Saturday, March 29, 2014

Roll Jordan Roll

I cannot sing, that is a fact.

Ask anyone in my life and they will tell you that they would prefer to never here my singing voice again! It's not like I haven't tried, I just sing too flat or too sharp, or just simply too poorly. My wife encourages me to sing in the shower and the shower alone. My dog cocks his head from side to side as if he is confused to what wailing noise is coming from my mouth. And my mother tells me that I get it from my grandfather. He was a pastor of a small Latvian immigrant congregation in Minneapolis. One Sunday he forgot to turn off his microphone and the congregation heard him singing. At the end of the service one of the congregants informed him what happened and told him to make sure it is always turned off so they wouldn't have to hear his singing voice again. 

Singing is clearly not my gift, but it is hard not to be inspired by music. Throughout my life I have listened to and loved all types of music. Country, classical, blues, folk, rock, I love it all. However, some music goes beyond simple toe-tapping and dancing. Some music speaks to your soul and could be the soundtrack of your life. That is the music that lives within you, that empowers you, that voices your experience. The ancient philosopher Plato said, "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." Such is that music that transcends all others and moves you into the world as an inspired being.

Lately I have found such music to be calling to me from the simplistic and soulful Delta Blues, the peaceful plucking of an acoustic guitar in Folk music, and the can't help but dance Jump Blues. However, more than most I have found myself clinging to and embracing slave songs from the American south. The passionate and profoundly truthful expressions of their experience moves me. It helps me appreciate their lives, it forces me to see God as a slave with them, it makes me want to be a better person, it makes me want to give these people the justice they so richly deserved. And through all of this, inspired by these songs, God is calling me to be a pastor. Though I cannot sing, that is something I want to be in tune with.

Perhaps the most poignant example from recent culture is the incredible film 12 Years a Slave. This movie is based on the life of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man living in New York state who was abducted and sold into slavery. Against all odds, insidious cruelty, hate, and oppression he held onto his dignity and hope that one day he would be free. During the film one of his fellow slaves died in the field and the slave community gathered for his funeral. During this ceremony we witness Solomon's transformation from defeat to hope through a song titled "Roll Jordan Roll." While this rendition is only partially original, it speaks volumes to Solomon's character. At first he hesitates and resists joining in, but soon he sings. And as he does, he adds a specific blues style voice that gives further texture and emotion to the song.


So where is God in all of this? Everywhere, for better or for worse. We see the slave owners preaching their version of the Christian message throughout this film, all the while the slaves have taken that same message and interpreted it differently. The slaves have taken the Christian faith and subverted it against the slave owners in order to express their needs and messages that are most relevant for them. In "Roll Jordan Roll" we hear about the river Jordan, John the Baptist, and the hopes of getting into heaven. All of these can be interpreted in a faithful manner, but also in a coded fashion. In terms of faith the song speaks to enduring the persecution that Jesus and the disciples faced everyday during Jesus' time on earth, it speaks to being claimed as a child of God, and it speaks to equality before God. As a code the song gives endurance in the face of despair as well as hinting at the Mississippi River serving as a guide north.

I cannot sing, this is a fact. 

But what I can do is preach, teach, and share the good news of a God who sings in solidarity with the oppressed. A God who weeps at the whipping of slaves. A God who works with abolitionists to make freedom a legal reality for all of humanity. A God who works through unexpected means to bring about redemption for the world. A God who dies for us on the cross of Good Friday. That is the God I know. That is the God I believe in, who is active throughout the world working for justice, peace, mercy, and salvation. Roll...Jordan.. roll.

-Tom

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Mission in a New Light

How do you view mission? How does your congregation view mission? What the heck is it? The traditional approach to mission has been something we as churched people do in the world for somebody else who is need of assistance. Say, when we follow Jesus’ teachings to feed the hungry and clothe the poor we are doing mission. This definition also has the nasty habit of becoming commonplace and stagnant. For example, many churches participate in a charity of their city. When asked why they do this, often times the only answer people can give is, “Because we have always done it.” What is the point of doing something that has fallen from importance and become so normal, perhaps even peripheral, that it is no longer given any thought? Why is such a ministry significant? How is it participating in mission? Professor Chris Scharen of Luther Seminary helps us rethink the concept of mission and in doing so opens us up to divine creativity.

In a recent blog post for Luther Seminary’s Ministry in Context, Scharen argues that an understanding of mission where some of “us” in the church help “other people” is no longer fit for a world where the culture continues to become more and more post-Christian. In this sense, post-Christian means that the world’s culture is no longer Christian dominant and it’s influence as a religion no longer holds it as prevalent in modern thinking. So what do we do? Do we give up and let the church die by continuing to do things as if the church were rapidly growing as it was in the 50s? No.

Scharen offers up the following approach to mission in our world:                                                                                          
What if we understand mission as less about what we do and more about what God is doing?  God is loving and reconciling the world, and God, we claim, catches us up intothat work — all of us, all the time.  That is a pretty exciting vision for being church, and it just might change what we think mission means.   
                                                                                                               
Such an attitude toward mission seems to me to be full of energy and life. It forces us as a people of God to discern what God is up to in our communities as a congregation, as a local city or town, and as a larger world. Such discernment may lead us to familiar answers, but it also may lead into a bold new direction.

