Community Church of Joy: Moving Day
Joy finished and moved into its new worship center on its first campus in 1983. I came back to Joy after graduating from Seminary in March of 1984.
It wasn't many years later when Walt began to talk about moving. We had about 10 acres at that time and had basically built out the campus when we added the family life center. So in the early/mid 90's we started looking at relocating. We found a piece of land in Arrowhead Ranch. At that time Arizona was in a financial slump. Arrowhead Ranch had been especially hit and parcels of land were being foreclosed on. Walt found a piece of land that would eventually be bordered buy a major freeway. He began to walk it and pray for it. Tucked in the back of the land lived an older couple. Walt eventually learned from them that they had been praying for decades that a church would be built on that land. Eventually, through many twists and turns, including the conversion of the man who picked up the land and then sold it to us, Joy purchased the property. At one point Joy had almost 200 acres of land!
I can still remember some of the initial meetings on that land as we gathered some leaders to pray. I remember Joy hosting a big community event with Robert Schuller, on what was to be the freeway next to the church. The planning, the dreaming, the praying, the preparation was all very exciting.
It was during that time that Lyle Schaller recommended that for the sake of Joy, we create a new entity called the Joy Company. The purpose was to ensure that the ministry of the congregation continued without being too sidetracked by the new campus. So I became the Executive Pastor, responsible for the on-going mission of Joy and Walt and Paul focused on getting us to the new campus.
It was a massive undertaking--to clean out an old campus and move to a new one. And while ministry continued, it was at times quite stressful. But finally the big day came for the move.
On our last Sunday we ended the service by going dark and then leading the congregation out by candle light. Then one of Walt's long time dreams came true--we had a parade/procession from the old campus to the new one.
During the time of the move, my dad had a major heart attack. He was not expected to live. But 11 years later he's still here!
The following Saturday evening, March 7, 1998, was to be our first worship experience on the new campus. Unfortunately, the building was nowhere near ready. Due to el nino, the project was way, way behind. For our first weekend all we had were cement walls and a ceiling. No electricity. No window/doors, no restrooms. But we had to meet there as we had sold the old campus and the new owners were worshipping there on March 7.
There was no way we should have been allowed into that building. But we were. So on that Saturday/Sunday we had generators with power cords and lights all over the place, many of them running through puddles of water. We set up a portable sound system, screens and projectors, and had our first worship experience. Our Trash Can guys started things off and we walked in carrying the two candles that had led us out of the last service on the old campus. Not the best of circumstances, but a memorable experience none-the-less.
Over the next several months we came back to worship each week and a bit more of the worship center and campus was done. I think we finally finished everything in September!
Before moving we expected two things to happen:
1) Within 6-12 months we would see an increase in every area of ministry by about 50%. In fact, our worship attendance shot up immediately but then settled back down to a point higher than on the old campus, but not at a 50% increase. Our adult ed stuff actually imploded on us. We didn't see the anticipated growth in really any areas of ministry even through some experts had said it would happen. Then we heard from a congregation that had relocated as we had done. They told us to expect to actually go backwards for awhile. Some will leave because the drive is too far. Others will leave because it doesn't feel the same any more. And that was our story, too in the early days.
2) We expected the transition to be filled with chaos; that people would have a hard time adjusting to a new campus. But it didn't happen. We expected it in the first 6 months. As we neared our first year and things seemed good we thought we had dodged the bullet. But after about a year it all hit. And for some, it got nasty. We were in a new land, and the old familiar campus and experiences were now very different. Even though worship styles and preaching and teaching hadn't changed, it still seemed different. Rather than realizing it was the campus that was different, many turned it into a spiritual issue saying we had watered down the Gospel. Mind you, these were people who had come to Christ through our particular style of ministry on the old campus. But we weren't in Egypt anymore and some wanted to go back.
While lots of good things happened during that transition, it was one of the more painful times of ministry for me and for the entire staff.
About the time we started hitting our stride Walt had a heart attack followed by a six-bypass surgery. It essentially took him out for a year. We did the best we could holding down the fort but it's tough when the main leader is out of the game for awhile.
So the move was filled with both blessings and challenges. But to keep perspective, the move was massive. And it takes people of massive faith and vision to pull of something like that and to move it through the sure-to-come frustrations. I give huge credit to the Joy faithful who gave sacrificially, prayed unceasingly, and saw the campus as a tool God could use to continue to impact people for the Gospel. And in the end, challenges aside, that's exactly what happened with the campus.
We were able to do things on the new campus we couldn't do on the old one. And it gave us the space to reach new people and launch new ministries, including a new Christian school. That entire adventure of moving to and into the new campus is one I'm glad I was a part of. It was and continues to be a testament to God's faithfulness and the commitment of people passionate about sharing Jesus with the world around them.
In our 25 years Jan and I have been a part of building two campuses so far: We financially participated in Joy's old campus and in the new one. Long after we're gone, people will be worshipping in and doing mission out of those two campuses. Who knows, we may build a third one for Community of Grace in the near future. There are few things more satisfying than knowing we had a small part in mission centers that will impact the world for Jesus for generations to come.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Musings on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry--6
Community Church of Joy: Evangelism Conferences
As Joy began to gain some notoriety in the church world, so to speak, especially among Mainline denominations like the Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Church of Christ, we began to get more and more phone calls from pastors and church staff asking us how to do what we were doing.
So in 1988 we launched what we called at that time, The Community Church of Joy Academy of Evangelism and Church Growth. The purpose of the Academy was to offer a 4 day conference once a year where people could come and see/experience/learn about the mission of Joy. I had the great privilege of overseeing that event. It was a big job year after year to book the speakers, set the program, do the advertising, and oversee the implementation of the event from notebooks to hospitality to registrations, and so on. I was fortunate to have a great assistant help me, and of course the Joy staff was a great support as well.
The conference followed a similar format year after year. Monday night: We modeled our more traditional service (since most came from traditional churches we wanted to ease them into the week!) and Walt shared his story of bringing change/transformation to Joy. Tuesday was a long day. A major session in the morning by me or Walt, morning workshops, then another major session in the afternoon (me or Walt speaking) followed by another round of workshops. Tuesday evening, after dinner, we would model our seeker service. Wednesday we did it all over again, only this time, we brought in a well-known church leader to speak at the two major sessions. Wednesday evening we held a concert or comedy event to give people a chance to relax after some very long days. Thursday featured two sessions in the morning by me and Walt, and then, for me, the highlight of the conference: We ended with communion and personally laid hands on/prayed for each person who came to the conference. When we were up to over 600 people, that was a lot of prayer. So many of the pastors were deeply wounded. Many of them had never been prayed for before. It was always a profoundly humbling and sacred moment.
