Pastor Erik--June 2008

At the Synod Assembly last month I attended a workshop on evangelism by Pastor Michael Nel. This was quite possibly one of the most interesting, informative, and useful hours I have ever spent. Pastor Nel’s main point was that when churches do evangelism, it’s all about anxiety—and this is not a good thing.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Of course evangelism is about anxiety! What could cause more anxiety than telling me I have to go up to complete strangers and try to convince them to believe in Jesus?” And, while its true that talk of evangelism is enough to raise most Christians’ blood pressure—this isn’t the sort of anxiety that Pastor Nel was talking about (and this also isn’t the sort of evangelism he was talking about either).

Pastor Nel talked about anxiety not in individuals, but in a church as a whole. When things are going well, he said, most churches go through life quite happy to avoid evangelism. But when things start to look grim—worship attendance slips, offerings are down, it’s hard to find people for leadership positions—the church gets anxious. When this happens, someone is sure to pipe up with “You know what we need? An evangelism campaign!” And everyone agrees, more people, more money, and some new blood in leadership could do us wonders. And so a church sets out to spread the Good News and attract some new folks. This, says Nel, is exactly the WORST way to do evangelism, because we do it out of anxiety—and on top of that, it just plain doesn’t work.

Here’s why. When we do evangelism in this way, the message we are spreading is really not the Good News of Jesus Christ. It’s something more along the lines of “We are really anxious that our church is having trouble. Wouldn’t you like to come join us, do some work, pay some money, and help us feel better about ourselves? Then our lives will be so much easier and we won’t have to worry about our church going under.” But who wants to come and be a part of a church that is so anxious that it’s out recruiting other people to solve its problems? No wonder “evangelism” as we usually conceive it is so terrifying—if we don’t recruit some more people to save us, our very survival is at stake. And in reality, this so-called evangelism has nearly nothing to do with God and everything to do with us, our needs and wants.

So what’s the alternative? Pastor Nel redefines evangelism away from “convince people to believe in Jesus” and even “convince (or attract) people to come join our church.” Instead, he says evangelism is “The process of defining oneself as a Christian to the world around one.” In other words, letting the world know you are a Christian—and telling the story of what God is up to in your life in public. What people do with this information is their own business. Of course, we hope and pray that God will stir up a desire for faith, perhaps even that they will want to come and see what’s going on at our church—but in reality the call to evangelize is not to “recruit” but simply to bear witness to what God is up to in our lives. It’s about planting seeds and trusting that God will nurture them into plants that bear fruit.

So then, what does this mean for us? This is an exciting time in the life of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Ministry is flourishing, the Holy Spirit is loose among us, Transformation is growing deep and spreading throughout our congregation, hope is alive and well, and people are daring to dream about the future of Bethlehem Lutheran in God’s mission in the world. On Pentecost Sunday we celebrated all the things that the Holy Spirit has been doing in our midst, ending with a list of miracles shouted out by the congregation (you can listen to the podcast on our website if you missed it). There is much to tell about what God has been up to among us!


And it would be easy to just sit back and soak it all in—to coast for a while thinking everything is OK. But now is exactly the time that we should be thinking about evangelism and about connecting what God has been doing among us to what God is up to in our neighborhood and beyond. So in the next several months don’t be surprised to be hearing more about how we can live into our guiding principle “We are called to work in God’s world” through Global Mission, through service locally, through reconnecting to our neighborhood and getting to know our neighbors—not so we can recruit them to bail us out, but so that we can share the hope, the joy, and the love of God we have experienced and also receive new gifts, new passions, and new challenges. God has done way too much at Bethlehem Lutheran for us to keep it for ourselves. We are called to share, to bear witness, to be messengers of God’s love for the sake of the world. And so, here we go…

Pastor Erik

Pastor Erik--May 2008

A few weeks ago I was part of something called the “First Call Theological Education Summit” at the ELCA Churchwide offices in Chicago. When I get invited to things such as this where I get to work with the other expressions of this church (the three expressions being: congregation, synod, churchwide) I usually try to take them up on their offer. I always come away having learned something more about what God is up to in the ELCA, hear exciting stories of mission and ministry from around the country, and come away inspired with something to bring back to our work here together. This trip was no exception.

