church need to stop talking doctrine, stop talking correct theology - because that is what is so divisive - and get out into the world. We can preach and teach and rebuke until we're blue in the face and people have long since stopped listening, but it's the real world stuff - healing the sick, feeding the hungry, safeguarding the marginalized - the stuff that Christ's ministry was made of - that will stick with people. And maybe, just maybe, begin to portray Christianity in a positive image.

That's exactly what my baking ministry one day hopes to do - at least it's what I'm envisioning. In response to the question, "what are you doing in seminary?", I'm using my M.A. degree to become a baker, as odd and confusing as that response may seem. Just stay with me a second, now. I'd like to open a small bake shop, and use it to feed the hungry, offer it as a space of consolation, and hopefully offer baking classes centered around the art of baking, agricultural sustainability and good environmental practices. To feed the people here on earth - both in bodily substance and to offer the good news through action - is to become, in some small way, a better "little Christ". We talk about the "priesthood of all believers" extensively in Luther Seminary classes, and it's important to recognize that all callings, all professions, are just as spiritual as being called to be an ordained parish pastor.

I've been doing some research - looking at smaller-scale, realistic production, at mixers and ovens and proofing boxes, developing a list of bakery names, and looking to start a business plan. For right now, though, I'm happy learning how to integrate rural culture, baking, and agricultural sustainability. Life is great.

Go forth, and remember the poor - thanks be to God.
Dean

Baking as Ministry Update

Hey everyone -

Just thought I'd give an update on my work at St. Andrew's Lutheran in Grand Rapids! I wrote in an earlier post that I was going to be working with the newly formed bread ministry team there. This past weekend, we had our first meeting, and what a good time it was. Not only was there laughter and memories shared, but it was also a great day to get your hands full of flour and dough, and to talk ministry on a practical level - feeding people - here is my body, given for you.

We started off the day (there were 10 people involved, 4 leaders and 6 parishioners) by starting the mixing process. Loren (interim pastor) and I had divided the group into pairs, so everyone could work an individual recipe and request help if they needed it. We had chosen 4 different recipes to utilize, and what a commotion the beginning was - it made me laugh! My task was to go around and answer any questions, while letting the bakers do their work. It was funny - almost everyone there had baking experience, with years of expertise behind them (I was the youngest in the kitchen by years), and everyone was commenting on how "oh, well, I do it this way...", or "should I do this now? What about the butter? Where's the yeast?" Along the way, as we waited for the yeast to proof and before we added the flours and oats and the like, I had opportunities to engage people in the science behind bread baking. Before we knew it, our doughs were mixed and kneaded, and we were on to Bible study.

Naturally, Loren had chosen texts for the day that revolved around stories of bread - needless to mention, the Lord's Supper, the Bread of Life motif, Elijah and the widow, and so on. We shared bread memories from childhoods and adulthoods, and then we shared lunch together - wondrous soups (chicken and red lentil), beautiful bread (an orange-raisin whole wheat challah) - and gathered for conversation on what a more formal bread ministry might look like.

The ministry conversations were led by a stoic, gentle lady named Kathleen Blake. Kathleen lived in England for over a year, and while there she was able to participate with various churches doing bread ministry to the homeless - she found a spot in the city she was in, and with a group of other women, baked bread once a week for the homeless - and soon, invited them in to bake with her. She was talking about how she envisioned doing work with Crystal Lake, a poorer community in northeastern Grand Rapids, to bring them in to the church simply to eat and share a meal - not to evangelize or talk church.

Which brought up an interesting conversation - how do we, as Christians, help people (host events in the church) without implying that we are there to evangelize or convert? As Christ instructs us to be in solidarity with the poor, we should be able to help purely out of Christian calling rather than indicating a secondary agenda. We went back and forth on this for a while, negating different times to use the church, what to put on flyers, etc.

