Christ and Culture - April Pastor's Column

In the last four years I’ve done several different online videos to increase the reach of our church – everything from short expositions on the Psalms, to online meditations, to reviews of ELCA social statements and Biblical criticism. It’s been a bit of a hit and miss in terms of getting views and responses. Mostly miss. The algorithms that control YouTube and Facebook are unforgiving, and tend to reward the more controversial or sensational videos, which is clearly not me. That said, one series I did last year on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ideas on secular society and “religionless Christianity” took off. They’re the most viewed (the first one has over 5400) and the source of most of the new subscriptions to the Lord of Grace YouTube channel. I didn’t anticipate this, but it makes sense. Evangelicals have been working hard to appropriate Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran/Reformed pastor from Germany, and revise the narrative so that he becomes the doctrinally conservative evangelical who dared to stand up to Hitler where the wishy-washy liberals did nothing. Of course, that’s not correct, for many reasons, enough to warrant a 12-part series. But their sudden interest drove traffic to the sight, and I got a lot of emails, and even phone calls, from people responding, most thanking me for clarifying and calling out the appropriation.

 So I thought I’d try another series based on the thoughts of another old theologian (the kind I know best) that seemed strangely timely: H. Richard Niebuhr. He wrote more about sociology issues, such as how denominations were more about economic class and ethnicity than theology, but also about culture, as in, “Christ and Culture” from 1951.  It’s a short, accessible, classic that lines most of the shelves of pastors a couple generations back. In it, he details six different ways people have construed the relationship of Christ to culture. They run the gambit from being opposed (Christ Against Culture) to syncretistic (Christ of Culture) to the Christ and Culture in Paradox of St. Paul and Martin Luther. Look for them on the church YouTube and Facebook pages, Thursday mornings at 10am

H. Richard Niebuhr

This series is proving far more difficult to produce than Bonhoeffer, precisely because Niebuhr engages the both-ands and back-and-forths of a relationship that is messy and often ill-defined for most of us. Is Jesus the fulfiller of culture? Does Jesus make culture better? Should we build a Christian Culture? Does the culture have things to teach us? Or is that “caving to culture”?

I will confess that what has driven my interest in the topic is two things. The first is the 2009 vote in the ELCA to create a new social statement on human sexuality. We know well how it led to losses and battles, with a common refrain being that we, the ELCA, had “caved to culture” and were letting it dictate our beliefs, not the Bible. The refrain then went out from those wanting to gain members from ELCA churches, “Come to our church. We believe in the Bible”. I thought we believed in Jesus, and the Bible taught us about him? But I get what they’re saying: The ELCA doesn’t take literally the passages we take literally so they are giving in and letting secular, liberal, modern society dictate beliefs.

And it’s a legitimate concern that I don’t brush off lightly. Just because an idea is new, popular, gaining momentum, promoted in universities, doesn’t necessarily mean the church should adapt it. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean we should necessarily reject it - that’s reactionary. And wasn’t one of the complaints about Jesus from the priests that he was teaching people not to obey the traditions and corrupting the youth? Wasn’t reacting to change and trying to shut it down part of why Jesus was killed? Should we not learn that sometimes God calls prophets into our midst to challenge and revise our stances?

Or, better yet, how do we even know that the stances we have really are Gospel, and not themselves culture?

The second concern is the growing talk I hear about America being a “Christian nation” and the need to restore Christianity to the government. This isn’t new. I’ve heard about how removing prayer from public schools was the cause of drugs and debauchery in kids for years. I’ve even heard it said that if we taught Bible in schools we’d prevent school shootings. This desire for a sort of religious nationalism betrays the anxieties of Christians who watch the kids and grandkids quit church, and watch comedians mock the Bible, and worry about the future of the faith in a culture that varies from indifferent to hostile to mocking. It’s understandable, but a little reactionary. Christianity has grown, and does grow, in cultures hostile to it. There are ways. Chinese and Iranian Christians do it with no help from their governments. We don’t need to make a Christian culture to make a Christian church.

 I read a book by a Chinese Australian Evangelical. It was about evangelism. He’s not a liberal, by any means, and proudly wears the evangelical label. One point really sat with me: in Asia and Australia evangelicals support gun control and government health care. Vast majorities. And they read the same Bible. And they play the same praise songs. And they talk about marriage as one-man-one-woman and believe in substitutionary atonement and literal miracles etc. etc. Yet, on these two issues, they take a different stance. Could it be that we are taking things from our culture and mixing them with the Gospel? Since the Asian churches are growing, maybe we should listen to their wisdom.

 But it gets back to the issue of being aware of the ways we incorporate beliefs from our culture into our worldview as Christians without taking the time and effort to critically examine whether or not they are really Gospel and really reflect Jesus. To be a little both-sider-ist, on the leftist extreme there are still Christians who tout Karl Marx’s views as fundamentally Christian and solid in theory, but that were just ruined by bad apples (Stalin, Mao, etc.). They’re few, but the idea of communist Jesus has not died. Most liberal Christians have been more focused on reform efforts like unions, workers rights, opposing racism, and the environment than collectivizing the means of production. But those who went full communist also incorporated into their Christian worldview things that were not the Gospel.

So it gets really complicated, really fast.

 Which is why we need to take a few weeks to go back and forth and examine the different positions, and take a critical look at ourselves and what we believe and practice, and see what parts of our stances are really Gospel, before jumping out and declaring that we are not caving to culture, when what we really mean is “those Christians are caving to culture”. How often does  “Christ is counter-cultural” really mean “Christ is counter their-culture”?

None of us are pure Christians. To be so would imply that we own nothing, give away everything, love all enemies, serve the poor, and get martyred for opposing state oppression. Few of us rise to Jesus’ level of love and sacrifice. Just admitting our mixed-ness with the culture is good, if only to be humbling and less reactionary or judgmental.

Part of what I have seen as my mission here, or mission in ministry in general, is to help us all have a more reflective, self-aware, critical-thinking, experiential, kind of faith. I want us to have the examined faith, the faith that has put itself to the test and still sees the power and hand of God in life. I don’t want us to be unreflective and afraid to look in the mirror and wonder why we believe what we do. I don’t want us to be scared to see the flaws in our own arguments, or the limits of our knowledge. I don’t see my job as purely to reassure certainties and provide the comfort of absolutes.

I know the examined faith life is hard, and not always a pleasant journey. It doesn’t feel good to realize you’ve been following something just because you were taught that, and not because you have tested it and owned it. It’s hard to think that my views are culturally conditioned, even my views on God, and know that I would probably see Jesus differently if I’d grown up elsewhere. But I would not want to go back to the unexamined faith. I want to be like Jesus, who both upheld and reformed the laws of his people. 

I’ve done a few of these studies already on Thursday mornings. They’re still on YouTube and Facebook. I worry that I ramble going back and forth to cover the complexity of the topic. But it’s been fun. I hope you’ll  check them out, and that they’ll help you on your journey of being a Christian in this American/Arizonan culture today.

God Bless,

Pastor Lars

An Announcement about Announcements by Pastor Lars

As I’m sure you’ve noticed these past couple months, the narthex has undergone some transformation. This is the first time since 2013 that it’s been changed. Back then we added the leather/fake leather seating and the brown carpet. The intention was to make a lobby area, like at hotels, with big, comfortable seats, almost like a living room, as well as to absorb sound in a room with a chronic echo.

As the years went by, things got added, until the room became filled. We had book shelves, rows of extra chairs, occasional sign-up tables, etc. It all contributed to a cluttered and somewhat disorganized look.

One of the goals of the worship committee in the strategic plan was to redesign the narthex to be more welcoming for visitors and guests to the church. So a team was created, and so we came up with new plans. The room was going to serve two primary purposs:

1) welcome visitors and make them feel comfortable,

2) facilitate fellowship, conversation, and relationship building after the 10:30am contemporary service.