The purpose of this “summit” (a fancy word for conference I think) was to talk about best practices for “First Call Theological Education” as well as what makes a healthy and supportive “First Call Congregation.” First Call Theological Education is a mandatory three year process that all pastors coming out of seminary participate in (including me). Just what is looks like varies from synod to synod and region to region. First Call Congregations are congregations (such as ours) who have called a pastor in their first call out of seminary. This event brought together those who plan First Call Theological Education, some of us who are participating in it (that’s why I was invited), as well as lay leaders and pastors from some First Call Congregations. Central to the conference was the presentation (in various forms) of the results of a research project the ELCA has undertaken (funded by the Lilly Foundation). First Call Congregations from around the country who were identified as “exemplary” were studied to find out just what are the things that make for successful First Calls—for the pastor and for the congregation.

As they were sharing the results and stories that came out of these exemplary First Call congregations, I kept thinking to myself “Man, Bethlehem should have been part of this!” When it came time to report the themes that the researchers found in these congregations, I realized why. Here are the themes that this research found make for a healthy and supportive First Call Congregation:

• Nurturing: welcoming and supportive of their new pastor (including forgiving the pastor’s mistakes!, and creating a community of care for one another

• Connected: to each other, to their past, across generations, to the local community, to synod and churchwide

• Flexible: having deep, connected roots allowing for building on the strengths of the past while holding an attitude of openness and flexibility

• Strong Lay Leadership: committed, faithful lay leaders who are called to ministries in the congregation and the world (including those that have traditionally been “the pastor’s job”)

• Spiritually Practiced: centered on prayer, reading the Bible together, care for one another and those in need, mentoring and supportive of youth, practicing hospitality

I realized that these are the very traits that lie at the heart of what this community is all about, and they are all things that God has been bringing even more to the surface through our Transformation process. Having been built up in all of these areas over the past few years, we are now in a period of vibrant ministry in which God is using us in new and different ways. It’s exciting to imagine what God has in mind for us, and how these strengths of our community will be called forth for work in the world. Isn’t Transformation fun?

Pastor Erik

Pastor Erik--April 2008

Last month I wrote about our Guiding Principles, and how I wasn’t going to tell you just how we are supposed to use them. I know this was less than satisfying for many of you, who are still trying to wrap your heads around these six statements and what they mean. I’m with you. It’s not clear how God is going to continue to transform us through these statements. But…I’ve got another example to share—one that took place even before these guiding principles were put to paper (or bulletin, or business card, or giant full color poster, or T-shirt). And once again, it has to do with our doors.

Back in September, I wrote about how I saw in the process of replacing our front doors what I thought would be one of our Guiding Principles—the principle that came out “Everyone is Welcome”. Well, now it’s clear to me that God had us using all of our Guiding Principles in that process—even though we didn’t consciously know what they were yet. And here’s how:

1)Jesus is Lord and Savior. Conversations about our broken doors and whether we thought they ought to be repaired (again) or replaced have been going on around here for years. Some people wanted new doors, some people didn’t think we needed them. Hours and hours were spent in council meetings on whose opinion should win, but nobody wanted to hurt anybodies feelings, and so nothing ever seemed to happen. That is until the conversation started to move away from “what do we want/need/think is best” and towards “What is God calling us to do?” Jesus—not me, the council, or even the congregation—is Lord, and when we started to think in this way it lead to…

2) Everyone is Welcome. When we started to think about what God is calling us to do and be, and how we proclaim (or don’t proclaim) Jesus to the world it quickly became clear that we believe “Everyone is Welcome” but our old, clunky, broken doors were communicating “Everyone Stay Out!” In a clear use of our emerging Guiding Principle, the old doors were quickly gone, funds raised, and new ones installed—not because somebody wanted it and they one, but because we together saw how we weren’t living up to something very central to us, and were communicating to the world exactly the opposite of what God was calling us to.

