Pastor Erik--June 2009

              Paul Turner, author of “The Slice” column in the Spokesman-Review was one of the speakers at this year's “Bike to Work Week” kickoff breakfast.  Barb Chamberlain, the organizer of the event, asked him to ride for a week last year and write about it in his column.  It was a big gamble, Barb said in her introduction of Paul, because she knew if it was a good experience for him he would write glowing things about biking in Spokane. But if it wasn't...we'll, you've read “The Slice.”

              Paul took Barb's challenge, figuring even if he hated biking to work, he'd at least have a good weeks worth of sarcastic comments for his column.  But instead, Paul found he actually enjoyed biking to work—and kept it up even after Bike to Work Week was over. And so he was back this year, encouraging all of us at this breakfast event to be, in his words, “bike evangelists” and spread the news about commuting by bike in Spokane.

              This call to be “bike evangelists” struck me as funny, because I was standing there wearing what I had been calling my “bike evangelist” outfit—which is really just my regular bike gear with a black clergy shirt and white tab collar.  I felt amazingly out of place in that outfit standing in Riverfront Park at 8am—even more so than I had felt wearing that same outfit in the pulpit at Bethlehem the day before.  In our culture you aren't supposed to mix things like religion with ordinary things like riding bikes, or commuting, or eating pancakes in Riverfront Park.  Religion is meant to be private, practiced in sanctuaries filled with like-minded people, or in the privacy of your own home.  These are two separate realms and you aren't supposed to mix them.

              But its not so easy for me to separate these two, because riding my bike (to work or otherwise) is a deeply spiritual experience for me.  First, it causes me to slow down.  When I don't have my car, I can no longer pack in appointment after appointment across town, counting on zipping from place to place with only a few minutes to spare.  I've got to plan, be deliberate, make use of the time and energy God has given me to do what is most needful.  Secondly, time on a bike is time with God, experiencing the amazing beauty of God's creation—seeing, hearing, and smelling all those things we miss when we travel at 70 miles an hour.  On a bike you feel part of it all—sun, wind, even rain—and it is so much easier for me to see God at work in the world.  And third, I find time on the bike to be perfect for prayer.  As I pedal down the road or trail my mind and body are occupied just enough that I can find that focused place where distractions are a little bit less, and where I can connect in prayer to God.  Or I'll take the scriptures assigned for Sunday and roll them over again and again in my mind—and find a sermon beginning to take shape.  There's just no way to separate bike riding and religion for me.

              And so I find myself a “bike evangelist.”  A pastor wearing a bike costume on Sunday and a bike rider wearing a pastor costume on Monday.  And as such, I don't really fit into either world entirely.  I want my church friends to know and experience the joy of riding a bike to work (and everywhere else) and I want my bike riding friends to know and experience the joy of a life lived in a community centered in Jesus Christ.   And I must admit, it's easier to say to someone “come ride with me” than it is to say “come follow Jesus with me.” 

              As Christians we do live in two worlds; like dual citizens we live both in the “kingdom of God” and in the “kingdom of the world.”  And we really don't fit entirely into either.  As dwellers of God's kingdom we get caught up in the cares of the world and forget to trust in God alone.  As dwellers of the kingdom of the world we never can quite believe that things are only as they seem for we trust in God's promises.  And God calls and sends us as witnesses into the world, bearing Christ in word and deed to a world that longs to experience him.  We are all meant to be evangelists, wearing our world costumes in church and our church costumes in the world—blurring the line between the so-called holy and ordinary places and reclaiming the entire world as loved by God.  And we're meant to be so caught up in the joy of life in Jesus that we can't help but invite others to come along.

              What excites you the way riding a bike excites me?  What brings you so much joy that you can't help but want others to be a part of it too?  My guess is, for most of us, following Jesus or participating in church doesn't make it high on that list.   Why not?  What keeps us from saying “I've experienced great joy as a follower of Jesus, come with me so that you can experience this too”?   What do we need to change about our life together, or our worship, or our service to others that would get you excited enough, energized enough, caught up in the joy of God enough to say “I want everyone I know to experience this!”? 