At my internship we have partnered with the high school across the street to address the hunger problem many students are facing. Over 80% of the students participate in the free or reduced lunch programs because they are financially incapable of providing regular meals. My internship site has created a backpack program where the neediest students are identified and given backpacks filled with food for the weekend, enough for a family of four to have 3 meals on Saturday and Sunday. We call it “Polar Packs.” The response from this congregation has been resounding in their continued giving and enthusiasm for this ministry and has opened the door to future partnerships between these neighbors.

During the first month of the program’s activity, a student received a backpack with an added bonus, a cake mix with frosting. As the student and her mother baked it together on Sunday afternoon they decided that the cake was not going to be dessert, it was going to school with her. The student brought it to a class taught by one of the Polar Pack organizers saying, “We wanted to say thank you and give back what we can.” From that simple backpack she was moved to give back from the abundance she received and bless others with her blessing.

Another example from my internship and a new vision of mission is my personal project, Pub Theology. Such a ministry is certainly not new or innovative, but I viewed it as a practical medium in which to hopefully reengage the younger adults of the congregation in a life of faith. For years I have been interested in the Catholic Church's "Theology on Tap" where a group of people get together in a bar and have a Bible study or watch a presentation from a church leader. What a great idea! However, as I have continued my seminary journey I started to question why the people can't have their own discussions without the guidance from a church official. Why can't we let loose and freely discuss matters of faith while the Spirit take us where it wills? This, joined with a desire to have people reconnect to their faith in an informal and non-threatening environment and a plethora of fantastic local craft breweries, Pub Theology was born.

As I began to formulate my ideas about how to make this happen I did some research and discovered Bryan Berghoef's books on this very subject. I blazed through these works with eager excitement and a burning desire to get something like this going. And so I did. With only four meetings under our belts we are still working out the kinks, but have had fantastic discussions about things ranging from the definition of evil to the authority of the Bible in our culture. These open, faith-filled, respectful conversations have allowed people from the target group of twenty and thirty somethings to the elders an avenue to express their faith in a bold new way. My hopes and prayers are that such experiences allow them to live their faith out loud and not in the quiet of their Sunday morning hearts and minds.

So are these two ministries that I have offered up in tune with Scharen’s view of mission? I say yes. In each case the founders of the programs have prayerfully listened to the needs of the community, paired it with their vocational interests, were open to where God was leading the community of faith, and sought out opportunities to participate with God’s preexisting action in the world.


I hope whoever reads this blog is to take on Chris Scharen’s definition of mission. I guarantee you will be energized and open to where God is calling you right now, where God is calling the church right now, and where God is calling the world. May you be as bold as Abraham to listen to God’s command to leave your comfortable surroundings, may you be as brave as Moses to debate with the divine, and may you be as courageous as the disciples to openly ask questions and wrestle with the big issues. This is what it is going to take to move mission in a post-Christian world. So, how are you getting involved with what God is already up to?

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Turning Beer Into Food



I was floating around on various Minnesota beer related websites, typical intern pastor internet activity, and I spotted this awesome story from MNBEER.com. Finnegans, a local brewery in Minneapolis, is celebrating St. Patrick's Day with their new reverse food truck. This food truck will not be giving out food, instead they will be taking food donations and cash to help fight hunger. So if you find yourself at Kieran's on Saturday, March 15th have one less beer and donate some cash to a good cause!

As an intern pastor who works a lot with local food shelves and hunger projects, I think this is a fantastic idea. St. Patrick's Day will be an great starting point and I hope to see it out and about at other breweries. The current trend with local craft breweries is to host a food truck each day they are open to offer patrons food along with the fantastic beer. Because of this trend, I envision the Finnegans truck at breweries on a regular basis. After all, if you are going to spend $5 for a pint of fresh suds, why not give another $5 to feed someone's stomach?

This reverse food truck is not that big of a surprise if you ask me because Finnegans donates all of their proceeds to battling hunger. Finnegans Inc. is a for profit business, but they donate their profits to their non-profit entity Finnegans Community Fund (a 501-3 non-profit). Through this arm they give over 98% of their funds to hunger alleviation partners in the states where their beer is sold. 

So here is a shameless plug for this St. Patrick's Day. Drink Finnegans Irish Amber Ale and do some good.


Saturday, March 8, 2014

It Has Been A Looong Time

It has been a long time since my last post. I guess the whirlwind of the holiday season, working 6 six days a week, being sick here and there, and simply trying to stay sane with an extremely busy job has been tough and my young blog has taken the fall. My pledge this Lent is to start writing more frequently not merely for random viewers, but as a means for me to unwind from being an intern pastor.

On the beer front since my last post I have completed another homebrew, a west coast IPA that I titled Old Yeller IPA. It's hop character was not as aggressive as I had planned on, but was consistent throughout the drinking process. I also built a bar for my wife's cousin with one of my best friends. It was my second bar, but it was a lot more involved and detailed than I had originally planned. Oh well, at least it is done!

Cheers,
Tom