3) Love Changes People. Though the process to replace the doors happened quickly, there continued to be different opinions on whether this was the right move or the right time. Rather than pushing for their way, those who felt called to lead us into getting new doors helped us gently see the possibility of change, loving us into a new future. It was actually the kids who got most excited about this, each week they pasted a picture of one sort of door we might want to get onto the old doors. Little by little the dream began to spread, lovingly rather than by force, and pretty soon the congregation was alive with talk of the vision of new doors. Rather than conflict, I heard those with objections being heard, their opinions valued and listened to, and instead of being the “loosers” were part of the process, whether they every thought replacing the doors was a good idea or not.

4) We are Called to Work in God’s World One of the best reasons against the doors that was raised was “wouldn’t this money be better spent in helping the needy?” If we believe “we are called to work in God’s world” we should always ask this question—and carefully weigh our decision. As the people of God we should not simply think of ourselves, our own needs and wants, but should always be mindful of our role in the world and the plight of those who struggle to survive. But rather than a selfish “we want our church to look pretty” decision, in the end the motivation for the new doors was welcoming those outside our community, done not for us, but for others—following God’s call to hospitality.

5) God Uses Ordinary People Like Us. Though the council had gone back and forth about the old doors, this transformation happened not because of a council decision, but because ordinary people felt called to lead, and to hold us to our Guiding Principle “Everyone is Welcome”. The official vote came long after the vision had been stirred, a good portion of money raised, and real excitement built over this transformation. And though there were a few people who contributed a large amount of money, each of us who put even a few dollars into the plate for the doors helped to make this happen. In small and large ways God used us to make this transformation happen, a visible sign to us and to all who enter that God is at work at Bethlehem—that we are being transformed from the inside out. And through something as simple as some new doors.

6) God Shows the Way. In the end, the success of our new doors had little to do with our efforts, our casting of the vision, or anything else that we did. Instead, because we took the time to listen to God, to pray and dream about what God might want us to do and the sort of church God wants us to be, God lead us into transformation. And through this process we got a taste of what it looks like to engage in transformational ministry, to use our Guiding Principles (even if we didn’t know it at the time), and to follow God’s lead.

Isn’t Transformation fun?

Pastor Erik

Pastor Erik--March 2008

At our annual meeting at the end of January, our congregation adopted these Guiding Principles:

• Jesus is Lord and Savior
• Everyone is welcome
• Love changes people
• We are called to work in God's world
• God uses ordinary people like us
• God shows the way

These six statements represent those things that are most central to our life together as followers of Jesus in this place. They came from months of Bible study, prayer, and conversation by many people in our congregation. As God continues the work of transformation among us, these principles will help us make decisions, help engage us in mission, and help draw us more fully into God's dream for us.

In the past month, many people have asked “Just how are these Guiding Principles supposed to work?” It's a great question to ask, because if we just agree that these statements sound good, adopt them, but never put them to use they really won't impact us. If they are really going to serve as guides, we will need to seek to use them at every opportunity. Part of our task of the next several months is figuring out together just how these Guiding Principles will guide us. What sort of changes will we need to make together? What sort of callings might we take up (or put down!) because of them? How will we continue to check the principles themselves against God's Word and what we believe God is calling us to do and to be? Its up to every one of us to help our congregation claim these Guiding Principles and figure out how to live them out more fully and in new ways.

“So, pastor,” you might be saying to yourself, “what you're saying is you're pretty much not going to tell us how Guiding Principles are supposed to work.” And I suppose that's true, but not just because I want to be difficult. There are several reasons that our use of Guiding Principles can't just be laid out by me and followed by everyone else. The first reason is that they aren't just my Guiding Principles, or the Guiding Principles of the Transformation Team or the Church Council—they are our Guiding Principles. Another reason is that a big part of using them comes from the process of figuring out how we are going to use them, together, as a community of faith—to guide our life together as a congregation, to guide each of us as we seek to follow Jesus, and to guide our interactions with the community outside our walls. But the main reason I'm not going to just tell you all how we're going to use the Guiding Principles is that I actually don't know how they are going to work on us, or just what God has in store for us as we seek to live them out. But I'm excited see!