              Bike to Work Week Spokane grew from an expected 200 participants last year to over 1500 this year—and pretty much all because of “bike evangelists,” people who love to ride their bikes to work getting out and spreading the word.  And while I know the term “evangelist” brings up images of bullhorns and bullying—no one was forced, no one was tricked, no one was bullied by these “bike evangelists.”  We simply shared our story and our love of biking and encouraged others to come along with us and experience it for themselves.  Come and see, come follow me, you just might find joy here too.   That's what evangelism—sharing the Good News—is all about.

Pastor Erik--Toward God's Purpose for BLC

Towards God's Purpose for Bethlehem Lutheran

 

On Sunday March 8, 2009 Pastor Erik preached a sermon on Mark 8:31-38.  This is the story of when Jesus tells his disciples that following God's purpose for his life means that he will undergo great suffering, be rejected, killed, and will rise again.  His disciple Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him, insisting that there must be another way.  Jesus says to Peter (so that all the disciples can hear) “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.” Then to  the disciples and the crowd Jesus says: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

 

Peter wasn’t able to see that God’s purpose for Jesus would bring him to the cross.  He probably suggested all sorts of safer ways that Jesus could have continued his ministry more safely and without taking the sorts of risks Jesus was talking about.  But Jesus told Peter (and the disciples, and the crowds, and us) that following God’s purpose for us is not safe, it’s extremely risky.  It’s not that Peter’s plan wasn’t a good one—maybe he suggested Jesus continue to heal people, travel the world proclaiming Good News, and live a long and happy life—but it wasn’t God’s plan.  The real danger in this story isn’t a bad idea, but a good idea that just isn’t what God has in mind. 

 

Pastor Erik gave everyone in the congregation index cards and asked us to write “Get Behind” on one side and “Take up” on the other side.  (He realized later that it should have been “Put Behind” which is what we’ll use from now on.)  On the “Put Behind” side we were asked to list those things that Bethlehem Lutheran Church might spend our time and energy on that, while certainly “good” things to do, might not be what God has in mind for us.  These are “safe” plans that don’t involve much risk.  On the “Take Up” side we were asked to list those things that God might be calling our congregation to—risky things that might cause us to “loose our life for Jesus’ sake” but are the ways to ultimately save it.  Here is our list of the things we think Jesus is asking us to “put behind” and “take up” to better follow Jesus into God’s purpose for our congregation.

 

Put Behind

 

l Church improvements

l Groups using the church

l Ceremony and beautification if they are for superficial reasons—if for outreach, take them up

l Elaborate building

l Unwise use of funds

l Beautification of church building grounds and landscape

l The property being beautified—money better spent elsewhere

l Spending time designing and funding member programs

l Spending all our resources on just our property

l Coming to church and fellowship only

l Speed at task completion

l Having members only groups that discount those interested in our church

l Disguising God's calling in a way we like

l Misjudging or ignoring a task of God

l “Contemporary” worship service

l Beautifying the church out of vanity

l The finances as they will be discussed today

l Being self serving

l Having functions, fundraisers, etc that serve only BLC members

l Not rocking the boat

l No conflict

l Landscaping with an architect when we have talent in our own church

l Pay the mortgage

l Focusing just on church members

l Complaining—count your blessings

l Landscaping renovation things

l Greeting and talking to friends but not greeting visitors

l Worrying about money for things: yard, building

l Worrying about more people in church for money purposes and membership numbers

l Raising a lot of money

l Having more social events

l Church members and their needs

l Welcoming on a superficial level

l Being concerned just for our church or comfort zones

l Being self centered, self serving

 

Take Up

 

l Neighborhood welcome activities

l Compassionate care for people in need outsite of the congregation

l make church more open and inviting to encourage others to see what we are about and hear God's message

l Lutheran community

l Hunger

l Reach the neighborhood individuals and families

l Feed the hungry

l Build homes for the poor

l Work with other groups to do even more

l Outreach

l Evangelism

l Welcome others to this church

l Children education

l Youth

l More personal outreach

l Neighborhood dimension

l Ice cream social

l Evangelizing

l More friendliness to visitors and each other

l Sponsoring a Thrivent Food Bank here in our parking area

l Get out in the world of Spokane

l Spend finanical resources on ministry in Spokane

l Get out of pews and donate time to ministry in Spokane not just Bethlehem

l Having more volunteers for projects going on in the area

l Get to know the neighborhood better

l Have more activities for teens

l Sending a group of people to help in suffering parts of the world

l Use financial resources on parts of our city that need help

l Have congregational interaction across the city, looking for callings from God

l Service to our neighbors

l Let neighbors use our space

l Some sort of weekly feeding program

l Global mission

l Food bank and homeless shelter assistance

l To be a place that welcomes gay and lesbian people—open and affirming

l Help at community dinners

l Assist with shelter for the homeless

l Utilize church property for community needs (like AA, NA, etc)