The first is obvious; people often judge you on first impressions, and lowering anxiety for visitors helps our growth. The second comes from the fact that people rarely make the turn into the fellowship hall, after the second service, for fellowship – like they do after the early service. We’ve had refreshments and coffee outside, which has helped, but the weather isn’t always conducive to that.

But, we had to figure out how to balance those needs with the operations of the church and our ministries. We collect things for local kids, charities, mission projects. We have things that require sign-ups (such as the Maundy Thursday Agape Meal). These are also important. And while online sign-ups and recruiting are the way of the future, responses to those attempts here have been slow. The paper still is king.

So we cleared out all sorts of stuff, removing some things completely and relocating others, such as the Marana Food Bank donation cabinet – which is in the hallway to the fellowship hall. I’m still looking for a good home for the oak memorial book table that sat in the corner by the front door for 22 years. We will still record the names of memorial gifts in it, and keep it in the office, but felt it was not needed there.

The room then looked empty as we started filling it back in with new furniture which, surprise surprise, did not come immediately. I am hoping we’ll have all the chairs and things on back order set up by summer.

The narthex team deliberately wanted to go with a modern look, with a bit of a younger appeal. Hence the tall tables for putting your coffee and refreshments on while you stand and chat, the modern furniture, and hopefully some new coffee supplies.

For sign-ups, I have found that when we put up a table in the narthex right where people come out it blocks off 3/4 of the narthex to fellowship. People rarely walk around a sign-up or recruitment table to converse. Instead, they keep going out the door. Our solution, then, is the large sign-up table now by the windows to the sanctuary. The Rev. Paul Hammar made it out of old pew wood. It stands high to be easy to sign and read standing, and is prominent enough to be seen, yet not in the way of traffic. From now on, all sign-ups will need to be on that table, or outside on the patio if you need a full table. This clears up the old credenza to be the “welcome table” that focuses just on things for visitors (and the credit card machine until we remove it this summer).

It’s always a balance between the needs of the church and the need to welcome. We need people to sign up, and we need visitors to not feel like they’re being recruited the second they walk in the door. I think we have a good one, and it will get better as we continue to live into and make adjustments.

This also applies to the subject of pastoral announcements at the beginning of the service. We need to welcome visitors, make people feel at home in the church, let them know about fellowship and prayer concerns and things that would be of immediate concern for people new to the church. At the same time, we do need people to volunteer for things like clean-up day. What to do?

I have, lately, leaned more and more towards trying to keep the verbal announcements short. It’s easier in the summer than spring. When a lot is going on, every group wants me to mention their project. Sometimes if I forget, I get blamed for the lack of attendance. But I have to balance that with visitors being overwhelmed with information and things-we-want-you-to-do. People’s attention spans are also not great, and more than the first three or four announcements and most have tuned out or will forget. So I have been trying to mention things only the Sunday before, and keep it to all-church events. I don’t mention when confirmation class is that night, or each committee meeting, those you have to find in the newsletter and on the church calendar. I do mention special services, all church events, and outreach projects. I think it makes a good impression on visitors to see us doing a lot for the poor and needy.

So if I don’t mention your activity a lot, or try to push it off to later, it’s not because I’m trying to squash anyone’s ministry. It’s that I want visitors to get the best possible first impression, and come back again. If they don’t, we won’t have people to do ministry. But it’s nothing personal.

As for the slides before service….

Each slide is custom-made and runs on the screen (wall) and online on a loop of 15 seconds. This is to get as many slides across people’s eyes, especially online, where we only have 5 minutes of livestream before the service starts. We can be a bit more flexible with how long we run them, and run things a few weeks ahead if we want. I still try not to have too many, so people tune out.  Again, these are mostly for big events and projects, or special church-year and liturgical things, such as a new sermon series, feast day, or special services coming up. Because of the short time run, they need to be like billboards, with very few words and obvious graphics. Small fonts, lots of text, complex images, low color contrast, will be hard to see and read. Think what you see on the way to Phoenix: three or four words max and a picture.

Newsletter..

Of course, if everyone read the emailed newsletter and took out their calendars and entered all the church events they were interested in for the month at the beginning of each month, then I wouldn’t have to announce much of anything. But that’s not how it works. Nonetheless, we have even more flexibility in this publication, as content volume is unlimited. We can put in as many articles as we want. If they’re one paragraph or less, the whole thing usually goes in the email. If it’s longer, we post the full article on the news blog of the church web site, where we can be as long as we want. I do this, rather than publish the full article in the email, so the scrolling does not get so long people stop halfway down. This way people can scroll through the email, and if it piques their attention, they can click the “read more” which takes them to the web site full article.

I make one exception to this: church business. For example, the council minutes, constitutional changes, financial documents – basically all the “how the sausage is made” stuff that’s necessary and important but a big turn-off to a lot of people who disdain “church politics”. While I could respond that every organization everywhere has politics, and every one of them has debates about money and control, somehow in churches it’s a real visitor-chaser-awayer. I also don’t feel those things belong on the web site, for people completely detached from the church to grab, download, and repost out of context. The whole world does not need to know salary information, even in the aggregate with no names. So these sort of internal documents I have put in .pdf form to be read by the people getting the email. Yes, they could forward or publicly post it; I can’t control that. But we don’t need to put it out there in a world full of internet trolls.

Our strategies are sure to keep changing as technology and culture keep changing. I appreciate everyone’s patience as we keep trying new things and adapting. It’s my hope that we can continue to put our best foot forward for people visiting the church, while at the same time staying active in our ministries.

Pastor Lars

Our Strategic Plan One Year In - Pastor's Column

It’s been about a year since we finished up the structure of our strategic plan, and we’ve been filling it in more and more as we go. The intention was always that it would be a living document, and that we’d update it as needed, and revisit it often. Our goals, just to review, were to create a new mission statement for Lord of Grace, then have ministry groups meet and pray and brainstorm ways they could implement that mission. So our team met and we came up with this statement:

Love God

Open Our Hearts and Minds

Live Graciously Towards All

So far we’ve been moving along with these. Let me share a few of the accomplishments.

Property brought back the semi-annual clean-up days. I’ve always enjoyed the fellowship as much as the brush cutting. Out next one is March 16th, and we’re doing the pews and chairs inside as well as the grass and brush outside.

Worship started work on the narthex. The last time we did much was back in 2012 when we got a special donation and bought the couches and leather arm chairs. In 2013 the carpet was added to the middle, and since then it’s been a somewhat unintentional collection spot. This time a team met and looked at things like function, values, goals. The team wanted to make the room useful, not just as a hallway, but as a welcome center for visitors on Sundays and a fellowship space after service. Yes, we have the big fellowship hall, but experience shows that after the 10:30am service, we don’t make that left turn.

So the first step was to remove all the things we weren’t going to use. This included the couches, the memorial book stand, the fake ficas, the book shelves that were in my office, then the conference room, then the hallway, then the narthex, and now they’re back where they started. As you can see, the room is pretty empty right now, because the new furniture hasn’t been purchased yet.  The plan is to add some new chairs for seating, some side tables for coffee, a new coffee bar, a designated sign-up table, a shelf for books on prayer and health resources, and some things for children’s ministry. These will be purchased as we go, because the funds from the capital campaign are used up. If you’re interested in contributing to a part of the new narthex, just let me know. Here’s the things on our wish list:

L-shaped sign-in table. Kind of like a “welcome desk” you’d see in places, but big enough for clip boards.

Coffee Bar. Small cabinets on wheels for coffee supplies and refreshments. Primarily for after the second service.

Air Pods. Coffee shop grade brewers that will go in the kitchen, used for both services, and have removeable caraffes to go in the narthex after the second service - or any other event.

Area Rug. The current one is from 2013. We’d like to get one of equal or bigger size, with color.

Acoustical panels for the walls. Custom-made in shapes to mimic the rock wall in the sanctuary. Fabric on batting on a wood frame.