Over the next several months there will be many opportunities for us to use, think about, and apply our Guiding Principles, both in hypothetical situations and in the real life decisions we make together. And we should be prepared for God to transform us through them—and in ways we can't even imagine. To illustrate, I'll share a story from another Transformation congregation much like ours in Phoenix, Arizona: Alleluia Lutheran Church. They adopted a set of Guiding Principles (which are actually quite similar to ours) and they decided to propose a hypothetical situation to the congregation as a way to help people see how they might work. “Suppose,” they said “the City of Phoenix was looking for a solution to help homeless people find shelter on the coldest days and they asked our congregation if we would be willing to share our facilities to help.” Instead of pitting it as an argument between one side that thinks this is a good idea, and one side that thinks its a bad idea, they used their Guiding Principles, asking “If we were to take these principles seriously what sort of decision would we make?” When they used their Guiding Principles (Jesus is Lord, God welcomes everyone, Everything we have belongs to God, Everyone is on God's team, and Everyone needs a neighbor like us) they decided that choosing to help with the homeless project would be more in line with their principles (and closer to God's dream for them) than deciding not to. “God's welcome really is for everyone, including the homeless,” they decided, “and since our stuff is really God's stuff and we are part of God's team, we should share what we have with them—and doing so is being the sort of neighbor we would like to have.” If this sort of proposal were in front of them, they said, they would participate.

Well wouldn't you know it, that very same week—completely out of the blue—they got a letter from the Mayor of Phoenix asking if they would be interested in participating in a program very much like their hypothetical one. Who would have thought! It seems as though God was calling them to be serious about their Guiding Principles! Through their Guiding Principles God has continued to challenge them and is transforming them from a dying little Lutheran congregation, into a thriving, relevant, disciple-making community of faith. I look forward to see what God is planning for us as well!

To learn more about our Guiding Principles, the process we went though to develop them, and more about Transformation in general (including a link to Alleluia Lutheran Church) click on the “Transformation” link at www.BethlehemSpokane.org.

Pastor Erik--February 2008

It's hard to believe that its time to start thinking about Lent already.

As I write this, my Christmas lights still hang on my house (no matter what I claimed I would be up to on Epiphany Sunday afternoon!) and a heavy blanket of snow which fell yesterday makes it hard to imagine spring as anything close to right around the corner. Nevertheless, Ash Wednesday is on February 3rd this year, one day later than the earliest it can possibly be—in fact the earliest it will be until the year 2160. The system for choosing the date for Easter is unbelievably complicated and has to do with the phases of the moon, the vernal equinox, and a 2000 year debate over which calendar one is meant to use. Suffice it to say, Easter comes 40 days after Ash Wednesday and it always falls (for Christians in the West) between March 22 and April 25th (inclusive). Sundays during Lent are not counted in the 40 days, because while Lent is meant to be a time of prayer, fasting, and preparation for the celebration of Christ's resurrection, every single Sunday is a “little Easter” when we gather together to celebrate Christ's resurrection. Sundays are times to celebrate and feast—no fasting allowed! I have to admit, as interesting as it may be to ponder church church calendar, our family calendar this month is dominated by another date—February 16th—the day Tauni is due to give birth to our second daughter. The Bethlehem church council has voted to give me some leave to be with my family during this important time and so our Lenten time together this year will be a bit different. For two weeks following the baby's birth I will be on paternity leave. On Sundays during those two weeks we will be having “Hymn Sing” services where we will sing our congregation's favorite hymns (and there are many!) from the lists you all have submitted in the last several weeks. I have to admit, I'm disappointed that I will miss these. If you have an emergency and need pastoral care during these two weeks, call the church cell phone number (252-0445) which will be forwarded to a local Lutheran pastor who will be filling in during my absence. After that, for four weeks I'll be preaching and leading adult education on Sundays, I'll be in the office on Tuesdays from 9:30-12:30, but otherwise working half time from home. I'll check messages and email and will have my cell phone back in case of emergencies. Our Wednesday night Akaloo education program with our other 6 cluster churches is on hold for Lent (we start back again March 25th). On Ash Wednesday we will use a service that combines the Ash Wednesday ritual from our new hymnal together with Taizé prayer. Throughout Lent we will continue our Bethlehem tradition of Wednesday night soup suppers (6:15pm) and will be joining together in Holden Evening Prayer (7:00pm) led by our some of our congregation's many gifted singers. There will be no soup supper or service on the Wednesday before Easter (March 19th), but we will be celebrating a full Passover Seder Supper on Maundy Thursday (March 20, 6:30pm) as we did last year to much acclaim. Good Friday (March 21, 7pm) will again be Taizé prayer, there will be no Easter Vigil this year, and Easter Sunday we will worship at 10:30am. As we welcome another child into our family Tauni and I appreciate Bethlehem's willingness to give me a bit of time away from our church family. Please pray for us as we enter this new journey—and may God be with you on your Lenten journey.