l Reach out to neighborhood

l Change—new music and liturgies

l Open doors to community even if they might spill something on the carpet (risk)

l Evangeliszing

l Care of needy

l Mission Support

l Lighting of windows

l Upgrade sound system with “audio loop” for hearing impaired

l Spread what we have learned from service to give to friends and neighbors

l Service to worthy causes outside of church

l Evangelizing to the neighborhood and friends and family

l Service in this community

l Look in the neighborhood for service projects

l Help our neighbors

l Reaching out to the homeless

l Caring about the souls of neighbors

l Making God's house a place of welcome and safety and a place of learning about Jesus and God

l Reach out to more people geographically

l Think more about doing things for others

l Evangelizing

l Providing refuge sanctuary

l Donating money to causes

l Witness to the gospel

l Serve the needy

l Artistic expression

l Be God's light to the neighborhood

l Reach out to our neighbors

l Do for others even if it costs us the “put behind” concerns

l Be examples that show this (doing for others)

Pastor Erik--March 2009

Prayer and Purpose

In the next several months you will be hearing the words “prayer and purpose” quite a lot. In part, this will be because this is our theme for Lent this year. But also because during this season of Lent we are going to devote some time to prayer and trying to discern our purpose as a congregation—and drafting a purpose statement. Lent is the perfect time to do this, because the season of Lent is meant to be a time of reflection, taking stock of who we are and who we are called to be, repenting of where we have strayed from God's calling, and recommitting ourselves to be about what God would have us be about.

Dave Daubert, in the book “Living Lutheran” writes the following about our purpose as the Church of Jesus: “A primary point of being the church together is to refocus us when we gather so that we can be effective when we are apart. We don't gather to escape the world. We gather to be sure we are doing a good job of engaging it. God wants our help. If a church is doing effective ministry, people leave better prepared to be missionaries to the world and ambassadors for Jesus. Our participation in this work is called our 'purpose.'” The next phase in our Transformation process is to figure out what specific purpose God has in mind for Bethlehem—just which part of God's dream are we called to be a part of?

Daubert makes clear that there is a difference between “mission” and “purpose”: “Mission is what God is up to. It is the mission of God. Lutherans are very clear that the mission belongs to God. Everything that is of ultimate importance and eternal value starts and ends there. But that doesn't mean that God prefers to work alone. In fact, God has demonstrated time after time that God prefers to work with others—to include people in the creative work of bringing in the kingdom.” (Living Lutheran, pg 38)

We've already seen the power of purpose (and purpose statements) at work at Bethlehem. Last spring, our Property Mission Task Force met for prayer, Bible study, and conversation around how God was calling us to use our property. Out of that process, we developed a purpose statement for our property which reads: “The purpose of Bethlehem Lutheran Church's property is to make clear that everyone is welcome and to help everyone encounter God in this place.” And since then we have seen some pretty major changes take place to our property, starting with a rock wall on the corner of our property, a transformation of our lobby to be more welcoming to all who pass through our building, and the cutting down of the two large trees in front of our building and the opening up of our property for a whole host of projects. And all of this has come about because we started to ask ourselves “Is our property fulling living into the dream God has for it?” and as we looked at our purpose statement we realized there were ways to get closer to this dream.

God has done some amazing things with our property through this focus on its purpose. Just imagine what God will do with us as we form a purpose not just for our building and grounds, but for our congregation. And much like our guiding principles, this purpose statements will not just come out of the blue, but is meant to be deeply connected to the things God has been doing among us for our entire history. When we figure it out, it should “feel right” for us—though it may also stretch us, much as our guiding principles have done.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to get involved in this process, because the more voices involved, the better chance we have of really hearing the dream God has in mind for us as a community. We'll be engaging in prayer, Bible reading, and conversations. We'll think about purpose in sermons (yes, the sticky notes are coming back), through some cottage meetings, in Adult Ed, during coffee hour, and in all sorts of other ways. Join in the conversation as we figure out together the specific purpose we are meant to play in what God is up to in the world.

