Spiritual Journey and Call

I’d like to share with you a little of my spiritual journey and my call to ministry.  It may help to explain my recent pursuit of ordination in the Covenant.

 I was raised in a Christian home.  My solid Lutheran heritage played an important part in my childhood identity.  My grandparents were Swedish immigrants.  When they settled in America they were part of a group responsible for establishing Swedlanda Evangelical Lutheran Church.

 

As a young child I was involved in the children’s ministry at the Evangelical Free Church in my hometown.  Through the influence of Godly neighbors from that church I came to know Jesus as my Savior. 

 During my high school years I was very involved with Youth for Christ.  Following college, many of my Youth for Christ mentors helped build my ministry skills and challenged me to pursue a call to ministry, side by side with them, in full time evangelism of youth.

 Following graduate school, Mark and I moved to Bemidji.  We began attending the Covenant Church and both felt like we had found HOME.  While studying about our denomination, in preparation for my ordination, I understood why we felt “AT HOME” in the Covenant.  My Augustana Lutheran roots, my exposure to the Free Church movement and my experience in evangelism all find significance in our Covenant historical roots.

During the past 20 years I have served the Bemidji Covenant Church through planning and leading worship.  I also serve as Chaplin at Oak Hills Christian College, where I have the opportunity to disciple and mentor young people as they develop as worship leaders.

 As a young woman beginning her ministry in the 70’s, I never imagined that 33 years later I would have this opportunity to become ordained.   Thanks for giving me the opportunity to continue to follow my call.

Pastor Holly

Home: A Safe Haven

Parents are responsible to love and care for their children.  This is a never ending responsibility, as children are being exposed to a toxic social environment.  Parents need to work hard at creating an atmosphere in the home that counters the pressures of the internet, pop culture and destructive images of beauty, wealth, sex and violence.  However, God does not leave parents floundering with this responsibility.  He has provided clear instruction in the Word on how to love and provide a safe haven for families. 

In Ephesians chapters five and six the Apostle Paul challenges husbands, wives, and children to follow the example of Christ in all relationships.  Paul explains what following the example of Christ would look like when applied to family relationships.  Husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the Church.  Jesus gave himself up for her.  Wives are to submit to their husbands as they submit to Christ and we must submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.  Children are to honor and obey their parents.  Paul also makes it clear that parents should not exasperate their kids.  Paul also says we are to love, feed, care unite, respect, train and instruct.   

 In May, the congregation was asked to think back to their growing-up experience, and to share one way in which their home was a safe haven.  These are just a few of the responses:

• “I was always welcome, and my friends were always welcome in my home.”
• “We spent a lot of time together.”
• “My parents loved the Lord.”
• “My parents worked out their differences.”
• “I never had to question my parents’ love for each other.”
• “I was allowed to learn from my mistakes.”
• “I could share openly with my parents.”
• “We ate meals together.”
• “We were always taken care of and had lots to eat even though we were poor.”
• “There was a lot of physical affection in my home.”
• “We were encouraged to use our imagination.”
• “We prayed together.”
• “My dad took me with him places.”
• “We went to church together.”
• “I always knew what to expect at home; we had a predictable routine.”
• “My home was a place to escape.”

 Everyone’s growing-up experience is different.  I hope that our homes are safe havens for all family members.  We can learn a lot from the Word and from each other to make sure that our homes are a safe haven! 

Pastor Doug

The Life Never Lived

I’ve heard it said that three out of four children of alcoholic parents will, in turn, abuse alcohol themselves. As a child, my step-father* was alcoholic and quite abusive in different ways. We lived in a mobile home in southern Louisiana at the time and life was hard. Work was tough to come by for him so the comforts of money were elusive for our family. When it was found, payday checks were often spent in the bar while my sister and I would wait in the truck. Eventually the pressures of life, poor choices, and the effects of alcoholism turned our home into a scary place.

But, God intervened.