The panels are to deal with the sound problem. The original building committee put in $7/foot (in 2002 money) tile in the narthex for durability, I learned from an original member of the church building committee. . This means we don’t have to replace carpet from coffee spills, but the room echoes so you could do Gregorian chant with ease. The couches and center rug mitigated, but with the high ceiling and the rest of the tile, only somewhat. So the team has a plan to put up homemade sound panels on the walls for both color and echo reduction. Eventually, we’d like to get a new center rug with color as well.

Outreach has been super busy going over all the different projects we did as a church and seeing if we wanted to try some new things and retire some old. Just look in the narthex to see the multiplicity of things they’re spearheading.

A big one I’d like to highlight is the partnership with Roadrunner Elementary. The school is often forgotten, being on the west end of the district. It has a good portion of kids with low income, and we’ve stepped up with drives at Christmas and volunteering with their resource center.

Youth and Family has also jump-started some things. As I’ve written about many times, it’s hard for a church our size to field traditional “youth groups”. They require a critical mass of kids the same age, who also get along well, and a lot of staff/volunteer time. On top of that, they are not proven to be the most effective at keeping kids involved in the faith after graduation, in spite of the popularity they have with parents who are church-shopping. Parental faith witness, adults who know kids and care when they show up, the church being there for them in crisis, and getting involved in leadership all make way more difference than age-segregated youth groups.

That said, our focus has shifted back the old “Family Fellowship Sundays”, now called Community Days, we used to do them monthly after the second service, until Covid came. Now they’re back with a bit more organization, including often a theme and specific activities for after eating. It’s taking the little family church potluck and putting some steroids on it. Given that intergenerational witness is the most effective, I love the concept, and they’ve been well attended. We’ll keep these going at least through the school year, and review for fall 2024.

I met with the preschool teachers and our director, America Trujillo, to set goals for their ministry. It’s been a back and forth over the years how we define what it means to be a “church” preschool, as opposed to just a secular one that uses the building. Since there is no one prototype, I decided to have the teachers work on answering this question themselves, and, of course, they came up with far better ideas than I could have. Look for some new art and decorations, some things added to worship, some special drives for the community, and ways for us, as a congregation, to help out.

Of course, all these things are just a sampling, and they happen in addition to the regular work of ministry here at Lord of Grace.

Reflecting on the whole process, I always come back to the slogan about working smarter, not harder. There was a time, mostly in the 80’s and 90’s, when you could grow a church by adding buildings and adding programs. In fact, the more the merrier. People would see either how busy you were, and assume that as an indicator of quality, or would see a program for people “like them” – whatever that means – and find a connection to join. Really big churches still operate this way, because they have finances for large staffs to run things on an ongoing basis. For the rest of us, which is probably 99% of US churches, we run on volunteers and tight budgets. And, as the years go by, we are all finding that the supply of “labor” is not getting any bigger. Fewer people go to church, and those who do are often either busy with kids and family, or wish to retire from regular committee work. So we have to do more with less. It can be disheartening, if you’re trying to keep up with the big place down the road that always seems to have the giant youth group that does whitewater rafting and Christian rock concerts every month. But it’s the relationships, the connections, the spiritual practices, the community being community for each other and the world that has the biggest impact. That we can do by:

Doing what we do better, nor necessarily more.

Making a point to get to know who we’re worshiping with, learning each others’ names and asking each other, honestly, about how life is going 

Pray together and support one another in time of need

Invite people to worship and invite people to join us in our service projects

Get involved in, and support one another, in spiritual practices that help people experience Christ.

Christianity is growing through conversion in large parts of the world, in countries with little money and in churches that are small and meet underground. Programs are not why Chinese churches are getting bigger. We can step back, take a deep breath, and see the gifts we have and the impact we can make by working smarter, and more spirit-led, with what God has given us, and get off the treadmill of trying to compete with laser shows and adventure camps.

The new stations of the cross images

12 posters of stations will be set up around the sanctuary from 11am-1pm and you can soak them in at your own pace. At night the images will be on the screen with the worship liturgy.

On that note, this month is Lent, and Holy Week, and Easter. We get it all. Lots and lots of opportunities to worship, pray, reflect, and come closer to God. Worship is something we do well, and a great way to encounter God and one another. So whatever you volunteer in, I’ll personally invite you to join us at the Lent services on Wednesdays, where we contemplate, reflect, and discuss Bible stories about the disciple Peter. We even get original music by Stuart Oliver, composed just for our services. They’re casual and interactive, and you get wine and cheese after (we’re going full Episcopalian for Lent).

Then comes the agape meal for Maundy Thursday, and a new format for Stations of the Cross. We’re adding an 11am-1pm walk through the stations on your own in the sanctuary. The stations are on posterboard, and you’ll have a chance to go around and write and look and pray over each one at your own pace. At night will be a full worship service, with music and sermon and the pounding of nails.

So many ways to step back, breathe deep, and let the Holy Spirit soak in. What happens next happens next, and God will show the way.

Peace,

Pastor Lars

New Things for the New Year - Pastor's Column February 2024

This last month has been a month of planning for me, and for the church at large. Now that I’m back from the sabbatical and have had some time to catch up on everything, there’s now more energy to look forward. Christmas was wonderful, and the Advent series on “How does a weary world rejoice” was really enjoyable. I enjoyed the art to complement the words of the liturgy, as well as the special night time services, the healing service and the longest night – both of which are still on YouTube. For a long time I’ve felt that we limit ourselves in our connection with God when it’s only words and songs. So many of us, especially in our time, learn as much through visuals as anything. To be able to convey new ideas about the Bible stories, that aren’t only from me, with my limitations, expands everyone’s experience of the season.

So, along those lines we will be doing something similar for Lent. It’s starting early this year; February 14th is Ash Wednesday. Our ashes will have to compete with Italian dinners. But, to make it easier to do both, I’ve added a shorter noon service this year.

Still, we have a great program for Lent called “Wandering Heart” by sanctifiedart. It’s the same outfit that gave us “Weary World”. It all revolves around Peter the disciple and his struggles with Jesus and his teachings. The visuals are striking, and I love the concept of making Lent about exploring the harder parts of Jesus. Peter certainly did. Mid-week services will still go on Wednesdays, much like last year, with visuals, meditatation and open-mic discussion (followed by fellowship in the narthex).

Speaking of that, changes are coming there. One of the goals of the worship committee in the strategic plan is to redesign the narthex. Over the years it’s become a bit of a collection space, with more things than we really need there. It’s ground zero for first-time visitors to encounter our church, and needs to be as welcoming as possible. So, we formed a small team to look into how to make it both more welcoming and more useful. Lots of ideas to be unrolled in stages. The first step was to clean it out, remove old stuff, and start refilling it from there. We have plans to put in a coffee bar, permanent sign-up table, a re-vamped welcome center, and acoustic tiling on the walls to dampen sound. Some other things might come too, money allowing.

Other things are coming as well. The mural on the back wall of the sanctuary is going to get started as soon as we get all the paint. A general design was approved by the council for Michael Schultz, who has painted numerous Lutheran church murals (see Reformation Las Vegas, Holy Spirit Las Vegas, San Juan Bautista and San Juan Bautista). It’s going to cover the entire back wall, and will depict, in a creative and modern way, the following three Bible stories:

Mark 9:14-27 - Jesus heals a young boy who is possessed by an evil spirit and who cannot speak

Mark 5:25-24 - Jesus heals a woman who for 12 years is suffering from a hemorrhage.

John 20:11-18 - Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene as she weeps outside the empty tomb

Other things in the sanctuary are getting finished up – such as getting a second step built, new banner stands, a conductor stand, kneelers, and more. Give a big thanks to my dad, Rev. Paul Hammar, for building all this stuff for us out of the wood from the pews we took out. The audio system is also going to get some reworking so we don’t have problems with buzzing or interference anymore.

So much is going on in the church, the list could go on. At a time when many churches are struggling with decline, we have held steady. Worship attendance is down from before Covid, like almost every church, but has moved up in the last few months. 2023 was better than 2022. And the generosity of this church continues to amaze me. Our general offerings for 2023 came in at $17,211.85 above what we budgeted. I can’t thank you all enough. This puts us in a strong position going into the new year, with resources to keep moving forward instead of having to make cuts. All we do depends on your contributions.