Pastor Erik--Annual Report 2009

Note: this post is the text of my annual report to the congregation. It's all about Transformation so I figured I'd better post it here as well.

Pastor’s Report on ministry in 2008

 

This past year has been one of beginning to live into our Guiding Principles. It was one year ago that our congregation met as over a foot of snow fell outside around us (which seemed like a lot at the time) and committed to six 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, and God shows the way.  We had spent many months previously in prayer and conversation about what the central principles were for the ministry God was calling Bethlehem Lutheran to be about.   These six statements emerged, newly articulated but core to what this community has held central from the beginning.  And for 12 months we have been living those principles out in many ways—figuring out what they mean for us and the purpose God has for us in the world.  And we have only just begun this adventure.

 

Some mission moments that have come from our living out our Guiding Principles:

 

The ministry of caring at Bethlehem has expanded exponentially this past year.  Thanks to some dedicated leaders, a growing team of people have felt called to participate in caring ministries, and are bringing care and connection (and transportation) to our shut ins, to the sick, and to those in need of God’s presence. And God has used these people to bring about amazing miracles of healing in mind, body, and spirit.  An example: After returning from a hospital visit last week, I got a call from one of our parish nurses informing me that she and another nurse had visited the wife of the person I had been to see to pray and to help her understand his medical condition. Based on that conversation, our nurses wanted to be sure that our whole congregation was aware of some key medical information that could help others in similar situations, and contacted the leader of caring ministries—who knew that another of our nurses was intending to write something similar for the newsletter.  This nurse happened to be out visiting a shut-in member and bringing her communion, and offered this person a ride to church the next Sunday.  What an incredible network of caring that has emerged because of an amazing team of people. These ministers have felt called to use their variety of gifts (organizing, nursing, driving, time, listening, prayer) to proclaim the Good News of Jesus into the lives of people at a time when they most need to not only hear, but experience the love of God.  Love changes people. We are called to work in God’s world. God uses ordinary people like us. 

 

Our connection to our synod and other Lutheran congregations in our area has grown a great deal in this past year.  Where once we were cut off from our neighbors in faith, we are now becoming ever more connected and interconnected.  The synod assembly this year included a whole host of mission workshops which were open to not only delegates, but all the people of our congregations—and many of you went and learned some amazing things about mission and how to be a part of what God is up to in the world (and have been putting that to use here at Bethlehem).  For one of these workshops, our congregation was asked to share the story of how God has been working through us in Transformational Ministry.  I heard just the other day that the story of our struggle and how God has been present through it (and transforming us) has inspired a small rural congregation in another part of our state to renewed hope for their congregation too.  Our connections with the other Lutheran Churches in our cluster over the past several years has this year shifted into a real sense of collaborative ministry—which has been named “Lutherans Together.”   Beginning with shared youth ministries, this relationship is evolving to include a network of small groups for young adults, and likely soon a network of Bible studies throughout our congregations.  And that’s just the beginning of where God is leading us together.  God uses ordinary people like us.  God shows the way. 

 

The work of the church council has been transformed in the past 12 months.  When I first got here nearly three years ago, church council meetings were exhausting 3-4 hour marathons in which the common complaint was “But we never actually DO anything!”  For the past year we have spent the first 45 minutes of our meetings—before any business or discussion—in prayer, scripture reading, and worship.  We pray for our congregation and for what God dreams for us, we pray for the world, we pray for those in need, and we pray for one another.  We share the Lord’s Supper, and invite God to be present in our meetings—to show us the way. And you know what?  The meetings rarely go over 2 hours—even with less time for “business.” We’ve remembered that our first business as the people of God, and as leaders of God’s church, is prayer.  And so much more is getting done.   The miracle this year which you will see today is that we actually have more people running for council than there are spots to fill.  Jesus is Lord and Savior.  God shows the way. 