In the early days, there was an almost predictable rhythm to the event. Many pastors came in skeptical, even critical of a church like Joy--it's shallow, it's all entertainment, they've watered down the Gospel, if they're reaching that many people they must have compromised their message somehow, etc, etc, etc. Many came in defensive. But by Wednesday night something started stirring in their souls. By Thursday prayer time they were ready to head back to take the mountain. I can't tell you how many times we prayed for a pastor who had come to our conference as a last resort, ready to quit ministry, only to go back fired up.
Aa time went on and as what Joy was doing became better understood, people increasingly came to the conference like sponges, ready from the opening chord to take in all they could.
One interesting tidbit: Our seeker services, as explained in the previous post, were designed not for the churched but for those not in the church. They were perhaps the most controversial part of Joy's mission. The 80's and 90's were the decades of "worship wars" as people literally fought over worship. Some argued that worship was only for the converted and that evangelism had no place on Sunday morning. Usually these folks argued that worship should also be traditional/liturgical, with organs and robes, etc. On the other side were those arguing for relevancy and using familiar everyday stuff like drama and contemporary music to put the Gospel into language new generations could understand. Joy really tried to stay out of the wars. We said that God was delighted with both. But...that having been said, that there was no Joy in heaven over empty churches. So we needed to do something to reach people for Jesus.
So when we modeled our Seeker service, people came with all kinds of stuff: Some were skeptical. Others curious. Still others eager to learn. But time and again I had people, even those who still weren't convinced about seekers services, say that the seeker service they experienced at Joy was the most spiritually moving "worship service" they'd ever been a part of. My point: When you lift up Jesus, no matter what the venue or language, Jesus will draw people to himself.
Because I was in charge of the conference, I had the great fortune of bringing in speakers I wanted to meet and hear. Many of them ended up becoming friends. I'm not one to name drop :) but here are some of the people who graced our conferences over the years:
Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, Kent Hunter, C. Peter Wagner, Win Arn, Eddie Gibbs, George Hunter, Bill Easum, Bishop Herb Chilstrom of the ELCA, Bishop David Preus of the ALC (he was in a severe car accident right after he spoke. We almost killed the Bishop!), Lyle Schaller, Kevin Graham Ford, Michael Slaughter, and Leighton Ford, to name a few. We also brought in real pastors to share devotions and highlight their unique ministries which was always inspiring.
Over the years the Academy grew and we added conferences. We did a version of the conference on the East Coast for a few years and then created a new event when we teamed up with Disney World. Disney offered a couple of sessions on imagination/vision and we followed up with sessions outlining implications of the Disney talks for the church. We had the misfortune of moving that event to Disneyland one month after 9/11. The financial hit we took on that event ended that particular conference. Too bad as it was really unique.
One summer, early on in our conference adventures, we took the conference on the road. The Good News Band (the group that lead the Sunday night service and then the Seeker service at Joy) and I did one night worship conferences from here to Minneapolis. We stopped in Albuquerque, Denver, Minden, Nebraska (we drove through cornfields forever to get to it--almost drove past it, but it was the best stop of the tour. They'd never had anything like us come through their little town before. Voted best pot-luck ever by the band. Also home of Pioneer Village), Lincoln, Sioux City, Iowa, Okoboji, and finally, St. Paul. I did a one hour presentation on seeker worship and then the band and I modeled it.
One year we did a conference on story-telling. I brought in a well-respected Hollywood Screenwriter. He was fantastic. But he was rather cynical about faith. By the afternoon the worship center was filled with his F-bombs! Pretty interesting experience--a room full of pastors who want to shape culture with the Gospel listening to one of the primary culture shapers--a movie screenwriter, using language not often heard in a church! It made for an interesting 24 hours. To my delight, with the exception of a couple of people, everyone in attendance loved it.
Eventually the conferences morphed into a full-blown Leadership Center. We not only offered conferences but consulting and resources. We even went international (more on that in another post.)
Out of those conferences I wrote 5 books. Two of them sold quite well. Three of them, not so much.
As the Leadership Center grew I could no longer keep up with all of its demands, nor did I want to. I was content leading the conferences. So Paul Sorensen, one of our pastors at Joy, took the helm and helped guide the Center into its potential.
I loved those conferences. Everything about them. Because I really enjoyed hanging around other pastors and church leaders, dreaming together about how we could do a better job of bringing Jesus to our communities.
It's been over 5 years since our last conference but I still hear from pastors whose ministries were revolutionized by their time at Joy. That's pretty darn rewarding.
As Joy began to gain some notoriety in the church world, so to speak, especially among Mainline denominations like the Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Church of Christ, we began to get more and more phone calls from pastors and church staff asking us how to do what we were doing.
So in 1988 we launched what we called at that time, The Community Church of Joy Academy of Evangelism and Church Growth. The purpose of the Academy was to offer a 4 day conference once a year where people could come and see/experience/learn about the mission of Joy. I had the great privilege of overseeing that event. It was a big job year after year to book the speakers, set the program, do the advertising, and oversee the implementation of the event from notebooks to hospitality to registrations, and so on. I was fortunate to have a great assistant help me, and of course the Joy staff was a great support as well.
The conference followed a similar format year after year. Monday night: We modeled our more traditional service (since most came from traditional churches we wanted to ease them into the week!) and Walt shared his story of bringing change/transformation to Joy. Tuesday was a long day. A major session in the morning by me or Walt, morning workshops, then another major session in the afternoon (me or Walt speaking) followed by another round of workshops. Tuesday evening, after dinner, we would model our seeker service. Wednesday we did it all over again, only this time, we brought in a well-known church leader to speak at the two major sessions. Wednesday evening we held a concert or comedy event to give people a chance to relax after some very long days. Thursday featured two sessions in the morning by me and Walt, and then, for me, the highlight of the conference: We ended with communion and personally laid hands on/prayed for each person who came to the conference. When we were up to over 600 people, that was a lot of prayer. So many of the pastors were deeply wounded. Many of them had never been prayed for before. It was always a profoundly humbling and sacred moment.
In the early days, there was an almost predictable rhythm to the event. Many pastors came in skeptical, even critical of a church like Joy--it's shallow, it's all entertainment, they've watered down the Gospel, if they're reaching that many people they must have compromised their message somehow, etc, etc, etc. Many came in defensive. But by Wednesday night something started stirring in their souls. By Thursday prayer time they were ready to head back to take the mountain. I can't tell you how many times we prayed for a pastor who had come to our conference as a last resort, ready to quit ministry, only to go back fired up.
Aa time went on and as what Joy was doing became better understood, people increasingly came to the conference like sponges, ready from the opening chord to take in all they could.
