Friends in
Christ - Grace and peace to you this day from God our Creator and our Lord
Jesus Christ:
Reading Emmy
Kegler and Eric Worringer's blog post last week,
and after reading the Rev. Charles Austin's article in The
Lutheran (which the aforementioned co-authored blog post was written in
response to); I decided to pair up with my co-CPE Chaplain and fellow Luther
Seminary Middler, Jon Rundquist to write a response to both posts as well - to add
more voices.
Ultimately,
more voices are what we need. Ultimately, we think Millennials have proved
their worth at making their voices heard. Through movements like Occupy Wall
Street and many other vocal protestations of the issues affecting our
generation and our contexts, we have been able to effectively raise our
concerns. This is our take on what it means to be and do church going forward
into a “shifting” American religious climate.
Both Dean and
Jonathan’s upbringings consist of a primarily Small Town/Rural story. We are
concerned with BEING the church and DOING church in a way that may be perceived
as “radical”, but more important, what is life-giving to (particularly) rural
people in a shifting world. Where oftentimes rural folk are neglected, or
considered “fly-over country”; where churches are closing left and right; where
rural people are aging - how can we as millennial pastors become passionately
invested in being the church for these people whose lives are changing just as
often without much say in the matter, and who are afraid of being forgotten?
How can we be the radical, life-giving Church to a people whose histories are
valued, whose traditions are near-sacred?
Radical and
life-giving… Like The House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado.
Thus, we’d
like to address the ‘Nadia Problem’ that Emmy and Eric make reference to. It
has been a concern of ours as well. They write, “We have witnessed the rise and
popularity, and celebrated the work of Nadia Bolz-Weber, but we also have an
issue with it. Not because of anything she has said or done, or because
she is tattooed, crass-mouthed, or too progressive or too orthodox, but because
she does not represent the actual ELCA. She has been raised up and
celebrated as a voice, particularly before our youth and young adults, as
"a new way of doing church," putting the "evangelical" in
"Evangelical", and so on. Then we send kids home from Youth
Gatherings and college weekends and seminary visits to places where church
continues in much the same way it always has.”
Yes.
Precisely. We wholeheartedly agree.
They
continue, “Our concern, which again is brought up by this article, is that because
Nadia has become an example, it allows the institution to use her image and
ministry while still largely continuing on its own path, rife with
institutional anxiety and attitudes of scarcity, and bemoaning the loss of a
generation of institutional pastors. We continue to produce leaders
equipped to explain what it means to be Lutheran (using our institutional
memory), when what the world hungers for is a real and meaningful experience of
a God worthy of worship and service. What we pray and yearn for is not an
institution with one Nadia as an example, but a transformational generation of
leaders of all ages that are able to cope and proclaim the Gospel as well as
she has.”
We’ve had
some thoughts as of late, on our down time from CPE at Unity Hospital, that may
ALSO seem “radical” at first. But as we state above, radical is how we need to
look at how we DO Church. As the church is “shifting” in its identity (in our
post-Christendom world where the church can no longer assume that people will
come through the doors), we as millennial pastors-to-be are called to find ways
to bring the church to the people without the pretense of “doing church”.
Rather, as pastors, we are called to bring ourselves; our broken, ordinary,
foul-mouthed selves and some bread and some wine and gather around a common
space and say, “Hey. I have this message. I have this bread and wine. There’s
community here, and I’m a sinner amongst you. Let’s talk.” It’s in doing this;
in getting outside of the church walls, in losing the expectation that people
must come to the church, where these radical acts of ministry will suddenly not
be so “radical”. Radical, different, and earnest as we see these things now
will be the new normal. We envision a world where pastors are out on the streets
and sidewalks in the small towns and big cities with the homeless and poor and
marginalized and everyone would recognize it as being the Church.
“Radical”
congregations do indeed exist. They’re the ones with the hip names like,
‘Jacob’s Porch’, ‘Mercy Seat’, ‘Solomon’s Porch’, among others. Our point is
this: Radical doesn’t need to have a hip name. Radical doesn’t need to be in a
major metropolitan area to BE Church. A rural congregation of 15 people
wondering where their hope has gone is no less doing amazing acts of ministry
in living out God’s call. Radical can indeed be found in, as Emmy and Eric
feel, “church[es] marked by “Scandinavian” jokes, cultural enclaves, Lake
Wobegon stoicism, and endless conflict over any number of issues.”