 

Another mission moment has come through this transformation in the council. Rather than spending all our council time doing all the work of the church and making all the decisions, our council is shifting into a new mode. No longer to we see our task as “gatekeepers” limiting what goes on at Bethlehem, but instead we are vision shapers and permission givers—helping to shape the vision of where God is calling us, and to get people in our congregation to participate in making that a reality.  When conversations about changes to our church property came up, our council appointed a task force to listen to God’s calling for the use of our property, shape a purpose statement to reflect this, and empowered them to get to work making it a reality. This task force would be led by our property chairperson—who no longer needed to be a council member.  Through prayer, Bible study, and conversation the task force appointed by our council came up with this statement: The purpose of Bethlehem Lutheran Church’s property is to make clear that everyone is welcome and help everyone encounter God in this place.  The task force then set about thinking of ways to make our property more in line with this purpose—and began to dream some dreams for the Ray Street side of the church property.  This side of our property was picked because of the word “everyone” (remember our Guiding Principles?) and thinking about the thousands of “everyones” who drive by our church every day.  How will our property communicate to them that they are welcome? Even if they never even slow down, how will the people who pass near our property get some experience of the presence of God?  Some corner landscaping and a new sign are the first two phases of that transformation, and the next phases include plans for a memorial garden (including a place to inter cremated remains), walking paths to make us more neighborly, and new trees and plants that will show forth the beauty of God’s creation. Out of this work, other’s have felt called to bring the inside of our building closer to God’s purpose as well and have begun to find ways to make our inside space more welcoming, hospitable, and useful to the people whom God sends our way.  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 stories, and the many others like them, give me great hope about the future of our congregation and its place in God’s mission in and for the world.  But there are a few areas which we have not engaged as fully as I have hoped, and that will be some of the primary work ahead of us in the year to come.  One is developing and stating a purpose statement not just for our church property, but for our church community as a whole. The question before us is: What specific role is God calling us to play in what God is up to in the world?  The second area is renewing our connection to our neighborhood and to our neighbors. The second set of questions we need to ask ourselves (which are harder to ask, let alone answer) are: If Bethlehem Lutheran blipped out of existence tomorrow, would our neighbors care?  Would they even notice?  How are we making the Good News of Jesus real and present in the lives of our neighbors?  

 

Answers to these questions are already beginning to bubble up among us, and God is already at work making these dreams a reality.  Our call is to respond to this task and through prayer, Bible study, and conversation to engage in the tasks before us.  What an exciting time and place to be the church! Isn’t Transformation fun? 

Pastor Erik--Jan 2009

As you may or may not know, I've been participating in a leadership program since September called “Leadership Spokane.” This organization describes their program as “an intensive, 10-month long training for 50 emerging and established leaders from business, government and community organizations.” Each month I gather with the rest of my “class” (which consists of leaders from throughout Spokane) for a day long session about a particular topic such as governance, media, community health, the arts, etc. Additional opportunities happen between sessions as well. I've taken tours of manufacturing plants in Spokane and learned about their operations from their CEO's, toured a new affordable housing complex downtown, and participated in a ride along with a police office. One person described the experience to me as a crash-course in the Spokane community—the sort of thing it would take 10 or more years of active involvement to gain experience in. The purpose of this program is to develop a network of what they call “trustee leaders,” people connected to the various business, non-profit, and volunteer organizations in our community who can participate in building better and stronger community—developing citizen-leaders to make our community a better place together. I thought I'd write a bit this month about why I'm excited to participate in this experience, and also share some of what I've learned in the first few months.

Part of our commitment to the Transformation process is to seek ways to re-connect and to more deeply connect our congregation to the neighborhood and community in which God has planted us. This has been a bit of a challenge for us because, although we once we a largely neighborhood church, our folks are now from all over the Spokane area. On any given Sunday at Bethlehem, people have come from Cheney and Otis Orchards, from the south side of Spokane Valley and Newport, from Greenacres and just north of the Y on Division—and everywhere in between. And yet, God has drawn all of us to gather week after week in a little church building on Ray St in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood. For two years I (along with the Transformation team) have pondered how to wrap our minds around which community God is calling us to engage—and how. While deep in prayerful discernment of this last spring, I received an invitation to apply for “Leadership Spokane,” which I had never heard of before. As I looked into this organization and what they were about, I realized that this could be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Spokane community, its needs and gifts, and what sort of role Bethlehem might be called to play in God's dream for our area.