One interesting tidbit: Our seeker services, as explained in the previous post, were designed not for the churched but for those not in the church. They were perhaps the most controversial part of Joy's mission. The 80's and 90's were the decades of "worship wars" as people literally fought over worship. Some argued that worship was only for the converted and that evangelism had no place on Sunday morning. Usually these folks argued that worship should also be traditional/liturgical, with organs and robes, etc. On the other side were those arguing for relevancy and using familiar everyday stuff like drama and contemporary music to put the Gospel into language new generations could understand. Joy really tried to stay out of the wars. We said that God was delighted with both. But...that having been said, that there was no Joy in heaven over empty churches. So we needed to do something to reach people for Jesus.
So when we modeled our Seeker service, people came with all kinds of stuff: Some were skeptical. Others curious. Still others eager to learn. But time and again I had people, even those who still weren't convinced about seekers services, say that the seeker service they experienced at Joy was the most spiritually moving "worship service" they'd ever been a part of. My point: When you lift up Jesus, no matter what the venue or language, Jesus will draw people to himself.
Because I was in charge of the conference, I had the great fortune of bringing in speakers I wanted to meet and hear. Many of them ended up becoming friends. I'm not one to name drop :) but here are some of the people who graced our conferences over the years:
Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, Kent Hunter, C. Peter Wagner, Win Arn, Eddie Gibbs, George Hunter, Bill Easum, Bishop Herb Chilstrom of the ELCA, Bishop David Preus of the ALC (he was in a severe car accident right after he spoke. We almost killed the Bishop!), Lyle Schaller, Kevin Graham Ford, Michael Slaughter, and Leighton Ford, to name a few. We also brought in real pastors to share devotions and highlight their unique ministries which was always inspiring.
Over the years the Academy grew and we added conferences. We did a version of the conference on the East Coast for a few years and then created a new event when we teamed up with Disney World. Disney offered a couple of sessions on imagination/vision and we followed up with sessions outlining implications of the Disney talks for the church. We had the misfortune of moving that event to Disneyland one month after 9/11. The financial hit we took on that event ended that particular conference. Too bad as it was really unique.
One summer, early on in our conference adventures, we took the conference on the road. The Good News Band (the group that lead the Sunday night service and then the Seeker service at Joy) and I did one night worship conferences from here to Minneapolis. We stopped in Albuquerque, Denver, Minden, Nebraska (we drove through cornfields forever to get to it--almost drove past it, but it was the best stop of the tour. They'd never had anything like us come through their little town before. Voted best pot-luck ever by the band. Also home of Pioneer Village), Lincoln, Sioux City, Iowa, Okoboji, and finally, St. Paul. I did a one hour presentation on seeker worship and then the band and I modeled it.
One year we did a conference on story-telling. I brought in a well-respected Hollywood Screenwriter. He was fantastic. But he was rather cynical about faith. By the afternoon the worship center was filled with his F-bombs! Pretty interesting experience--a room full of pastors who want to shape culture with the Gospel listening to one of the primary culture shapers--a movie screenwriter, using language not often heard in a church! It made for an interesting 24 hours. To my delight, with the exception of a couple of people, everyone in attendance loved it.
Eventually the conferences morphed into a full-blown Leadership Center. We not only offered conferences but consulting and resources. We even went international (more on that in another post.)
Out of those conferences I wrote 5 books. Two of them sold quite well. Three of them, not so much.
As the Leadership Center grew I could no longer keep up with all of its demands, nor did I want to. I was content leading the conferences. So Paul Sorensen, one of our pastors at Joy, took the helm and helped guide the Center into its potential.
I loved those conferences. Everything about them. Because I really enjoyed hanging around other pastors and church leaders, dreaming together about how we could do a better job of bringing Jesus to our communities.
It's been over 5 years since our last conference but I still hear from pastors whose ministries were revolutionized by their time at Joy. That's pretty darn rewarding.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Musings on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry--5
Community Church of Joy: Worship
From the start I was involved in every aspect of the mission and ministry of Joy. Walt was a fantastic Senior Pastor to work for as he was very aware of his strengths and then hired others to shore up his areas of weakness. We both shared the same passion for reaching non-church going people. But we had some different gifts to compliment each other. So Walt had no problem letting me take the lead in certain areas. I've always told people his ego was big enough (healthy enough) to allow others to do their thing and get the credit. So while I was involved in many areas, the major through-line for most of my ministry at Joy centered around worship. And I don't mean worship from a worship leaders perspective, but worship from the perspective of evangelism.
When I first came to Joy we had 3 services. An ELCA Green Book Liturgical service (about 75 people--and it never grew in all the years we offered it) and two contemporary services (those were the ones that grew). The contemporary services by nature were geared to people who had not been to worship before so in many ways the messages were an "introduction" to the faith.
So, sensing the need for a service geared more to discipling those who were already committed to Jesus, I volunteered to start a new, Sunday evening service. The music was still contemporary, but the messages were more Bible-study oriented vs. the life-application orientation of Sunday mornings. We also included prayer time at the altar at the end of every service.
To get it started, I had to put together a band. So I asked my brother, Jeff, if he and his young family would be willing to move to Phoenix to help. I helped Jeff find a full-time job with Lutheran Brotherhood as Joy could only pay $150 per month. Jeff and his family moved down and in the fall of 1984 we launched the Sunday evening worship experience. It generally ran fall to spring with the summer off.
After about 5 years I started getting the itch to do something more radical in terms of shaping worship for non-church goers. Walt and I flew up to Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area to take in their "seeker" service. It was a service totally geared to those in the seeking mode of faith. The usual "worship" rituals Christians appreciate but non-Christians don't understand were removed from the service. The service was then rebuilt with newcomers in mind. The service downplayed congregation participation as newcomers didn't know how to participate. It up-played a contemporary presentation of the Gospel using performance music by a live band, drama, video, and a message geared to someone who had never heard the Gospel before. It was exactly the kind of service churning in my soul.
So we headed back to Joy and moved the Sunday night crew to a new, innovative, seeker service on Sunday morning held at the Mann Movie Theatre about a block from the Joy campus. Our first weekend we featured Phoenix Cardinals Ron Wolfley. The Cards were to play their first game as the Phoenix Cardinals on Monday night. We had almost 300 people in attendance. But...most of them were Joy people coming to check us out with no intention of actually moving to the theatre. Within weeks we bottomed out at about 30 people. Interestingly, however, many of them were new. They were people who were hesitant to come to a church building. Over the next few months the service began to grow to about 70. Then the summer hit, along with some big blockbuster movies. And slowly the theatre began to edge us out.
So...we moved the service to the Joy campus, replacing the last service with our theatre service. It quickly became our fastest growing service. We are able to hire Terey Summers, a professional actress, who took our drama to a whole new level. We were reaching new kinds of people who wouldn't attend a "normal" worship experience. The whole point of the service was to present an experience in which people didn't have to understand the service in order to understand the Savior. It served as the first part of our 3-part mission: Bring them in, build them up, and send them out.