I've been thinking a great deal about this lately. It's amazing, how it all comes full circle with what I've been learning in my rural ministry class in seminary - in the context of living rural, and being poor, it's important to not go in to a community with the notion that you are going to change the world, change their lives - because as my great aunt put it so beautifully, "people live in their cabins, their shanties, their trailers, because they want to. They're not asking for help." It's interesting to consider this notion as I move forward in my hopes of beginning my own bread ministry - people will always need to be fed, but will they necessarily desire the true Bread of Life?

Anyway - just my two cents. I had a wonderful weekend in Grand Rapids, and some good, engaging conversations that made me realize, away from the academics and the cities, that there is ministry to be done here. God is alive and active in Marcell and Grand Rapids and the world - and it's up to us to respond.

Jesus Christ, come to us, for you are the Bread of Life -
Dean

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hey everyone -

In my baking life these days I've been experimenting a bit with gluten free baking (I'm not gluten sensitive in any sense - I think I would cry if I couldn't have a piece of a good foccacia anymore) -  but simply because I've really enjoyed baking with oats - rolled oats, oat flour, you name it.

I came up with these double chocolate chip muffins based on ingredients I had on hand, and to be honest, I was a bit curious as to how they'd turn out of the oven - but my worries were unfounded - some of the best tasting muffins I've ever eaten!

Anyway...here's the recipe. Bake these and let me know what you think! :)

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups oat flour (I ground my own oats)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup yogurt
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used up the last of my homemade puree)
1 egg
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon coffee grounds
1 cup chocolate chips, divided

Directions
First things first: preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease six jumbo muffin tins (could also make 12 regular muffins).
1) In a large bowl, combine oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2) In a second bowl, combine yogurt, pumpkin puree, egg. Whisk in cocoa powder, coffee grounds, and sugar.
3) Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing only until combined.
4) Fold 1/2 cup chocolate chips into the batter.
5) Divide into prepared muffin tins, and top muffin batter with the last 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for roughly 20-25 minutes, or until done.

Happy Baking!
Dean

Baking as Ministry

Hello all -

Last night I had my first meeting with the pastors of St. Andrew's Lutheran in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. St. Andrew's is my Teaching Congregation church, as part of my Teaching Congregations requirement for my M.A. It's about a 4 hour drive from Luther Seminary where I live on campus, however we're worked out the arrangements so I can participate in their congregation and do my 12 hours of required site-time all in one extended weekend, since I don't have classes on Friday.

I've been wanting to somehow integrate my baking with ministry - and to someday work that as a career. I was told by the pastors and friend at St. Andrew's, Nancy Raymond, that a couple of people in the congregation were interested in beginning a bread ministry - baking loaves, having Bible study, and distributing the loaves to people in lower-income apartments around the Grand Rapids area. I will be working largely with that ministry during my time at St. Andrew's, as well as setting up learning goals around outreach and community ministries.

So, as it goes. I'm staying at Nancy's lake home for the weekend, writing, reading, and baking up a storm. I finally baked that ciabatta loaf I wrote about - it sat patiently in the car during the drive up to Grand Rapids without over-rising or collapsing. I baked it off around 11:00pm last night, tired, but this morning when I cut into it, I was pleasantly rewarded. A beautiful loaf, both in appearance and in taste.

Anyway - enough for now. I have brioche dough in the refrigerator - I'll take photos of that! A egg-butter-sugar-enriched dough, it's nothing short of amazing.

From Grand Rapids,
Dean 

Gathering Sheaves of Wheat

Hello all,

Welcome to Gathering Sheaves of Wheat! It's a blog about baking, about oat bread, about sour, yeasty, wonderful sourdoughs, about earthen, concrete things, about God, about the Lord's Supper in the here and now. It's a blog for baking recipes, for conversation between bakers. It's meant to foster confidence, and to ponder Christ Jesus our Bread of Life and our saving grace.

With that, I say welcome.

First up: ciabatta. But first, I have to bake it this afternoon. :)

Dean