Pastor Erik

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Bethlehem Lutheran Church's Guiding Principles (Passed at the Annual Meeting January 27th 2008)

• Jesus is Lord and Savior
• Everyone is welcome
• Love changes people
• We are called to work in God’s world
• God uses ordinary people like us
• God shows the way

Pastor Erik--January 2008

In the early 1990's there was a show on TV called “Quantum Leap” that remains one of my favorite series. It starred Scott Bakula as “Dr. Sam Beckett,” a physicist from the future whose experiments with time travel had gone awry causing him to be (perhaps forever) suck “leaping” into various points in history. Each episode would begin with Sam “leaping” into someone else's life in a new time and place. Only the TV viewers saw and heard Sam; when he looked in the mirror he (and we) got to see who he had become. Each episode was the story of one such “leap” as we followed Sam (as the show's intro explains) “striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.” Sam was guided by a hologram named Al, a friend from the future who helped Sam navigate his new surroundings and fulfill his purpose in that time and place.

In each situation Sam had a particular job to do—saving someone from one disaster or another, or stopping someone from making a life altering decision, or any number of other wrongs—and he and Al spent much of their time figuring out just what that purpose was supposed to be. Very often, however, Sam's purpose didn't become clear until the last few minutes of the episode—and often not at all in the way that Sam, Al, or the viewers expect. Once his purpose had been fulfilled Sam would “leap” into the next situation, into another time and place, just as unclear as to what his new purpose was meant to be. As the series progresses, it becomes clear that Sam's “leaps” are not just random chance, but that there is some method to the madness. Sam's seemingly minor actions have huge consequences: wars are averted, tragedies minimized, and life is better for everyone—with effects way beyond the people Sam interacts with. And as Sam “leaps” from life to life he, and Al (and the viewers), begin to wonder if maybe Sam's little purposes aren't part of a bigger mission—and that, perhaps, the method to the madness might just be God.

In the next couple of months we will be talking a great deal about mission and purpose as we continue our work of Transformation. Now I know trying to base our Transformation work off of anything other than the Bible is downright silly (especially some old TV show...somebody call the Bishop!). But I bring up “Quantum Leap” because I think it helps illustrate a key distinction as we continue in this work: the difference between “mission” and “purpose.”

Most organizations, businesses, non-profits, and even some individual people have developed “mission statements”—key statements about what that group is all about and how they go about their work. Many churches (including ours) develop mission statements as well, though more often than not they occupy some forgotten file drawer or are posted and forgotten. In thinking about mission and purpose it is essential that we remember that the Church's mission (and I mean the whole Christian Church on earth) is really God's mission. The Church exists not because its good in and of itself, but because it is a way that God works towards God's mission in and for the world. We play a part in that for sure, but whatever the Church is about (and whatever Bethlehem is about) is always going to be in relationship to what God is about.

But like the larger mission for Sam's “leaping” throughout history, just exactly what God has in mind for all creation is not always so crystal clear (though “putting right what has gone wrong” is not too bad!). In Adult Ed we have been reading a book called “Living Lutheran” and one of the exercises is to pray the Lord's Prayer but to repeat the line “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” This is in part to remind us that God's dream for us, for the world, and for all creation isn't completed yet—that the kingdom of God, while here on earth, is not fully completed—and won't be until God's reign is fully expressed “on earth as in heaven.” God is continuing the work of creation, loving and blessing the world until it is as God wishes it to be. That is God's mission, and we, as the Church, are called to take part in it.