After a few years of leading that particular service (and for a period of time, the Late Service crew--as we named that service--were also returning Sunday night for that service. That was a lot of work!) I ended up assuming responsibility for the worship life, so to speak, of Joy. We moved from a traditional music director-lead ministry to a team-lead ministry consisting of a drama director, vocal director, band director, video director, etc., and I lead that talented group of people. We always maintained different styles of worship each weekend (for awhile we were up to 5 different services each weekend--that was a killer! :)) but the overall vision was set by the team. In the process we were also responsible for the childrens/youth choirs and major holiday season shows, the Christmas Show being the biggest. On top of that came 8 Christmas Eve services and 5-6 Easter Services with special events thrown in for the fun of it. And it was fun. And rewarding as God used Joy to connect with hundreds of people who might not have been impacted anywhere else.
I enjoyed the chance to think outside of the box; to experiment with different presentations of the Gospel in order to better connect with the non-church going culture. Some things worked well (Stomp-like trash can guys, the Christmas program, weekly dramas and video presentations) some things not so well (we had a few clunkers sprinkled throughout our Sunday mornings over the years--but why dwell on it! :)). But we were always motivated by finding new ways to tell the story of Jesus through the Sunday service to people who didn't know him. And the people of Joy responded by bringing their friends.
Because of Walt's profile in the Lutheran Church and the wider church, Joy began to gain a reputation as a congregation to learn from. That lead to a second through-line in my ministry at Joy: the yearly Evangelism conference.
From the start I was involved in every aspect of the mission and ministry of Joy. Walt was a fantastic Senior Pastor to work for as he was very aware of his strengths and then hired others to shore up his areas of weakness. We both shared the same passion for reaching non-church going people. But we had some different gifts to compliment each other. So Walt had no problem letting me take the lead in certain areas. I've always told people his ego was big enough (healthy enough) to allow others to do their thing and get the credit. So while I was involved in many areas, the major through-line for most of my ministry at Joy centered around worship. And I don't mean worship from a worship leaders perspective, but worship from the perspective of evangelism.
When I first came to Joy we had 3 services. An ELCA Green Book Liturgical service (about 75 people--and it never grew in all the years we offered it) and two contemporary services (those were the ones that grew). The contemporary services by nature were geared to people who had not been to worship before so in many ways the messages were an "introduction" to the faith.
So, sensing the need for a service geared more to discipling those who were already committed to Jesus, I volunteered to start a new, Sunday evening service. The music was still contemporary, but the messages were more Bible-study oriented vs. the life-application orientation of Sunday mornings. We also included prayer time at the altar at the end of every service.
To get it started, I had to put together a band. So I asked my brother, Jeff, if he and his young family would be willing to move to Phoenix to help. I helped Jeff find a full-time job with Lutheran Brotherhood as Joy could only pay $150 per month. Jeff and his family moved down and in the fall of 1984 we launched the Sunday evening worship experience. It generally ran fall to spring with the summer off.
After about 5 years I started getting the itch to do something more radical in terms of shaping worship for non-church goers. Walt and I flew up to Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area to take in their "seeker" service. It was a service totally geared to those in the seeking mode of faith. The usual "worship" rituals Christians appreciate but non-Christians don't understand were removed from the service. The service was then rebuilt with newcomers in mind. The service downplayed congregation participation as newcomers didn't know how to participate. It up-played a contemporary presentation of the Gospel using performance music by a live band, drama, video, and a message geared to someone who had never heard the Gospel before. It was exactly the kind of service churning in my soul.
So we headed back to Joy and moved the Sunday night crew to a new, innovative, seeker service on Sunday morning held at the Mann Movie Theatre about a block from the Joy campus. Our first weekend we featured Phoenix Cardinals Ron Wolfley. The Cards were to play their first game as the Phoenix Cardinals on Monday night. We had almost 300 people in attendance. But...most of them were Joy people coming to check us out with no intention of actually moving to the theatre. Within weeks we bottomed out at about 30 people. Interestingly, however, many of them were new. They were people who were hesitant to come to a church building. Over the next few months the service began to grow to about 70. Then the summer hit, along with some big blockbuster movies. And slowly the theatre began to edge us out.
So...we moved the service to the Joy campus, replacing the last service with our theatre service. It quickly became our fastest growing service. We are able to hire Terey Summers, a professional actress, who took our drama to a whole new level. We were reaching new kinds of people who wouldn't attend a "normal" worship experience. The whole point of the service was to present an experience in which people didn't have to understand the service in order to understand the Savior. It served as the first part of our 3-part mission: Bring them in, build them up, and send them out.
After a few years of leading that particular service (and for a period of time, the Late Service crew--as we named that service--were also returning Sunday night for that service. That was a lot of work!) I ended up assuming responsibility for the worship life, so to speak, of Joy. We moved from a traditional music director-lead ministry to a team-lead ministry consisting of a drama director, vocal director, band director, video director, etc., and I lead that talented group of people. We always maintained different styles of worship each weekend (for awhile we were up to 5 different services each weekend--that was a killer! :)) but the overall vision was set by the team. In the process we were also responsible for the childrens/youth choirs and major holiday season shows, the Christmas Show being the biggest. On top of that came 8 Christmas Eve services and 5-6 Easter Services with special events thrown in for the fun of it. And it was fun. And rewarding as God used Joy to connect with hundreds of people who might not have been impacted anywhere else.
I enjoyed the chance to think outside of the box; to experiment with different presentations of the Gospel in order to better connect with the non-church going culture. Some things worked well (Stomp-like trash can guys, the Christmas program, weekly dramas and video presentations) some things not so well (we had a few clunkers sprinkled throughout our Sunday mornings over the years--but why dwell on it! :)). But we were always motivated by finding new ways to tell the story of Jesus through the Sunday service to people who didn't know him. And the people of Joy responded by bringing their friends.
Because of Walt's profile in the Lutheran Church and the wider church, Joy began to gain a reputation as a congregation to learn from. That lead to a second through-line in my ministry at Joy: the yearly Evangelism conference.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Musings on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry--4
Beginnings...
To be ordained in the Lutheran Church a person needs a college degree (I received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biblical Studies through the Lutheran Bible Institute in 1980--an aside: Jan was pregnant with Alycia so she flew home from Seattle to Minneapolis on May 18, 1980--the day Mt. St. Helen's blew up. Jan could see the cloud from the plane. Exactly one month later Alycia was born.) and then 4 years in a Masters of Divinity program (seminary). I attended my first year of Seminary at Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Bethel is a General Conference Baptist school--a strange place for a Lutheran boy but I wanted a different theological perspective before diving head first into the Lutheran Seminary.
