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