Like Sam, Bethlehem Lutheran has found itself in a particular time and place. Our job is not the same as God's—it is not our role to save the world and make it the way God wants it to be. But nevertheless God has a purpose in mind for us: it may be large, it may be small, but it is particularly ours (and may lead to other purposes as well). We may or may not get to see how our purpose fits into God's larger mission, and we may never know the full impact of our living out of God's purpose for us. But my hunch is that once we are able to figure out our particular purpose right now in God's larger mission—and seek to live it out faithfully—some hints of the larger pattern will start to appear to us too. That's what happens in the Book of Acts as the disciples try to live faithfully as followers of Jesus by eating and praying together and telling the story of Jesus. Suddenly they found themselves being called and sent to the ends of the earth—a purpose they never even imagined, but it became clear this was where God was calling them. And God used them as they lived out their particular purpose for the bigger mission that God had in mind. And their guide (the Holy Spirit) is even more helpful than a hologram named Al. It's the Holy Spirit who guides us too as we seek to figure out our particular purpose in what God is up to in the world—even if God's whole mission is not entirely clear to us. And so we are called to “leap” into the time and place into which we have found ourselves, trusting that as we seek out our purpose that God is using us in ways we don't even realize, and along the way will begin to see that we are part of something much larger than ourselves—the mission of God in the world.

Pastor Erik

Pastor Erik--December 2007

Transformation is among us!

Its been nearly a year since we began this process called “Transformation.” Now, you may be wondering when transformation is going to “happen” so we can get on with church life as usual. How are we going to know when we've arrived? When will we be transformed? Or you may even be asking: When can we quit talking about all of this?

In the gospel of Luke similar questions are being asked of Jesus about the kingdom of God: “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’”(Luke 17:20-21) Like the kingdom of God, Transformation is not a destination exactly, not something that comes so you can say “Ok, we've done it” and just hang out. But, also like God's kingdom, you can see hints of Transformation—signs that God is up to something—the Transformation of Bethlehem is among us!

Here are some of the best signs that God is making Transformation happen among us:

Stuart Shawen

Tim Campbell

Ruth McKee

Sandy Rogers

John Slete

Mel Hayes

Linda Hayes

Nathan Clemens

Rebecca Clemens

Elliot Clemens

Ken Baungards

Vicki Baungards

David Holthaus

Erin Holthaus

Jacob Holthaus

Hannah Holthaus

Sienna Holthaus

These are the people who, in the past year, have felt called to participate in the mission of God through Bethlehem Lutheran Church by becoming members. There are 17 people on this list. For a congregation that regularly has 40-50 people in worship on any given Sunday, this is nothing short of a miracle! And two times this fall we have had 80 people in worship—more than we had this past Easter. And there's no reason to think that this won't continue. I don't think that growth for growth's sake is really what being the people of God is all about, but I also know that people don't join dying congregations. People feel called to participate in a congregation that is on its way somewhere, a community that's tuned in to what God is up to in the world and is seeking to be a part of it. We don't transform simply by adding people, but as we are transforming, people will naturally want to join with us in God's work. And through our Transformation, they have. This is cause for us to celebrate.

But in our celebration, we need to be careful not to think that “we've arrived,” that our Transformation is complete and we can just “be the church” now that we've been saved from the brink of disaster. Like the kingdom of God, Transformation is continuous, an ongoing emerging reality that we now live in. It's not about having enough people to pay the bills and being able to afford a pastor. Its not about having a full sanctuary, or lots of programs and activities, or being known as a vibrant congregation. All of these things are simply means to an end: getting us ready to engage in the purpose that God has for us in God's mission in and to the world. And for us, that's the next step. In the coming months we will be working hard on Guiding Principles—those statements that will lead us to that next stage of mission and participation of what God is up to in the world. We'll be developing a purpose statement, and seeking to find some clarity as to what it is we are to do next. God is calling us to do more that just simply “be”—we are called to transform and to keep transforming so that we will be ready to be part of God's mission and purpose for us. Its an exciting time to be a part of Bethlehem Lutheran Church to see where God is leading us next. Transformation is among us!

Pastor Erik