While I'm just getting my feet wet in this experience and just beginning to build the relationship with other participants—one common theme has jumped out at me that connects to our Transformation work. In the book “Living Lutheran” that we have used various times in the past few years (and that helped us in forming our guiding principles) the author, Dave Daubert, describes how the church finds itself faced with “discontinuous change.” It used to be that we could get our minds around how the world around us was going to change—it happened slowly and predictably and we could guess that in the future things would look pretty much like they do now, only better. But now, the world changes so often and so rapidly that it seems nearly chaotic—and we no longer can predict what will happen next and so the change is dis-continuous. The Christian church has realized that we have pretty much stayed put, resisting most change—but that the world has changed around us. Where the church once was the center of culture, family, and neighborhood life, we now (quite surprisingly) find ourselves on the edges of society—not quite sure how we got here or how to get back to where we were. How do we engage with a world that changes so quickly and so unpredictably? That is what our Transformation process is meant to help us figure out.

What I have realized in my experiences with Leadership Spokane, is that the church is not alone in this strange and precarious position in the midst of a rapidly changing world. Manufacturers in Spokane (and around the world) are seeking ways to make their production processes “lean” so that they can respond to constantly changing markets and conditions in the volatile marketplace. Media outlets are questioning how to reinvent themselves in the face of 24-7 news coverage on cable and the abundance of (free) news on the Internet. Non-profits are struggling with sagging donations and a dwindling volunteer force. “The way we've always done things” just isn't working anymore in any sector of our society—and everyone is struggling to figure out what is coming next—and how to make our community and our world a better place in the midst of all this chaos.

While its comforting to know that we aren't the only ones experiencing this, I'm starting to wonder if the Christian church might really be a resourse for the rest of society in navigating these difficult times. The Bible is full of stories of God's people struggling, wandering, feeling abandoned and confused—and of God's continued presence and guidance in the midst of all this chaos. The foundational story is the wandering of the people of Israel in the desert. Through no fault of their own, God's people were ejected from a bad but at least predictable situation in Egypt to wander for 40 years in search of the promised land. It got so bad that the people longed to be re-enslaved in Egypt—at least they knew what was coming next! But God was with them through their difficult wandering—through the trials, dangers, and chaos of the wilderness—and kept his promise to deliver them and fulfill his promises to them. And again and again this theme reoccurs in the Bible: with the people of Israel, with individuals, families, and communities, with the followers of Jesus, and with the church. God remains with us through our wilderness experiences and keeps his promises to us—even when all signs point to doom and disaster. The trick is to listen and respond to God's call for us—and to be ready for God to do something new with us and through us.

I would venture to guess that nearly every one of us lives within walking distance of a Christian church—and that this would be true in nearly every community in the United States. And I would also venture to guess that a majority of these Christian churches are struggling to make their way in a world that is very different from the one in which they were founded. And I think in our success oriented society we've come to take that struggle as a sign of divine judgment—that we must have done something wrong to fail to attract people to church like we once did. If only we'd get better at what we used to do so well, everything would be back to normal. But what if our struggle isn't a judgment, but an opportunity that God is giving us to make a difference in the lives of people and in our community? Because unlike the businesses, media, and secular non-profits—the Christian church has the resources, the strength, and the faith to weather the sort of chaos that we are in.

In the wilderness God's people learned that they could trust in God when everything else had failed them. They learned that they needed one another and the importance of community. They learned that though they may struggle, God will provide what they truly need. And they learned that even when it seems like God has abandoned them, that God is with them and that God keeps his promises. So valuable were these lessons that we've told them again and again, teaching them to our children and grandchildren, for thousands of years. What if our struggles as a church were to remind us of these important truths, and what if God intends for us to remind the world of these things as well? What a gift is our struggle! What a gift is our time in the wilderness! What a gift it is that God is giving us to share! What if the little struggling churches God has planted in every neighborhood are meant to witness to God's continuing presence in the midst of the wilderness? Our task then is figuring out how to take this gift (and all the others God has given us) and make this message of hope and faith ever more present in our families, neighborhood, and community. How will you do it? How will we do it together? Isn't Transformation fun?