The Honor Guard ceremony this month in the fellowship hall.

In more good news, we welcomed back Boy Scout Troop 219 to Lord of Grace. We’ve sponsored Pack 219 cub scouts for years, and did the troop as well when the church was younger (some time before I came). They’ve been at another church and are now re-chartered at Lord of Grace and will be meeting and having events here. I’m excited to open the doors to the community more. You may see their trailer by the electrical box in the parking lot. We have several Eagle scout projects here as well, so scouting has been a tradition of ours for a while.

Making the Advent lanterns for the Advent tree

And, of course, I have to give a plug for the return of our monthly family fellowship lunches after the 10:30am service. We did these pot luck, once a month, for a while before Covid. Now we’re back with intergenerational activities, food, and things for youth. These will keep going the first Sunday of the month until summer, and you’re all invited. It’s a great chance for us to be a big family, meet or catch up with people, and build connections between adults and kids.

So much is going on at our church, new people and new life and deep spiritual growth opportunities. Things are humming because of your time and support.

Pastor Lars

Let Jesus Be Jesus - Pastor's Column Jan 2024

From there Jesus set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter." So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Probably fewer passages put Jesus in a bad light than this one. Calling a woman a dog, more or less, seems so out of character. Was he just having a bad day? Was he tired or worn out from people incessantly pestering him for healing? That would make sense. If it was your daughter, you’d pester the guy with a cure, even if it meant he didn’t get a day off.

Christian theology, however, is full of explanations to make Jesus not look so mean. He was really just testing her faith – like the state denying your disability claim the first 5 times to make sure you’re serious about it. Or he wanted to make a point to everyone there, and knew she had faith, but just wanted them to see. Or something like that.

I like the Jesus who has a bad day better. The thought of him toying with the poor woman to use her as a “teachable moment” seems more cruel than just snapping. The explanations involve so many layers of 3D chess: I’ll say this, knowing she’ll say that, so I can give this response, so she’ll give this response, and the crowd will get this message. Wow! Jesus could just tell, what’s that called, a parable, instead.

It's one of my pet-peaves with what I’ll nickname “pious apologetics”. It’s that strain of thought that wants Jesus to always be perfect, never have a bad day, never lose his temper (except the tables, I guess) and always have a good moral lesson behind everything. This Jesus is so milquetoast that he's not really much of a person. We assert in the creeds that Jesus is fully and human and fully divine at the same time. But, to the pious apologists, he’s fully divine in a human shell. His humanity is only physical. His mind is pure-God. That smacks almost of possession – or one of those Stargate movies where the alien takes over the human body.

The Bible is full of passages that are, in some way or another, troubling to our modern sensibilities. A lot of them. It runs the gamut from Lot’s daughters seducing him to have kids, to David wiping out whole cities, to the commands for slaves to be obedient even when mistreated (yes, check out 1 Peter 18-19, Titus 2:9, Colossians 3:22). The outsider reads these and gets offended. “How could a good divinity command this stuff?”. Then the pious apologist responds with a lot of theological and hermeneutical (interpretive) gymnastics. David had to do it. Lot’s daughters thought they had no choice. Slavery in Rome was different, and not so bad (different from the US, yes, but definitely bad. Slave owners, by Roman law, could do anything they wanted to people they owned – including raping and killing). All this preserves the sense of perfection of the scriptures, of our heroes, of our Messiah. But pious perfection has never been the point. It’s about God continuing to work in the world when people aren’t perfect. And it makes Christians look ridiculous trying to explain away things that are indefensible, rather than just say, “look, we don’t take every passage literally, we know it was written by people, and some passages are just wrong – like the slavery ones”. Is that so hard? Even to say that Jesus had bad days and spit out some nasty words to get a woman out of his face.

Maybe Jesus was seeing some bigger picture, but the dog reference is so offensive, I can’t help but think he just really wanted her to go away, and thought if he made it sting she’d get the hint.

I can relate to Jesus here, being exhausted is something we all know. Just ask most moms, or rural doctors. Everyone wants something from you, and they’re demanding, because to them it’s urgent, but you only have so much in you. You want to help, but you don’t have any energy left to give. So when you need most to be calm, patient, understanding, you’re just irritated.

There’s a reason why, I believe, so many of the wisest teachers have light schedules. They have to protect their own inner peace so they have peace to give others. They have to have their hearts filled with the Spirit to lead others to it. It’s why I wish our public school teachers had lighter schedules. And social workers. And counselors. And………

It’s why I don’t have services on Christmas Day. It’s why the office stays closed most of the week after Christmas. It’s why I have more healing services in Advent, and fewer programs and events. We need to recharge, so the faith becomes something that builds you up, instead of another to-do on your long list. As if any of us really want more committees to sit on to manage business and ensure compliance with policy directives. We need committees and policies, but less is more in a world where everyone is over-scheduled to begin with. More things does not mean your church is necessarily better. The experience of the Holy Spirit is more important than filling the calendar with programs. And it will have a bigger impact on our faith and evangelism.

So we begin a new year, 2024. Keep time to find your time with God, your space to breathe deep, the spiritual gifts that make serving a delight, and not a chore, and have the patience to be loving towards those who pester and annoy us.

Peace,

Pastor Lars

Family & Youth Ministries At Lord Of Grace

We're forming a new focused ministry area at Lord of Grace called Family & Youth Ministries. If you've been waiting or hoping for more programming in this area, here's your invitation to join in making a difference.

Two ways to serve:
1)  Join the Family & Youth Advocate Team - this team will meet together 4 times a year to evaluate how we're doing and consider ways we can do an even better job reaching out and serving families and youth. This team cares about details, safety, policies, and ministry excellence too. Help develop a long-term strategy to keep kids & families connected to the church for life.

2) Join the Family & Youth Action Team. If the thought of sitting through another meeting leaves you a little queasy, join our Action Team. This team is more boots on the ground in coming up with ideas and making them happen. Serve around your schedule with ideas that you're excited about. We'll meet as needed over text, coffee, or while we're doing what we're doing.

So, which one seems like a fit for you? Email or text Laurie at laurieacker@gmail.com or 520.370.7106 to learn more.

Reconnecting - Pastor's Column July 2023

This is the last column I’ll write for the next few months, as after Sunday (July 2nd), I’ll be gone on sabbatical until Sunday October 15th.

It’s hard to think that I’ve been at Lord of Grace for 13 years now. The ELCA recommends sabbaticals every 5-7 years, but at that time I had 5 kids in the house, ranging from preschool to high school. There was simply no way to swing being away from family for that long. Now that three are out of high school, things are more manageable, and I can get the time off.

There was a time when Lutheran bishops could be a bit like task masters. They had very high expectations of hours worked, and when conflict would arise, or people would complain to the bishop, the question was often sent back to the pastor with a “how many hours are you working?”, as if laziness must be the reason everyone’s not happy. Couldn’t be anything else.

But then this attitude, and workaholism in general, started catching up with us as a church. Clergy burnout hit hard, and many quit. Then you had a huge wave of misconducts and affairs in the 70’s-90’s. All those people working long hours found unhealthy ways to release. Now we’ve just come to understand that the job is not what it used to be. Before, you pretty much knew what was expected: preach, teach, visit, repeat. If you preached more, taught more, visited more, then you could expect some success, or at least people would be more happy.

Now, we don’t even know what we’re doing in church half the time. You have fewer volunteers, people coming less often, more secular culture, fewer visitors on Sundays – all adding to the pressure to get new people in new ways. Then let’s throw in technology management, livestreaming, social media, and all the organizational work you have to pick up because you don’t have the people to delegate it out to, and the job suddenly is less about working harder, and more about figuring out what works - all while you still preach, teach, visit.