After my year a Bethel I headed straight into Summer School at Luther Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul.
My 3rd year of Seminary, as is generally true in the Lutheran Church, was to be spent on a one year internship, placed in a congregation to experience what it is like to be a real pastor. Since Jan and I owned our own home in St. Louis Park and didn't want to have to rent it out for a year, I put in a request to stay in the Minneapolis area that year. Plus, my internship supervisor recommended that I have a more traditional Lutheran church experience since my church background had been anything but traditionally Lutheran.
In early 1982, a few weeks before I was to receive my internship assignment, Jan's mom called from Sun City, Arizona. Arizona was nowhere on my radar. I was only aware of it because Jan's folks spent 5 months there each winter.
Jan's mom called to say she had visited Community Church of Joy in Glendale. Her good friend's brother, Walt Kallestad, was the pastor there.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was aware of Walt from the days he lead a singing group in the Minneapolis area.
Jan's mom was calling to ask if we might be interested in doing our internship at Community Church of Joy.
A bit of background. Jan's mom was a deeply committed Christian. She had a singing/speaking ministry mainly for Christian women's groups. She was on the conservative side of Christianity and didn't have a lot of appreciation for the Lutheran understanding of the Gospel. She was always a bit concerned about my theology, though I know she deeply appreciated my commitment to Christ and the church. So she wanted to do her part to get me to a good church.
What I didn't know at the time of the phone call was that she had approached Walt after the attending Joy and asked if they would be interested in an intern. Walt, always the optimist, said, Sure! Even though he hadn't thought about it! Jan's dad was a very successful businessman and he and Jan's mom offered to finance our internship.
So...she called that day to ask if we would be interested in Glendale, AZ.
I told Jan, to very politely tell her mom, "I would prefer God to decide where I do my internship, not your mom!"
We ended up in Glendale, AZ. There is one power greater than the power of God...the power of a mother-in-law.
So, near the top of my list of early influencers are Jan's folks, Vic and Phadoris Wallestad. God used them to connect us to Joy! It was the best gift possible!
In March of 1982 Jan and I flew down to Phoenix to meet with Walt for the first time. It was chamber of commerce weather. And Walt and I hit if off immediately, a friendship and partnership that would last 20 years! Walt's vision for ministry and Community Church of Joy were everything I dreamed of since the second grade. I often told people God created me for Joy and Joy for me.
We officially started our internship in August of 1982. My brother, Jeff, and I drove to Phoenix from Minneapolis and arrived on a day when the temp was about 118 degrees! I thought I had arrived in hell! This wasn't the Phoenix I saw in March!
But weather aside, it was a fantastic year. Joy was still meeting in their first phase building, an almost full-sized gym with a couple of small rooms attached. I was officed in trailer. The congregation was close to breaking ground on a new worship center when we arrived.
Walt had been at Joy about 5-6 years prior to my coming. He had gone through a painful transition process with the congregation, moving it from an inward, traditional Lutheran congregation to a outward-looking, contemporary Lutheran congregation. The worship services were vibrant and alive. There was a continual buzz in and around the church day in and day out. And the congregation was growing at a phenomenal rate. Over 60% of those joining were from a non-church going background.
The purpose of internship is to experience first hand what it's like to be a pastor. And Walt was a terrific supervisor. From the first day he let me dive into every facet of ministry from weddings to baptisms and communion to preaching to teaching to counseling to sitting in on board meetings. I essentially functioned as a pastor for that year. It was great.
The other purpose of internship is to begin to discover gifts/strengths and areas for work. Again, my internship was perfect. I discovered I was not a youth director as I lead the youth for two months until the new youth director came on board. I grew the group from 50 to 5 in those two months! I knew I loved preaching and that gift/passion was affirmed on internship. I also discovered a passion for teaching.
While on internship Walt introduced me to a fairly new movement in the church--the Church Growth Movement. The movement focused on how the church could do a better job at reaching those unconnected to the church. I read a bunch of books on the subject while I was on internship. One of the seminal moments in my early thinking was the Robert Schuller Leadership Conference. The Church Growth Movement spoke to my passion for seeing the church becoming the place for evangelism once again.
The highlight of that 12 month experience was the birth of our son, Mike, born March 3, 1983.
The year went far too quickly and we had to head back to St. Paul to finish out my last year of seminary. Because I had taken summer school, I graduated from Luther in March of 1984. In order to be officially ordained, one needs to have been called to a congregation to serve. To my delight, Joy issued me that call. So on March 4, 1984, in a Minneapolis blizzard, I was ordained. On March 5, 1984, we headed back to Phoenix to begin our first year of ministry at Community Church of Joy.
To be ordained in the Lutheran Church a person needs a college degree (I received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biblical Studies through the Lutheran Bible Institute in 1980--an aside: Jan was pregnant with Alycia so she flew home from Seattle to Minneapolis on May 18, 1980--the day Mt. St. Helen's blew up. Jan could see the cloud from the plane. Exactly one month later Alycia was born.) and then 4 years in a Masters of Divinity program (seminary). I attended my first year of Seminary at Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Bethel is a General Conference Baptist school--a strange place for a Lutheran boy but I wanted a different theological perspective before diving head first into the Lutheran Seminary.
After my year a Bethel I headed straight into Summer School at Luther Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul.
My 3rd year of Seminary, as is generally true in the Lutheran Church, was to be spent on a one year internship, placed in a congregation to experience what it is like to be a real pastor. Since Jan and I owned our own home in St. Louis Park and didn't want to have to rent it out for a year, I put in a request to stay in the Minneapolis area that year. Plus, my internship supervisor recommended that I have a more traditional Lutheran church experience since my church background had been anything but traditionally Lutheran.
In early 1982, a few weeks before I was to receive my internship assignment, Jan's mom called from Sun City, Arizona. Arizona was nowhere on my radar. I was only aware of it because Jan's folks spent 5 months there each winter.
Jan's mom called to say she had visited Community Church of Joy in Glendale. Her good friend's brother, Walt Kallestad, was the pastor there.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was aware of Walt from the days he lead a singing group in the Minneapolis area.
Jan's mom was calling to ask if we might be interested in doing our internship at Community Church of Joy.
A bit of background. Jan's mom was a deeply committed Christian. She had a singing/speaking ministry mainly for Christian women's groups. She was on the conservative side of Christianity and didn't have a lot of appreciation for the Lutheran understanding of the Gospel. She was always a bit concerned about my theology, though I know she deeply appreciated my commitment to Christ and the church. So she wanted to do her part to get me to a good church.
What I didn't know at the time of the phone call was that she had approached Walt after the attending Joy and asked if they would be interested in an intern. Walt, always the optimist, said, Sure! Even though he hadn't thought about it! Jan's dad was a very successful businessman and he and Jan's mom offered to finance our internship.