He came alongside my mother in the form of a friend who helped her with the courage to get us out of that environment for the sake of health &  safety. She turned her heart over to Christ and pursued a new life in Him. Which, then, led me to do the same at 11 years old.

As I look back on my life and reflect on the above statistic, I find myself thankful for the powerful work of Christ. Because of His intervention, I am not who I would’ve been had He not entered into our hearts.

The power of the life-giving presence that I have experienced from His Spirit is expressed in Romans 8:11, my life verse: “And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirt, who lives in you.”

Hearing the stories of the guys of Minnesota Teen Challenge today in church reminds me of how truly thankful I am for the work of Christ in my life…grateful for the life I never lived.

* I’ve had three fathers: My birth father till  I was about 2; My 1st step-father, the one I speak of in this post, till I was 11; My 2nd step-father (the one I call my “Dad”) from when I was 13 till the present.

Parish Nursing

Parish Nursing demonstrates the compassionate, healing ministry of the church. One of the best Biblical supports for Parish Nursing is found in John 10:10 “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” If we want to have abundant life, we need to be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy. When we neglect one of these areas, our lives get out of balance and our quality of life suffers. Take some time out of your busy life and pray that God will show you what areas you need to work on to experience the joy and abundant life God has planned for you.

Heading for Sabbatical

As many of you know I am heading out on sabbatical soon.  The Lilly Endowment awarded Bemidji Evangelical Covenant Church a $45,000 grant that enables me to participate in the National Clergy Renewal Program.  Kathy and I will spend two months in Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Canada, as well as one month in the United States studying the ancient tradition of sacro desco or “sacred table.”

 

Growing up on a farm from the small town of New Richland, Minnesota, I never imagined I would find myself traveling to Italy and spending Holy Week in Rome and spending two months traveling Italy, Austria and Switzerland.  And yet, it was in my small hometown Covenant church that I came to understand community, through potlucks, casseroles and lime Jello salads.  It was through sitting at the table with people of so many ages that I came to understand my faith and experience and the unconditional love of Christ.  It is a desire to rediscover the importance of hospitality for today’s culture that takes Kathy and me on this sabbatical.  Building community and developing soul friends is such a need for today.

 

While on sabbatical, Kathy and I will dive into scriptures, enjoy foreign cuisine, visit friends, take in breathtaking scenery, and travel the footsteps of St. Benedict, and at this foreign table re-imagine hospitality.  This “sacred table” and its ability to unite are not only counter-cultural, but necessary.  I am looking forward to exploring how to bring us all to the “sacred table.”

 

As Kathy and I prepare to be away we ask for your prayers for us and for our kids.  As I prepare to leave, I leave you with a few quotes that have been speaking to me about this time away.  I hope they help you to better know how to pray for us, understand what a sabbatical is and what the role of Sabbath is in your life.

 

“A time apart.  I do not know a single pastor or pastoral leader whose heart does not in some measure thrill at the possibilities the phrase invokes.  Not just to get away from- though Lord knows there is a good bit of that- but to get away for and to.  Finally sabbatical, like Sabbath, is not about avoidance and escape but encounter and embrace.” William Brosend.

 

Time is valued in our culture, but not in itself.  Time is often seen as something to be filled up, blank spaces on the daily planner waiting for appointments.  Our importance as people is often judged by how full our time is, and how efficiently we schedule it.  Rarely do we think of time as a discipline, a way to connect with God.  According to Wayne Muller, “Sabbath is a revolutionary invitation to consider that the fruits of our labor may be found in the restful and unhurried harvest of time.  In time, we can taste the sweetness of peace, serenity, well being, and delight.”

 

“Time to reflect.  Time.  This is what clergy renewal is about.  To continue in ‘the heat of work’ our whole career is to rob ourselves and our congregations of the time we and they need to reflect on our lives and our call.  Here is where change begins.”  Melissa Bane Sevier