All this has led to a wave of retirements, and an attrition rate of around 30% of pastors in the first 5 years. All of it combined to make the higher ups think that maybe they should pull back on workaholic expectations and try to figure out how to have healthier clergy who stay longer, and thus are more effective at constantly adapting and leading change. Hence the support for pastors taking sabbaticals.

You know how I’ve preached against the “industrial” way of thinking about ministry for years. Humans are not machines that can just crank out better things by putting in more effort. We need time to rest in order to think, feel, imagine, and recharge. To be effective at coming up with new things, and constantly problem-solve new situations, you have to be rested and in a clear frame of mind. If you’re tired from running ragged, you get rote and uninspired.

And the last thing we all need is to be rote and uninspired. That’s not much of a life. So we need to value time off, rest, recreation, family, hobbies, community engagement, outdoors just as much as work – in order to be good at work.

I won’t say I’ve become rote these last three years, but I will admit that the endless adaptation to changing circumstances has come with stress. I will say that it’s hard to think of how to grow the church, and make disciples, and do new ministries, when you can’t even figure out where everyone is, or how to operate all the machines. I miss that, because, to me, that’s the funnest part of ministry – the opportunities to change new lives and make a difference. I plan to do a lot more of that when I come back from a few months away.

For the sabbatical I’m going to mostly go back to doing things I’ve done, or places I’ve seen. There will be some adventure; I’m going to check out some parks and monuments I’ve never been to. But camping and hiking are things I love. Most of my faith journey leading to seminary was out in the woods, at camp, when it wasn’t at the local church. Endless days in the trees debating God’s call for me, my place in the world. Getting back to that will bring peace (I hope) and some renewed connection with God. Going to see Sweden again, where I remember being the only one in my class who went to church on Sundays, will be exciting. It was through our connections to Sweden that Kristie and I met in the Scandinavian Studies Department at college. It’s why the sabbatical proposal was filled with talk of “reconnecting”. It’s a little like being the musician who had big hits early on, and tons of new stuff, and then gets so busy running tours that things can get repetitive, and needs to go back to Greenwich Village coffee shops (if you took a Bob Dylan-style journey) and the life before the work to get re-inspired for new ideas and new energy. The Beatles made their best album at the end of their career (Let It Be), although some would argue orange pills and Yoko Ono had a hand in it 😊.

But that’s the idea: to get back to the basic things that formed faith originally, spend time with family, and not do any work. There will be a lot of picture-taking, and I plan to get some printed out for a display when I get back. But there will be no theological investigations, or touring “successful” churches to look for practices to poach. Just lots of decompressing and soaking in God’s beauty and grace.

While I’m out, you will be in the good hands of Pastor Jim Dew and the many members who are stepping up to cover ministries and even some lay-led services on Sundays. The Lay Visitation Team, led by Cindy Stein, will be in charge of member care. If you have prayers or concerns, sicknesses, surgeries, or just someone to talk to, call her. The team is excited to be there for the congregation, to build up and support one another.

I also won’t get to see the sanctuary finished (though I might sneak in under cover of darkness to check it out later), as it will still be under construction when I leave. Sam Lyth is managing the project, so you can bring your questions to him. Reminder again that the pews will not be bolted to the floor anymore. This will give us flexibility with the space, but you will have to be careful if using them to stand up.

Sue Justis is leading a study on spiritual gifts. Check out the display for that. You have the chance to not just read the book on gifts, but study with Rev. Josh Acton himself, the author. If you want to see some of his previous talks, check them out here.

Fourth of July and Rally Day are still on – our two big events in the heat. Prayerfully consider if you can do some grilling or helping out with those, since I won’t be around to call and recruit. See our council president Linda Merritt if you can help with Rally Day.

When I look at all the work of the last couple years, we’ve really come a long way as a church. We transformed to livestreaming and beefed up our internet presence. We upgraded our building, and continue through your generosity. We started a strategic planning process and got a new mission statement. Now we’re rebuilding our sanctuary and looking at revising our ministries for growth. We got challenged, and rose to the occasion. Thank you all for everything you did to support our congregation and get us through so we can not just survive, but plan ahead and lean into the future.

Having done that, I will be leaning back on a folding chair in the woods somewhere for a while with my wife and good pot of coffee brewed over a kerosene stove. I’ll think of you. But not too much 😊. God bless.

Pastor Lars

Loving not Hating - Pastor's Column May 2023

I was giving a tour of the sanctuary to a lighting consultant, who was asking me about what we wanted for the sanctuary. I told him my concerns were fairly practical: I wanted to have things more adjustable, and brighter up the front and on the sides, new sconces etc. He suggested all sorts of new lighting ideas, that the churches he worked with wanted fancy lights to “bring the young people back.”

That stuck with me, that churches had told him that they thought fancy light production at worship would make young people more interested in church. This shouldn’t surprise me. But it still seems like such 1990’s thinking. Back then, a lot of people (Baby Boomers – largely) grew up in traditional churches, but thought they were boring. So adding bands and light shows and production elements would tilt the scales when picking between churches. If you’re going anyways, why not the one with lasers, fog machines, jumbotron etc.?

But times have changed. I honestly have never met a person under 40 (heck, under 50 now) who says they don’t go to church because it’s too boring or traditional. Their issues are deeper. They don’t believe in God at all. Or they don’t like “organized religion,” and they will give a list of grievances with “church”. And none of them have anything to do with lights. Instead, the view is that Christians are hateful, transphobic, intolerant.

Ouch.

This bites much deeper than production value.

But where do they get these ideas?

The internet, of course.

And the newspaper.

And stories from friends.

And the stories they hear are disturbing.

I’m sure you all heard about the pastor at Faith Christian Church, based out of the University, using church funds to buy mansions on Mount Lemmon without paying taxes. He claims it’s for “spiritual retreats”. But, interestingly, only he and his close friends ever go on them.

So the internet lights up with “tax the churches. They’re all a scam….”

Then there’s the episode at Bookman’s where they had one of those drag queen story hours. A local church sent a crowd of angry people to shout and scream them down, scare them into stopping. They said they were “protecting the children from grooming”. What utter nonsense. There is no data to support drag queens leading to child molestation. Most offenders are straight and married. None of them started with drag queens.

Of course, to the young people watching from the sides, this is glaring hypocrisy, and intolerance. They see priests molesting kids and bishops covering it up, then Christians are worried about drag queens?

Of course, you and I will point out a distinction between some non-denominational personality cult and the Roman Catholic Church. They don’t. It’s all just “Christians are hypocrites”.

You want to know why kids don’t want to come to church? They think we’re hateful, homophobic, reactionary, sexist etc. They can’t figure out why they’d want that guy with his shiny red corvette and frosted tips to tell them every Sunday why LGBTQ people were going to hell. No thanks. I’ll be a good person, live love, and do it without “organized religion”.

I’ve had people ask my kids, when they say I’m a pastor, “so, your dad hates gays?” Gentle ribbing? Or do they really believe it?

The two biggest questions I get asked by confirmation students are “what is hell all about?” and “why do Christians hate gays?”

That’s the world we live in. Like it or not. The kids who go to church have to answer to their friends for the sins of those Christians who are screaming loudly to block what most young people see as self-evident human rights. They don’t see atheists shouting down drag queens and screaming at school board meetings. Ergo: atheists are more tolerant and loving.

I know that we as a church, as the ELCA, have struggled over the years with what course we will plot over LGBTQ issues. We know all too well at Lord of Grace that many of our former members left to go to conservative churches that would affirm their belief that all same-sex activity was sinful and against the Bible. We also know that our social statement on human sexuality both affirms same-sex marriage and ordination, but does not condemn those who choose not to support that. You don’t have to agree with the change, but we do expect you to live in a loving and supportive way in community with those who do.

Which brings me back to thinking about our place as a church, our future, our strategy for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these times. Most of our society seems to be splitting apart along hard, partisan lines. Some churches stake out a traditionalist view, and they keep planting churches that affirm those beliefs, and do so with really good light shows. On the other hand, more and more of the population is just dropping out of church entirely. They don’t see a place for them. They may not deny God’s existence, but don’t want to participate in what they see as hateful politics.

