Monday, October 27, 2014

Being Rural, Being Radical, Being Church - Get Set for the Millennial Clergy Wave


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

No comments:

Post a Comment