Jay-Z famously had 99 of them and they often animate our actions as individuals and communities – problems. Problems dominate our media, our social change frameworks, and a lot of community engagement in the church. But the problem with problems is their tendency to persist, to evolve into new and evermore complex problems, and to…
Tag: ELCA
Our neighborhoods tell stories.
My wife and I just returned from a two week visit to Saxony, Germany for a few days of vacation and a week-long conference with representatives of international partner churches. It was an incredible visit full of rest and exploration, new connections and relationships, and curiosity about how churches living thousands of miles away from…
Jesus goes ahead of us.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! This Easter, I was struck by all the narratives in Scripture of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. In Matthew’s Gospel, the angels at the tomb let the disciples know that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee. Mark’s Gospel ends similarly, though in the longer ending Jesus appears on…
Bonhoeffer’s Community in Christ
If you talk with me for more than a few minutes, you’re likely to learn that Dietrich Bonhoeffer has had a significant influence on me and my work in the church. In particular, his book “Life Together”, which he wrote after his time living in community with seminarians as a part of the Confessing Church,…
Supporting community-based development and resisting gentrification.
Kristin and I have lived in Northeast Minneapolis for over a decade, and in that time, like many of our neighbors, we’ve observed the ways that our neighborhood and many across Minneapolis have increasingly gentrified. Minneapolis is a great city, and folks want to live here, but unfortunately as neighborhoods are redeveloped many long-time neighbors…
Gathering at community wells
This past Sunday’s Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary (John 4:5-42) sits firmly in my top five stories in the Bible. Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well has it all; deep theological tangles, historical symbolism, the crossing of societally imposed boundaries, and an incredible story of conversion and evangelism. Though not named…
Making our prayers particular.
The congregations I’m working with in my day job at the Minneapolis Area Synod have been recently exploring ways in to incorporate the neighbor in worship. For churches, worship is the central practice of community life and the language, rituals, stories, and symbols we center there form and undergird a community’s culture. So finding ways…
Snow can bring neighbors together.
If you’ve lived in Minnesota for any amount of time, you know that neighbors and snow removal are intimately connected. Following a big snow, like the one we experienced last week, it is not uncommon in many neighborhoods to find neighbors shoveling or snow-blowing one another’s sidewalks and driveways, extricating vehicles from the piles of…
Start with a conversation.
The amount of time I’ve had the opportunity to spend with faith communities has convinced me that churches are eager to connect with their neighbors. There is a deep and profound desire to feel connected, and sadness that the disconnect has become so acute. Churches remember when they felt like an extension and essential association…
We already have what we need.
There is a constant question within the church about how to practice Christian community well. What does it mean to follow Jesus in this time and in this place? What does it mean to speak a word of God’s freedom in this culture and this moment in human history? The work of the church is…