In order to do evangelism these days it’s not enough to talk about Jesus. You have to overcome all these negative views, all these preconceptions first. You have to BE loving and supportive of people ostracized by other churches. And you have to keep clarifying, “but we’re not like that church, we don’t believe that, we don’t practice that……”

It's gets exhausting. I used to be more circumspect about doing the whole “We’re not them” bit. It felt arrogant. But after watching the screaming at Bookman’s and credible threats against the Catalina Foothills school board, I don’t feel we have a choice. Honestly, I would rather go to no church at all than that one.

And I used to be more circumspect about talking about ELCA social statements. I was worried it would offend people and cause controversy, and I didn’t have the energy for a fight. But, the more I see in the news, the more I feel the opposite. We’ve already lost people because of our positions. Maybe it’s time to use them to gain new ones.

It's why I feel we need to be more bold in identifying ourselves as different, and highlighting our social positions, and letting people know we’re an alternative. We also have the burden of living that out in practice, and demonstrating that we can be loving, open-minded, tolerant, inclusive, accepting, non-judgmental, listening to diverse views, and not automatically against all social change. We have a lot of obstacles to overcome to reach new generations for Christ. And none of them have to do with flashy lighting.

That said, we will be upgrading our lighting. We’ll go with the simpler plan: nothing flashy, but more bright and adjustable. We’ll be able to set a mood for a meditative service, and raise it for Sunday morning. And I hope that under those lights, whether dark and contemplative or bright and celebrating, that we act and live love and acceptance of Jesus, so we can melt hardened hearts with deeds and actions that give a different voice to Jesus and the church.  

Peace,

Pastor Lars

Painting San Juan Bautista - pastor's column April, 2023

Seventy years ago some Swedish Lutherans on the south side of Tucson formed a congregation, in the old Augustana Synod (which has since merged in to the LCA and then to the ELCA), on Bilby Road and almost Park Avenue. They called this church Bethany Lutheran.

By the mid-1970’s, most of the Swedes had moved away, and the neighborhood had become mostly Mexican-American. So they sold the property to the Lutheran Church in America (the LCA) and with the proceeds moved west to Cardinal and Valencia and formed Santa Cruz Lutheran Church.

San Juan Bautista, as it looks today.

Meanwhile, at the old Bethany building, a new pastor named Rich Miller came in, who spoke Spanish and had served congregations in the Caribbean. He had a counseling practice on the side and, through that, met a bunch of people of Afro-Cuban descent who had just come to the US. He restarted the church as San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church, or Eglesia Luterana de San Juan Bautista.

The church remained this way until the early 1980’s, when most of the Cuban immigrants moved to other parts of the US, and Pastor Miller started and outreach to the Mexican-America community that now is the majority of the area. He stayed there until the late 1980’s.

He was then followed by a retired missionary from Guatemala, Pastor Gary McClure. He served the congregation part-time for the next 18 years. He was followed by three more pastors who all had short terms, followed then by Pastor Mateo Chavez, a retired teacher from Yuma and member of the congregation. Pastor Chavez has now been at San Juan for several years fully ordained.

This April 30th San Juan will be celebrating its 70th anniversary as a ministry site (as two different congregations). They’ve weathered a lot, particularly the struggle with finding pastors who can speak Spanish, and know the culture. As a small congregation of people on hour wages. San Juan has not been self-sustaining for years, and relies heavily on the generosity of the ELCA, Grand Canyon Synod, and our fellow Tucson congregations.

Pastor Rich Miller (second from left) helping the musicians from San Juan at the super-youth event in 2017. Pastor Mateo Chavez is speaking, and his wife Anette is with the guitar second from the right.

Lord of Grace has had an off-again, on-again partnership with San Juan. I saw in an old directory that we rebuilt the underlayment on their roof in the early 2000’s. We also had a combined youth group event in 2018 down there, which was a lot of fun. Then there was the “super-youth” event here in 2018 that featured a musical group from San Juan.

When I was doing Open Space Church, we had a good partnership with San Juan. As a mission start, we relied on ELCA money to support us. But what we didn’t have in finances, we had in talent.

Michael Schultz painting Jesus and John the Baptism where the old windows used to be at San Juan Bautista

In 2015 we held our second live graffiti art show at San Juan: WET PAINT 2. Open Space’s own Michael Schultz painted a big mural on their education building with the Virgin of Guadalupe, Jesus, and the Luther Rose. We also brought in other local artists to make an event out of it. The mural is still there, though it could use a touch-up because of the fading. It faces due west.

The Holy Spirit by Tucson artist SES ONE

Then again in 2019 Open Space came back to host a graffiti contest, and paint the outside front of the sanctuary. The windows that once showed light into the front were covered up with plywood decades ago, and were painted like the rest of the building. Instead, Michael Schultz painted this Jesus with John the Baptist (above) in stained-glass-style, but with all spray paint. Numerous other artists competed, and the winner, SES ONE, with this Holy Spirit Dove, still sits in the San Juan sanctuary.

One thing that has been a frustration of many of us in the Grand Canyon Synod is how Tucson, which is 40% Mexican-American, has only one Spanish-speaking church, and . We need to do better at our evangelism, and break out of being a denomination of primarily Midwestern transplants (says Midwestern Transplant). There aren’t easy solutions, but one thing we can do is help support the congregation we do have.

The Lord of Grace and San Juan youth groups in 2016 in front of the main mural on the education building.

Which brings me to my shameless plug for volunteers to help me repaint the San Juan fellowship hall. The room has been rebuilt and repainted several times, and has some marks of wear, as any heavily-trafficked space does. I’ll be going down April 10th to prep the walls and tape, and then paint on April 12 and 13. I could use help to make it all go faster. It’s not a huge room, but it does take time and effort to get things done with detail. Sign-up sheets are in the narthex, and you can pick the day you can come. I hope to see you there.

Pastor Lars

Experiencing God in Wilderness -pastor's column March 2023

These past few weeks I’ve been doing an online study of selected passages from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters from Prison. It’s been a fun experience to go back and look at one of my favorite writers and theologians, as well as someone I feel pretty comfortable recommending as a model of Christian faith. In case you aren’t familiar with him, he was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He taught for a while at Union Seminary in New York City, and decided to go back to Germany with the rise of Hitler. He could have stayed out the war, but he felt his Christian calling was not to avoid the cross of discipleship, but embrace it. I’m not sure I would have been as bold.

When he got to Germany he joined the Abwehr – German military intelligence. It gave him clearance to travel to gain secrets about the Allies, while also working as a sort of double-agent. He ended up joining a plot to kill Hitler, and when he was found out, was sent to the Tegel prison in Berlin. He stayed there 18 months before being quietly transferred to an SS camp, where he was interrogated, tortured, and, eventually, hung naked with piano wire a couple months before the war ended.

All this sacrifice has put a credibility behind his writings that most theologians don’t have. But there’s one part of him that is getting renewed attention these days, from an unlikely source: American fundamentalists.

When Bonhoeffer was in New York, there was a theological movement at the time in mainline churches called “liberalism”. Nowadays we call it “classical liberalism” because it isn’t the same as today. The word means different things. But back then it was about how we could build the kingdom of God here on earth through social programs and science, and that doctrine and beliefs were largely unimportant. What mattered was the social outcomes. This was a reaction to the “quietism” of so much of American Christianity then that taught, basically, forget about the world and prepare yourself for heaven. Actions have reactions.

What Bonhoeffer found disillusioned him on classical liberalism, as he felt it didn’t address the issues of discipleship and personal responsibility for one’s faith. But this is not to say he was a quietist, or against churches taking social stands. Here’s just one quote

“Things do exist that are worth standing up for without compromise. To me it seems that peace and social justice are such things, as is Christ himself.”

He was not a social conservative, he just had issues with this particular brand of liberal Christianity.