Pastor Erik--Dec 2008

It's that time of year again when we start thinking about giving thanks and giving gifts. In a time of economic hardship we can get discouraged about how little it seems like we have, wondering how to pay our rising heat bills and stretch our Christmas dollar. Its so easy to let our bank accounts, our shrinking 401k portfolios, and the daily bad economic news distract us and keep us from remembering that God gives abundantly and generously, and calls us to do the same. When we are called by God to a mission, God gives us what we need to make that mission happen—and sometimes that means being creative and trusting that God will use what we have to offer for amazing purposes (read 1 Kings 17 for a great example of this). Whatever gifts we have, when offered wholly to God, can have incredible, unexpected results—and even can result in miracles.

The week I arrived in Spokane in 2006 and began this call at Bethlehem was the week of the Synod Assembly. At that assembly one of the speakers was talking about gifts, how we all have them, how we have more than we realize, and how God can use even what seems like the most insignificant gift for his purposes. He had all of us make a list of the gifts we have, talents, passions, money, time, etc. Then he had everyone list a gift that they had that they thought couldn't be used by God. So I wrote down “drinking coffee.” Now, most of you know that drinking coffee—the stronger the better—is one of my great joys (in fact, I just poured a fresh cup). But I had no idea how God could possibly use such a silly gift to his purposes, but I wrote it down and offered it up to him none the less.

When I came back to Spokane and began to explore the neighborhood around our congregation, I wandered into a place called “Black Tie Coffee Co.” I immediately noticed lots of information about Fair Trade Coffee and when I ordered a cup and was brought out a strong, dark, steaming brew I knew I was right at home. About once a week after that I have found my way up to Black Tie, often for prayer or to study for my sermon, or to meet with someone—always with this “drinking coffee” gift in the back of my mind. I came to find out that Tom, the owner of the shop, is a Christian and not only are talk about God and faith allowed there, he actually encourages it. I began to wonder if maybe God was going to use this silly gift after all.

Over the past two years (and many cups of coffee) Tom and I have dreamed about what God is up to in our neighborhood, I've talked about faith with the employees and customers at Black Tie, we passed along a gift of Bibles that we didn't need that were an answer to a youth group's prayer, we've had the folks at Black Tie at our Fair Trade events, and we've shared our building a few times with Tom's church for their Bible study group and worship. God is clearly at work.

So when I got a crazy idea near the end of summer that involved coffee, it was only natural that I take it to Tom at Black Tie. I'd been thinking about ways to connect to our neighbors, and the school a few blocks down seemed like a natural choice. “Hey Tom,” I said one day while he was making my coffee, “I've got this crazy idea to bring free coffee to all the teachers at Lincoln Heights Elementary on the first day of school. Could you cut me a deal on a couple of thermos pots of coffee?” Instead of a discount, Tom said that if I'd take the orders and handle the delivery, he'd make free espresso drinks to order for every teacher in the school. I was blown away with his generosity.

And so, early on the first day of school I headed out notebook in hand to every teacher in the school. They were blown away too. “Free?” they'd insist, “Whatever I want?” “Yep,” I'd say “from your friends at Bethlehem Lutheran and Black Tie Coffee. Have a great first day of school.” I have to tell you, taking free coffee to stressed out teachers was a whole lot of fun. And thanks to the help of the Bethlehem Quilters, everybody got their lattes and mochas piping hot. I left the school that morning giving thanks to God for such a fun and creative way to connect to our neighbors—and what a way to use this silly gift I'd offered.

Later that day I got the following email from one of the teachers: “When you came into my classroom this morning, I was just praying silently for God to help me. If everything could go wrong, it did this morning, yet by His grace and your kindness, my mind calmed down and the Holy Spirit was able to do its job! I got out of the way and enjoyed the delicious cup of coffee. Now mind you, the day was still hectic, but yet filled with joy and and a sense of love of kindness. Thank you Pastor and please thank the sweet ladies who helped you. What a wonderful gift you brought to our room.”

If you've ever experienced God using you (quite without your knowledge or intention) to work a miracle in somebody else's life you know its an amazing feeling. Who knew God could work such miracles in a simple cup of coffee? But it didn't stop there. Later that week I got a call from Tom saying he wants to do it again somewhere else—and my coffee ministry continues, who knows where it will lead. All this from being willing to offer up a silly, seemingly insignificant gift to God's purposes and paying attention to when the call came to put it to use.