So...she called that day to ask if we would be interested in Glendale, AZ.
I told Jan, to very politely tell her mom, "I would prefer God to decide where I do my internship, not your mom!"
We ended up in Glendale, AZ. There is one power greater than the power of God...the power of a mother-in-law.
So, near the top of my list of early influencers are Jan's folks, Vic and Phadoris Wallestad. God used them to connect us to Joy! It was the best gift possible!
In March of 1982 Jan and I flew down to Phoenix to meet with Walt for the first time. It was chamber of commerce weather. And Walt and I hit if off immediately, a friendship and partnership that would last 20 years! Walt's vision for ministry and Community Church of Joy were everything I dreamed of since the second grade. I often told people God created me for Joy and Joy for me.
We officially started our internship in August of 1982. My brother, Jeff, and I drove to Phoenix from Minneapolis and arrived on a day when the temp was about 118 degrees! I thought I had arrived in hell! This wasn't the Phoenix I saw in March!
But weather aside, it was a fantastic year. Joy was still meeting in their first phase building, an almost full-sized gym with a couple of small rooms attached. I was officed in trailer. The congregation was close to breaking ground on a new worship center when we arrived.
Walt had been at Joy about 5-6 years prior to my coming. He had gone through a painful transition process with the congregation, moving it from an inward, traditional Lutheran congregation to a outward-looking, contemporary Lutheran congregation. The worship services were vibrant and alive. There was a continual buzz in and around the church day in and day out. And the congregation was growing at a phenomenal rate. Over 60% of those joining were from a non-church going background.
The purpose of internship is to experience first hand what it's like to be a pastor. And Walt was a terrific supervisor. From the first day he let me dive into every facet of ministry from weddings to baptisms and communion to preaching to teaching to counseling to sitting in on board meetings. I essentially functioned as a pastor for that year. It was great.
The other purpose of internship is to begin to discover gifts/strengths and areas for work. Again, my internship was perfect. I discovered I was not a youth director as I lead the youth for two months until the new youth director came on board. I grew the group from 50 to 5 in those two months! I knew I loved preaching and that gift/passion was affirmed on internship. I also discovered a passion for teaching.
While on internship Walt introduced me to a fairly new movement in the church--the Church Growth Movement. The movement focused on how the church could do a better job at reaching those unconnected to the church. I read a bunch of books on the subject while I was on internship. One of the seminal moments in my early thinking was the Robert Schuller Leadership Conference. The Church Growth Movement spoke to my passion for seeing the church becoming the place for evangelism once again.
The highlight of that 12 month experience was the birth of our son, Mike, born March 3, 1983.
The year went far too quickly and we had to head back to St. Paul to finish out my last year of seminary. Because I had taken summer school, I graduated from Luther in March of 1984. In order to be officially ordained, one needs to have been called to a congregation to serve. To my delight, Joy issued me that call. So on March 4, 1984, in a Minneapolis blizzard, I was ordained. On March 5, 1984, we headed back to Phoenix to begin our first year of ministry at Community Church of Joy.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Musings on 25 years of Ordained Ministry--Part 3
Early influences...continued:
I could go on and on about significant people in my life who shaped who I am today so I'll try to narrow it down a bit--
In Jr. High we attended an Evangelical Free Church. The congregation was quite conservative but for some reason hired a fire-cracker of a music person named Jere Mae Francis. Jere Mae was the organist (she also played accordion). Not one you would expect to rock a congregation. But she did. She started a music program for Jr. High/Sr. High students, allowing us to do "our kind of music." This was in the early days of Jesus music, or what was to become Contemporary Christian Music. In addition to putting together an orchestra, we started doing contemporary musicals that included music that sounded like top 40 hits combined with some acting. Those few years in the youth choir had a profound impact on my life at that time and really planted the seeds for what much of my ministry would look like today. This was back in the 70's, so this stuff was radically new. And the long-time members weren't all that crazy about it. I had a meeting with the pastor and head deacon, both of whom were upset with the music (I was 15). The deacon said that one of our members had complained about our music because one Sunday he found himself tapping his toe in church! Scandalous. But it was music that connected with my generation and I began to discover the power of music in sharing the Gospel.
I attended a Christian High School. It was a great 4 years. I met Jan there! But one of the most significant influencers in my High School years was my band director, David Hepburn. Dave was a Salvation Army guy who had a deep passion for Jesus. In addition to leading the band, Dave put together a music group of High School students. The music once again was contemporary. I usually played in the band but had the chance to sing occasionally. We traveled around the midwest singing in churches and even did some tours to other states. One year we put on a musical (If My People--a musical written for the 1976 Bicentennial) in the Minneapolis Auditorium. Dave taught me about passion, communication, the power of music and the power of events.
My college years were mainly spent at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle. This was a great preparation for ministry as the whole point of this particular school was to dig deep into Scriptures. The piety of the school was heart-oriented, focused not just on learning, but on being formed by Jesus. I was a part of a music group at that school. I was able to do some speaking as well when we would tour the Seattle area. Two teachers in particular stand out: Pastor Lunder (he was a friend of my grandpa's and always reminded me of him.) Pastor Lunder had a contagious enthusiasm for Jesus and for teaching the Gospels, particularly Luke. He was a help to me when I had to make a decision about my schooling. Pastor Rismiller also had this remarkable ability to make any book of the Bible sing. Imagine making Leviticus interesting. But he was able to do it. All of the teachers and staff at LBI were an important part of my faith development.
Seminary was a very different experience from LBI. Where LBI was a more devotional study of the Scriptures, Seminary was a more theological/rational study. And I loved that experience as well. It's fashionable to bash Seminaries. But my seminary experience was fantastic and gave me a good start into ministry.
Again, there are all sorts of other people who influenced my life. Steve Swanson, my roommate at LBI and best man in my wedding, and I did a radio show for awhile in Minneapolis. Contemporary Christian music was still in it's early stages and we were on one of the first CCM radio stations in the country. We did a one hour show. Our point wasn't to be preachy, but to have some fun and draw in people who wouldn't listen to religious radio, using music that sounded like pop music but with lyrics about Jesus.
Tom Eggum is another guy who helped make me what I am today. Tom is an evangelist who early in his ministry smuggled Bibles into Russia and China. To this day, some 30 years after meeting him, every time Tom speaks God stirs my soul. A part of me has always wanted to be like Tom. Tom and I, along with Walt Kallestad, took a trip to Korea and China back in 1985. It was my first overseas trip. We did a little smuggling of Christian literature into China. I ended up bringing Tom on staff at Community Church of Joy back in the mid-80's.