Fast-forward to the early 2000’s, and suddenly you see his name being trumpeted by American Christian fundamentalists as one of their own. He’s now the doctrinal evangelical who died resisting the weak-kneed liberals who wouldn’t stand up to Hitler. So many things are wrong here, but most people wouldn’t catch them. In Germany, the Protestant “Lutheran” church actually calls itself the Evangelische Kirche. They don’t use the word “Lutheran”. In fact, our own doctrinal book, the Book of Concord, says “These are the writings of the Evangelical churches”. Lutheran was a nickname.

To conflate Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the modern evangelical movement, and all its literalism and politics, is simply wrong. He was anything but. Today he would go to a mainline Lutheran church, talk about “social justice” and “systemic injustice” along with the individual’s call to discipleship. He would in no way support the evolution-denying or science-denying politics of today’s evangelicals. But you have to dig a little to find that.

His earlier books, the Cost of Discipleship and Ethics have a heavy focus on the individual and the personal cost of being a follower of Jesus. They don’t delve as much into systemic and social things. It’s in his later writings, where he’s sitting in prison, with lots of time on his hands, that he starts to really rethink a lot of the Christian faith. It isn’t that he loses faith, even seeing WW2, it’s just that he gets disillusioned with how faith did not lead to action where it mattered. And so he begins to wonder if maybe the “religion” of his time – the practices, theology, unwritten belief systems, need to get jettisoned to get back to following Jesus. This is what he calls “religionless Christianity”, and this is what I’ve been exploring in the video series.

And yet, even here, his words got spun. You have fundamentalists talking about how they’re getting rid of “religion” to get “back to the heart”. And when pressed what that means, it’s something along the lines of: traditions, denominations, liturgy, robes, communion, written prayers – anything that might resemble Catholicism. They’re going to just sing and pray and listen to a sermon, and that’s “getting rid of religion”. The problem was, Bonhoeffer’s exploration of religionless Christianity has nothing to do with liturgy or bishops or robes, and everything to do with questions like:

• How can you talk about the cross if people are not believing in sin?

• Why is so much of “religion” just focused on life after death, instead of this world?

• What do we have to say that adds Christ to the world of experience and science, instead of saying that God is either not working in the world, or only is there to answer the questions we can’t (the God of the gaps)?

• Is it ethical to encourage people  to have an existential crisis so that you can solve it?

• What does it mean to talk about redemption if the world doesn’t think they need to be saved?

These are questions driven by the rise of secularism, science, atheism, philosophy. Nothing about robes or hymns or weekly communion. Nothing about Jesus “in your heart”. Much more deep.

Where I find the questions the most convicting and engaging for me center around the idea of finding God in the world, and not in what’s after or beyond. If God is only the answer to questions we can’t answer, the more science answers the less room there is for God. And in a world that could care less about hell and heaven, do we have something to say about life now?

There’s this common phrase I hear among my fellow wilderness-hiking-types that they don’t need to go to church because “nature is my church” and “I find God in nature/mountain/stream/rainbow/sunset”. I have spent a lot of time in nature, and while I feel that I can better connect with God there, because there is more beauty and less distractions, I have not found God. I missed the community, the Word, the communion, the songs. Just me and nature eventually got kind of lonely.

Ragged Top Mountain, in Ironwood Forest National Monument.

But I see where they’re coming from, and because of Bonhoeffer I understand it better. They’re not denying that God exists, or that there is more to life than the physical world, or that there is transcendent experience. They’re just placing it IN THE WORLD. Church, they believe, is all about after death and outside of experience. They want a richer experience of God IN NATURE, not a God who tells you to destroy it because it’s all going to hell in the rapture anyways. They want to find God now, not just after death. And they want more life now, not a deprived life now in order to prepare for the good one later.

With that, I can’t disagree.

But our music, our hymns, so much of what we do is not geared towards finding God IN the pleasure and beauty today. If anything, pious Christianity has viewed pleasure as the first step on a slippery slope to debauchery and hell. Better to hold it all in. And if you listen to the songs about after I die, they go on and on about the “far side of Jordan”, but nothing about the near side of my life.

It's made me rethink how we can talk about God with no reference to heaven and hell, afterlife, punishment. It’s made me rethink how to talk about Jesus as someone to find IN the experience of the world, not as an escape from it.

Jesus being tempted to rule the world by The Tester

And how do we do that, and keep Jesus distinctly Jesus, and not fall into “God is in everything, so everything is God” sort of mushy-ness? Bonhoeffer suggests going back to the Old Testament, where no one believed in hell or an afterlife, and where Jesus, he believes, considers that of minor importance (though he does believe in resurrection). The message is there, the way is there, but it will involve some re-experiencing the world around you.

My thoughts meander, but let me bring it all back. This Lent our theme is “wilderness”. You can take that a couple ways. One is that it’s a place of emptiness, disorientation, deprivation. In those places, like Jesus, we can hear the Spirit more clearly because of our lack of distractions. The other way is to look at the wilderness as a place of rich experience, peace, harmony, and presence of mind – a place where God is MORE present, and deprivation is less. In both cases, we can go on our journeys away from the endless to-do lists that kill any experience of holiness and transcendence, that separate us from daily experience of God.

We’ll explore this theme in our mid-week services through the use of meditation, conversation, and contemplation of visual art. God will be present in both the non-seeing, and in the rich visuals. The sermons on Sunday will emphacize this two-sided journey, and, I hope, we will all have a new perspective on faith as followers of Jesus in this world.

Peace,

Pastor Lars

A Holy Christmas at the Mission

December newsletter from the Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission

Warm hearts and wide smiles perfectly balanced the chilly Rock Point, Arizona winter air on December 15th at the Mission 2022 Christmas Program. 

39 Mission students in traditional Navajo finery and costumes sang Christmas carols and told the story of Jesus' birth so many years ago. Parents and community members beamed with pride and cheered all throughout the program. Our thanks to all the parents, teachers, and staff who worked so hard to make this year's program another annual community favorite.

Following the program was the long-awaited annual Quilt distribution. Over 1,000 quilts of a rainbow of colors and styles were given the community members. These quilts were donated to Navajo families by church groups, sewing clubs, and even international support organizations such as the Orphan Grain Train. This winter will be just a little bit warmer for our friends and neighbors thanks to the efforts of our many friends throughout the United States.

CELEBRATING ALL OF OUR BLESSINGS

Many Native American theologians say that Indigenous people lived Christ-like lives for many centuries. Some of the characteristics are helping others when they are in need, advocating for those who may not be able to, and seeking justice for marginalized populations. We share these same characteristics to our non-Native brothers and sisters who stand with us in the work we do in Rock Point, AZ.

For nearly seventy years, Navajo Lutheran Mission worked hard to level equal access to quality education, clean and safe drinking water, and addressing issues of food scarcity. With your help, last year we served over 20,000 meals through Hozho Café, disbursed over 500,000 gallons of water, and drove over 50,000 rugged miles to pick up our 39 students.

Our work continues to be very important as the Navajo Lutheran Mission is a beacon of hope and love. As you celebrate your blessings this year, I want to thank you for your continued support. We too, celebrate our blessings of your support that is transforming our community, our families, and our students.

— Patterson Yazzie
    Executive Director

OUR MISSION: ROOTED IN THE HOPE OF MARY

In the first chapter of Luke, Mary sings a song of praise to God for all that is about to take place. Does she know what that is? What assurances has God given her? What will be the outcome of all she ponders in her heart?

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor
on the lowliness of his servant…
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the
thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.

(Luke 1, excerpts)

With a confident voice of gratitude, Mary somehow knows to sing about God’s accomplishments – without even mentioning her miraculous pregnancy (except to call it ‘favor’). Everything has radically changed for her; even so, she visions something yet more praiseworthy. She gives voice to what God will do, as though she knows the future.

I find myself wondering about that kind of ‘God sighting’, and how God is calling forth what is beyond me, beyond Navajo Lutheran Mission, or beyond the Navajo people. Do you wonder the same? Mary sings her praise as though God has already righted the injustices and restored Creation. She points us to God’s accomplishments, beyond our own.