What silly, seemingly insignificant gift do you have that you could offer up to God? Give it a shot and let me know what miracles God works in and through you.

Pastor Erik--November 2008

Last August, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met in Churchwide Assembly in Chicago. Among the various items for discussion was something called the “Book of Faith Initiative.” Its intent, in a nutshell, is to put before the church these questions: “We Lutherans take the Bible seriously, right? Well than don’t you think we all ought to read it more? And shouldn’t we all do this together?” The answer, as you might guess, was a resounding “Yes we should!” And our church went to work figuring out how we were going to encourage every synod, every congregation, every disciple of Jesus to dig in once again to the Bible, our Book of Faith.

One of the ways our wider church is helping us do this is through the publications of resources for Bible study, the first of which we have been using for our Adult Education class here at Bethlehem this fall. It’s called “Opening the Book of Faith” and its purpose is to get us started on this renewed journey into God’s Word for us. This is only the beginning of this journey, we will continue to use the Book of Faith resources as they come out (next is “Rediscovering the Book of Faith”) and very likely will have other places and groups using the series so that more and more of us can get on board. One of the taglines of the Book of Faith initiative is “Open Scripture. Join the Conversation.” I hope that all of us will.

There is another tagline that some folks at Bethlehem have asked questions about: “The language of scripture is our first language of faith.” This is not a call for all of us to suddenly become Hebrew and Greek scholars, but to deeply learn the “language” of the stories of the Bible, how God has acted in the lives of God’s people throughout time and history, and to learn to “hear” and “speak” this language in our daily lives. As the leaders’ material puts it “The language of the Bible becomes our language. It shapes how we think and speak about God, about the world, and about ourselves. We become renewed, enlivened, and empowered as the language of Scripture forms our hearts, our minds, our community conversation, and our commitments.”

If this is all a bit confusing, how about a story. My mom wears a silver bracelet with a Native American image of a whale on it. If you ask her about it, she will tell you the story of Jonah and the whale (well, in the Bible it says “big fish” but that ruins this story, so lets stick with whale). Jonah, if you recall, was told by God to go to the town of Nineveh and preach to the people there. Jonah didn’t listen, and embarked on a wild journey to avoid God’s call for him. He ended up on a ship in a storm, was thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale. Finally Jonah did what God asked him to do (though he was grumpy about it) and the city of Nineveh was saved.

But why, you would likely ask her, do you have a whale bracelet? Then she’ll tell you about how she was sitting in church one Sunday feeling overwhelmed with all of the demands on her time, longing for a sense of balance, and she heard again the story of Jonah. But as she listened, the call from God became not just a call for Jonah, but also for her. And the call from God was not to go to Nineveh, but to simplify and find some balance in her life. However, the final message she heard from God was the same: “Do what I say or I’ll send a whale to swallow you up!”

Fast forward a few months, and she and my dad are in London at the British Natural History Museum. When she walked into the room with a full size whale (bones and skin) hanging from the ceiling she involuntarily jumped back. Her heart started to beat fast and she thought. "Yikes, God, so you really mean it!" Thankfully, the whale did not come crashing to the ground as she feared. From that moment of awakening, however, my mom started making some changes in her life. She now wears her whale bracelet every day and thinks of it as a tangible reminder to focus on balance and try to listen to what God is calling her to do and not what she has put on her own to-do list.

So can you see how the “language” of the story of Jonah from the Bible became the “language of faith” for my mom? She knew this story deep down, from when she was a child—but that Sunday heard it in a new way for her. And then, months later, the story gives the occasion for a flash of insight, and she sees her life through the lens of Jonah and the whale. Because that story, in the “first language” of the scriptures, was part of my mom’s story, God was able to use it to work a miracle in her life. And now she (quite literally) keeps that story with her every day and it shapes the decisions she makes moment to moment. This is how the Bible is supposed to work in our lives. God breathes new life into stories written thousands of years ago so they can become alive again in our hearing, and shape our lives to be part of the one great story, God’s story. That’s what our “Book of Faith” is for. I do hope you’ll join in the fun.