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