Many different congregations played a role in my faith life from our little Lutheran church (Ascension Lutheran) in St. Louis Park, MN to the Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park where I participated in Choir school and learned music to Hope Presbyterian in Richfield, MN. Hope was Jan's church when we started dating. It was a large congregation and it gave me a glimpse of what the church can be. Bob Dickson, the head pastor was a great role model as was his associate, Ron Davis, whose preaching had a huge impact on my preaching.
To come somewhat full circle, my grandfather's ministry was a main catalyst for my call to ministry and a shaper of it. Evangelist and Lutheran is an oxymoron. But Grandpa was both. A Lutheran who was passionate about bringing people to faith in Jesus. He was in many ways a Lutheran Billy Graham. His style of preaching, his passion for leading people to "assurance of faith," and the way he did ministry really did set the agenda for my ministry. I used to tell people that the "seeker ministry" we did at Community Church of Joy for so many years was really an updated version of the kind of ministry my grandpa did back in the 60's and 70's. When I was in Jr. High grandpa's ministry (the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement) held yearly youth events in Minneapolis. Thousands of young people would come out for it. He brought in the best speakers and the latest in music (here's this old guy bringing in bands to play for young people!). I got to meet some of my heroes of that time like Tom Skinner and Leighton Ford. It was through one of those events that I met Tom Eggum. And first heard of a guy named Walt Kallestad, who at that time was in a music group singing music we kids loved but older folks...not so much.
I could go on and on about significant people in my life who shaped who I am today so I'll try to narrow it down a bit--
In Jr. High we attended an Evangelical Free Church. The congregation was quite conservative but for some reason hired a fire-cracker of a music person named Jere Mae Francis. Jere Mae was the organist (she also played accordion). Not one you would expect to rock a congregation. But she did. She started a music program for Jr. High/Sr. High students, allowing us to do "our kind of music." This was in the early days of Jesus music, or what was to become Contemporary Christian Music. In addition to putting together an orchestra, we started doing contemporary musicals that included music that sounded like top 40 hits combined with some acting. Those few years in the youth choir had a profound impact on my life at that time and really planted the seeds for what much of my ministry would look like today. This was back in the 70's, so this stuff was radically new. And the long-time members weren't all that crazy about it. I had a meeting with the pastor and head deacon, both of whom were upset with the music (I was 15). The deacon said that one of our members had complained about our music because one Sunday he found himself tapping his toe in church! Scandalous. But it was music that connected with my generation and I began to discover the power of music in sharing the Gospel.
I attended a Christian High School. It was a great 4 years. I met Jan there! But one of the most significant influencers in my High School years was my band director, David Hepburn. Dave was a Salvation Army guy who had a deep passion for Jesus. In addition to leading the band, Dave put together a music group of High School students. The music once again was contemporary. I usually played in the band but had the chance to sing occasionally. We traveled around the midwest singing in churches and even did some tours to other states. One year we put on a musical (If My People--a musical written for the 1976 Bicentennial) in the Minneapolis Auditorium. Dave taught me about passion, communication, the power of music and the power of events.
My college years were mainly spent at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle. This was a great preparation for ministry as the whole point of this particular school was to dig deep into Scriptures. The piety of the school was heart-oriented, focused not just on learning, but on being formed by Jesus. I was a part of a music group at that school. I was able to do some speaking as well when we would tour the Seattle area. Two teachers in particular stand out: Pastor Lunder (he was a friend of my grandpa's and always reminded me of him.) Pastor Lunder had a contagious enthusiasm for Jesus and for teaching the Gospels, particularly Luke. He was a help to me when I had to make a decision about my schooling. Pastor Rismiller also had this remarkable ability to make any book of the Bible sing. Imagine making Leviticus interesting. But he was able to do it. All of the teachers and staff at LBI were an important part of my faith development.
Seminary was a very different experience from LBI. Where LBI was a more devotional study of the Scriptures, Seminary was a more theological/rational study. And I loved that experience as well. It's fashionable to bash Seminaries. But my seminary experience was fantastic and gave me a good start into ministry.
Again, there are all sorts of other people who influenced my life. Steve Swanson, my roommate at LBI and best man in my wedding, and I did a radio show for awhile in Minneapolis. Contemporary Christian music was still in it's early stages and we were on one of the first CCM radio stations in the country. We did a one hour show. Our point wasn't to be preachy, but to have some fun and draw in people who wouldn't listen to religious radio, using music that sounded like pop music but with lyrics about Jesus.
Tom Eggum is another guy who helped make me what I am today. Tom is an evangelist who early in his ministry smuggled Bibles into Russia and China. To this day, some 30 years after meeting him, every time Tom speaks God stirs my soul. A part of me has always wanted to be like Tom. Tom and I, along with Walt Kallestad, took a trip to Korea and China back in 1985. It was my first overseas trip. We did a little smuggling of Christian literature into China. I ended up bringing Tom on staff at Community Church of Joy back in the mid-80's.
Many different congregations played a role in my faith life from our little Lutheran church (Ascension Lutheran) in St. Louis Park, MN to the Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park where I participated in Choir school and learned music to Hope Presbyterian in Richfield, MN. Hope was Jan's church when we started dating. It was a large congregation and it gave me a glimpse of what the church can be. Bob Dickson, the head pastor was a great role model as was his associate, Ron Davis, whose preaching had a huge impact on my preaching.
To come somewhat full circle, my grandfather's ministry was a main catalyst for my call to ministry and a shaper of it. Evangelist and Lutheran is an oxymoron. But Grandpa was both. A Lutheran who was passionate about bringing people to faith in Jesus. He was in many ways a Lutheran Billy Graham. His style of preaching, his passion for leading people to "assurance of faith," and the way he did ministry really did set the agenda for my ministry. I used to tell people that the "seeker ministry" we did at Community Church of Joy for so many years was really an updated version of the kind of ministry my grandpa did back in the 60's and 70's. When I was in Jr. High grandpa's ministry (the Lutheran Evangelistic Movement) held yearly youth events in Minneapolis. Thousands of young people would come out for it. He brought in the best speakers and the latest in music (here's this old guy bringing in bands to play for young people!). I got to meet some of my heroes of that time like Tom Skinner and Leighton Ford. It was through one of those events that I met Tom Eggum. And first heard of a guy named Walt Kallestad, who at that time was in a music group singing music we kids loved but older folks...not so much.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Musings on 25 Years of Ordained Ministry--2
Early influences
I mentioned in my first post that a pastor is really a compilation of all who have shared faith/life with him/her. That's certainly the case for me. Naming some of my early influences assumes that there will be many I didn't name. But these are the ones that come to my 51 year old brain:
*Obviously my parents would top the list. My mom and dad made faith a part of my life from the very beginning when a month after I was born they brought me to the waters of baptism. My grandfather baptized me. At that point Jesus made a promise to be my God--a promise he's always kept. My mom was the church organist so we were always in church. My parents took us to Bible camp each year. They enrolled us in VBS. They got us involved in music and church choirs. They supported our passion for music/ministry by purchasing instruments, allowing us to practice in the house, and supporting us as we headed into congregations to do our thing. They stepped up and lead our Jr. High when I entered 7th grade when no one else in the church would do it. My dad coached our first church "Bible Quiz Team." I know my parents faithfully prayed for all of us kids every day. Their own lives of faith modeled a vibrant relationship with Jesus.