True, deep, lasting change is rooted in Mary’s kind of hope, believing that God is working in and through Navajo Lutheran Mission to right the story and restore justice for our Navajo neighbors and beyond. This newsletter is literally filled with evidence of hope (God’s accomplishments) expressed in the joy of children, the gratitude of a grandparent with a new quilt, a job-well-done smile from talented staff, each with a vision of something that is to come that will be yet more praiseworthy.

Give the Gift of Hope.

Partnered with hopeful people like you, we are accomplishing the miracle of transformation and lasting change. You bless us with needed resources to invest in a future brimming with ‘God sightings.’ Like Mary, we have caught a glimpse of what God can accomplish when we say yes, trusting God to right the wrongs and make straight the pathway to justice and peace. Thank you for the generosity and love that holds us in hope of what God is doing…trusting as though we know the future.

  — Kate Adelman

      Development Director and Pastor

Newsletter is now Email

The newsletter’s gone full-digital

You’ve probably already noticed that the Friday email looks a little different these last few months. First, we cut back to twice a month, instead of every week, to save time in the office, and because it was no longer needed to send a unique link to each service video each week. When we first went online in 2020, services were pre-recorded, and I would compile all the clips into a single, large video on Thursday afternoons, and upload them on my home computer, which was faster at the time. However, it still took all night, and I wouldn’t have the link until Friday morning, at which time the email went out.

When we upgraded our livestreaming system, we were no longer able to have a link to the videos ahead of time. Instead, you now just go to the church Facebook page, or YouTube channel. Now that it’s the same link you go to every week, the need for weekly emails just wasn’t there.

But, over time, we started upgrading the quality if our emails. Instead of just me sending text, we use a service called mailchimp, which allows us to format emails much like a web page – adding photos, links, color, videos, all sorts of things. As time went on we kept adding more and more notices, events, articles on Fridays. I noticed this fall that we were duplicating a lot of the material between the email and the newsletter, but having to spend the labor hours for Angie to format and email, and do all the graphic design and layout for the printed newsletter. As a stewardship issue, it made sense to just make one, really good, Friday email that goes out twice a month, and print out the email in a booklet for those who need it. This is why the Monthly Log-In you find by the front doors looks so different.

The Friday email will come in two versions: the full, beginning of the month, and the shortened, mid-month. The full version is what’s printed, and will include the pastor’s column, council minutes, worship assistant schedules and such. The mid-month version will be shorter, and will focus more on current events coming up, as well as anything that came up and missed the deadline for the big one. I’ve found, over the years, that getting submissions for the newsletter by a hard week-before-the-end-of-the-month deadline is getting harder, and things are coming up on more short notice. This allows us the flexibility to update if we miss anything at the beginning.

I hope you’ll enjoy some of the new features in the upgraded email:

·        Embedded videos of meditations, services, special events.

·        More photos

·        Links at the bottom to synod news, ELCA news, more of our videos and resources, bulletins, and more.

·        Ability to read all the news on an electronic device, without having to download a pdf and try to move it around the phone screen to see it all.

One more change is that larger articles, such as my pastor’s columns, will not be on the email in their entirety. Instead, we’ll post the beginning, and put a link to the full article on the church web site (lordofgrace.org/news). Our web template allows us to create as many blogs as we want, so we brought back one for news and events that had been hidden for a couple years. All longer articles will go there, so when you click the “read more” button it will redirect you there. The one exception will be the council minutes, which will remain in pdf format. I have a philosophy that members should have access to the business workings of the church, but visitors and seekers online don’t need to.

So, I hope you enjoy the new format. We will continue to print paper copies and put them by the front door, as well as mail paper copies to the handful or so members with no email access. Otherwise, here’s to a new year and a new update.

Pastor Lars

Healing for Advent - Pastor's Column December 2022

A couple years ago I decided to bring back mid-week Advent services. I don’t remember ever doing them at LOG myself, but I think one of my predecessors may have. Either way, I didn’t want to do them for years because I didn’t want to just add “one more thing to do in December” to the church calendar. We all have busy lives shopping, going to Christmas parties, end of the school year plays, and end of the year reports and such. Who needs one more thing.

But then someone referred me to a progressive Christian web site called sanctifiedart.com that offered creative and interactive ideas for services. I dug around, and found Advent healing services there. It intrigued me, what if the mid-week services could be not another thing to do, but a chance to not do: to sit, to just be, to relax, to reflect, to contemplate, to be still and let God be God and just soak in God’s presence? And what if we could broadcast these online, so people at home could follow along and find some rest and peace, and connect with Lord of Grace? I was hooked.

So we did the services last year, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Our prayer team came through with individual places to pray with prayer team members. We had some interactive art things, hands-on prayer stations, some cool videos of paintings being made to guided meditations. It took a lot of work, but I had many people tell me how it hit the spot.

It made me grateful, because I spent most of the services obsessing about getting the livestreaming technology to work, which it did most of the time.

During the last service, the Longest Night service, the one that deals with grief and loss, we got to a point where 5 minutes of meditation was planned. The old iMac computer decided to lock up at that exact time, and wouldn’t shut down or restart with any speed, so it became a 15 minute meditation time. I was freaking out, but the music kept playing, people kept praying, and we just handed out bulletins for the rest of the time.

More than one person told me they loved the long meditation. I guess I need to remember the value I had in making the service: to just be, and not do.

For this year I decided to do it all again – the exact same services, with the same liturgies. Instead of having something to rush to do in Advent, we now have four services to have no rush, but just to really be, especially at this time of year when the Christmas cheer can bring up all sorts of painful memories if you’ve lost a loved one who you won’t be celebrating with, or someone died around this time, or the holidays somehow remind you of some bad memory. With the world filled with cheer and wassailing, we’re providing space to let out, name, and be with God IN the struggle. It’s not meant to take away from the cheer, but to better experience it without it being fake.

And I won’t lie that I have a certain bias towards doing hands-on things in worship. It doesn’t always work out well, can take a lot of time and planning, and isn’t for everyone. But for those of us who learn and process in ways other than hearing words spoken and reciting words, who learn with our hands by making and creating and exploring and writing, these services can be super-powerful. And, especially if you’re distracted, stressed, have ADHD, or some difficulty sitting for long periods of time, prayer stations and interactive worship provides a way for you to put your whole self into it.

So I’m looking forward to another Advent of taking time to heal. In fact, I thought the topic was so relevant, especially coming off all the emotional damage we all suffered through with covid, covid isolation, covid fights about protocols, separation from loved ones, loss of loved ones – all of it. We need to take time to heal. And not just one year, but probably for many years to come. Because of that, I’m also doing my sermons on the topic of healing, looking at different facets of healing our whole selves. So we’ll talk about healing the body, the mind, the soul, and the family. I don’t believe you can really be at peace and healthy if these are off, and one being broken can make the others broken too. It’s time for churches to spend less time debating atheists about the predictability of miracle medical cures, and more time talking about wellness, whole-self healing, and being at peace with God.

The Schedule will be so: November 30th, 7th, 14th will be the healing services. Same liturgy each week. The 21st will be the longest night service, that will focus on grief and loss.

Then we will celebrate, as we always do, the birth of our Lord and Saviour on December 24th with our usual 6pm contemporary and 8pm traditional services. Christmas Day will be a rest day, even though it’s a Sunday, and we’ll worship again as a church on New Year’s Day (also a Sunday) with a combined service of lessons and carols at 9am.

We’ve had a good year of rebuilding in 2022. We’ve restarted many things, gotten back together, and are not looking at a new mission statement, vision, and strategic goals for our congregation. We’re leaning into the future, not letting covid stop us. But we’re also not moving forward without acknowledging the pain of the past, and providing time to work through the wounds we all go through in our lives. Our God is great, and loving, and caring, and wants us to know that love in the grief of loss and in the joy of a newborn’s birth. It’s all part of life, and all part of life with God.

Peace,

Pastor Lars