Dean’s home congregation,
Spring Garden Lutheran in rural Cannon Falls, Minnesota is the traditional
white-clapboard country Lutheran church as described above, however now the
church is finding itself having to respond to the clarion call for widespread
social equality. With the 2009 Churchwide Statement on Human Sexuality, the
pastors voiced their support. However, no conversations with the congregation
have been held. How do we spread those words of equality, peace, and hope from
the pulpit in ways that aren't considered so radical? Because they shouldn't
be. Why do we need to consider being an advocate of marriage, gender and racial
equality in the name of Christ an earth-changing position to hold?
Jonathan’s
congregation in which he grew up in, First Lutheran in Morris, Minnesota; is
one of two ELCA congregations in Morris. Morris is a small community that has
undergone many changes in the last 20 years, but has been recently undergone a
new change: Latino immigration. Northern and Central European Lutheran, Catholic,
and Anabaptist immigrants emigrated to the area in the late 19th to early 20th
centuries, and because of the railroad and fertile farmground; populated many
small communities in the surrounding counties. Now, Morris and other
communities around rural Minnesota are experiencing a newer changing
demographic by way of immigrants from other parts of the world. How can Morris
and these other communities be a welcoming face to these ‘New Minnesotans’? How
can we be the hands and feet of Christ, to our new neighbors? These, and other
important questions are what face modern Small Town/Rural communities.
It’s no myth
and it’s readily apparent that these Small Town/Rural settings ARE changing.
Small Town/Rural dynamics are steadily shifting - ways of life for many rural
folk are becoming unsettled. Specifically in agriculturally-based contexts,
small family farms are quickly becoming a bygone era, with land being purchased
and cultivated by large, corporate agriculture. Modern advances in production
and agricultural technology means the need for less hands and workers in the
field. Gone, by and large, are the days of the small, family farm where
commitment and teamwork were imperative for a family’s survival.
This is what
we will be walking into as future pastors.
In this
haphazard, shifting era, the important question that needs to be asked is how
do we do ministry with a renewed sense of what it means to be the rural church,
and the Church at large? What, in this time and space, can the Church be to
give her people hope? It begins with this, we think: this “radical” concept we
talk about above should merely be the standard by which we as human beings
sharing the Gospel and living lives of grace should hold ourselves to. In
essence, there shouldn’t have to be this “radical voice” in the first place.
Those “radical voices” should be the Church - plain and simple - in broken
spaces and places and with the broken people, of whom we are a part. This
‘Nadia Problem’ shouldn't be such a big deal. The way Nadia has been doing
ministry should just be the Church, period.
We feel, as
(future) Lutheran pastors, that all clergy (future and current, lay and
ordained) need to create those spaces for the marginalized and oppressed. This
should be a Church-wide undertaking. It is, after all, our calling, hope and
promise that takes root in the Gospel proclamation. We hope that this ideal is
what all of us, as Christians with a public leadership role, are aspiring to
do. This needs to be the Church, not just some poster image that we claim as
our banner but in reality are just using to mask issues of injustices in
denominational polity.
How we as
young (future) pastors begin to do Church may be different than it has been in
many years, but as Emmy and Eric assert, “Young leaders are of great value to
our church, particularly because of the rapid rate of cultural change that has
occurred since the birth of the ELCA. The innovative ideas that young leaders
(both ordained and lay) can bring to our worship, programs, structure, and
congregational life should be celebrated as greatly as the gifts of the
"older generation" whose retirement is impending.” It’s time for us
up-and-coming millennial pastors and Church leaders to get our hands dirty. To
revitalize. To go out among our people and ask, “What gives you joy? What can
we as the Church do for you?” To proclaim the Gospel of Christ, clearly and
with emboldened clarity, and to pass bread and wine for the sake of the world
which we are called to serve and be a part of.
We are called,
sent, redeemed and emboldened Luther Middlers, adding our voices; opening our
hearts; nailing our theses to the door. Now it’s your turn.
Here we stand
- we can do no other:
Dean Safe and
Jonathan Rundquist
Luther
Seminary Master of Divinity Middlers
“All alone,
or in two's,
The ones who
really love you
Walk up and
down outside the wall.
Some hand in
hand
And some
gathered together in bands.
The bleeding
hearts and artists
Make their
stand.
And when
they've given you their all
Some stagger
and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your
heart against some mad bugger's wall.”
"Outside the
Wall" - Pink Floyd