*My grandparents. Grandpa was a Lutheran pastor/evangelist. It was while watching him give an altar call (a rare thing indeed for Lutherans) at Bible camp when I was in second grade that I sensed the call to be a pastor. I had the chance to watch grandpa do ministry for years. I travelled with him a couple of times when he headed out on Evangelistic tours. When I headed to Bible College and was questioning not my faith but my theology, he was always ready to answer my questions. Grandma was a fantastic partner and support to grandpa. During Bible camps she was the "craft teacher." Because mom was the church organist, I often sat in the front row with grandma. She'd help me follow the liturgy or would make little animals with her hanky to keep me quiet (seems a bit gross now but I didn't think about where that hanky had been at that time!). I have deep memories of my grandma and grandpa praying together over meals. Grandpa laid hands on me at my ordination. He also participated in my wedding and baptized my daughter Alycia. My grandpa only got to see me "pastor" at Community Church of Joy once early on in my ministry. He was our "devotions" leader during a spiritual life week. One night after the service he asked us to pray for him. I'd never seen him weep before but he cried as he said he was having a hard time remembering things. Not long after we realized he had Alzheimer's disease. Tough stuff to make your living, so to speak, using your mind, only to lose it in later life.
*I think about pastors who served in the congregations in which I grew up and Sunday school teachers who taught me about Jesus. I remember Mim in particular. I can't remember one thing she taught me but I remember her. She loved kids. And she always gave us a "pink pill" after Sunday School (a pink wintergreen candy). Probably couldn't call it a pill these days but the point is that she, not so much what she taught, impacted me for Jesus.
Jan says I have to leave now and go to dinner to "celebrate" the second anniversary of my mom's journey from this life to her new home with Jesus. So I'll write some more about early influences tomorrow.
I mentioned in my first post that a pastor is really a compilation of all who have shared faith/life with him/her. That's certainly the case for me. Naming some of my early influences assumes that there will be many I didn't name. But these are the ones that come to my 51 year old brain:
*Obviously my parents would top the list. My mom and dad made faith a part of my life from the very beginning when a month after I was born they brought me to the waters of baptism. My grandfather baptized me. At that point Jesus made a promise to be my God--a promise he's always kept. My mom was the church organist so we were always in church. My parents took us to Bible camp each year. They enrolled us in VBS. They got us involved in music and church choirs. They supported our passion for music/ministry by purchasing instruments, allowing us to practice in the house, and supporting us as we headed into congregations to do our thing. They stepped up and lead our Jr. High when I entered 7th grade when no one else in the church would do it. My dad coached our first church "Bible Quiz Team." I know my parents faithfully prayed for all of us kids every day. Their own lives of faith modeled a vibrant relationship with Jesus.
*My grandparents. Grandpa was a Lutheran pastor/evangelist. It was while watching him give an altar call (a rare thing indeed for Lutherans) at Bible camp when I was in second grade that I sensed the call to be a pastor. I had the chance to watch grandpa do ministry for years. I travelled with him a couple of times when he headed out on Evangelistic tours. When I headed to Bible College and was questioning not my faith but my theology, he was always ready to answer my questions. Grandma was a fantastic partner and support to grandpa. During Bible camps she was the "craft teacher." Because mom was the church organist, I often sat in the front row with grandma. She'd help me follow the liturgy or would make little animals with her hanky to keep me quiet (seems a bit gross now but I didn't think about where that hanky had been at that time!). I have deep memories of my grandma and grandpa praying together over meals. Grandpa laid hands on me at my ordination. He also participated in my wedding and baptized my daughter Alycia. My grandpa only got to see me "pastor" at Community Church of Joy once early on in my ministry. He was our "devotions" leader during a spiritual life week. One night after the service he asked us to pray for him. I'd never seen him weep before but he cried as he said he was having a hard time remembering things. Not long after we realized he had Alzheimer's disease. Tough stuff to make your living, so to speak, using your mind, only to lose it in later life.
*I think about pastors who served in the congregations in which I grew up and Sunday school teachers who taught me about Jesus. I remember Mim in particular. I can't remember one thing she taught me but I remember her. She loved kids. And she always gave us a "pink pill" after Sunday School (a pink wintergreen candy). Probably couldn't call it a pill these days but the point is that she, not so much what she taught, impacted me for Jesus.
Jan says I have to leave now and go to dinner to "celebrate" the second anniversary of my mom's journey from this life to her new home with Jesus. So I'll write some more about early influences tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Musings on 25 years of Ordained Ministry--Part 1
On Sunday, March 4, 1984, I was ordained into full time ministry in the middle of a Minneapolis blizzard. Most of those invited to the big event couldn't make it due to the snow. My in-laws almost didn't make it. If nothing else, the snow makes for a great story. During the service, held at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis) I knelt at the altar while Pastor Leland Everson (pastor of Vision of Glory), Walt Kallestad (my soon to be "boss" and partner in ministry for over 20 years) and my Grandpa laid hands on me and asked for God's blessing on my ministry. It was a humbling moment. It was the culmination of a dream come true. I've wanted to be a pastor since I was in second grade. It was also the beginning of the adventure of a life-time. I've experienced things, seen things, met people, and gone places I never imagined back when I was in second grade.
But as it was 25 years ago, ministry continues to be a humbling experience--that the Creator of the Universe would be interested in using me in a small way to bring his grace to the world never ceases to amaze me.
Over the next several days I'm going to share some of my experiences from 25 years of ministry and mission. I've learned that ordained ministry is not really about the pastor. A pastor is really a compilation of all the people who have impacted his/her life with the Gospel. But for my sake, I thought it would be good to "put to blog" so to speak, some of my thoughts on this rather historic occasion. Feel free to read along.
But as it was 25 years ago, ministry continues to be a humbling experience--that the Creator of the Universe would be interested in using me in a small way to bring his grace to the world never ceases to amaze me.
Over the next several days I'm going to share some of my experiences from 25 years of ministry and mission. I've learned that ordained ministry is not really about the pastor. A pastor is really a compilation of all the people who have impacted his/her life with the Gospel. But for my sake, I thought it would be good to "put to blog" so to speak, some of my thoughts on this rather historic occasion. Feel free to read along.
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