HEADWATERS OF THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI

Today I did something I never expected to do while on sabbatical. Sandi brought me to Lake Itasca, a beautiful state park in northern Minnesota where I was able to see and even stand in the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the place where the mighty river begins its 2552 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

What is truly amazing is that the river at this point is just 12 feet wide and a few inches deep. It's hard to imagine that such a mighty river could begin in such a simple setting. I have seen this river many times, in several different places-- the Twin Cities, St. Louis, and New Orleans-- and I realize how important this mighty river has been to our nation over the centuries since it served as the western border of the United States. It has had and it continues to have a tremendous impact on our country's life.

Visiting that place and standing in the water touched me deeply spiritually. It reminded me of how great outcomes often come from very humble beginnings, and it encouraged me to renew my commitment to developing the "total ministry" work at our congregation back home.

So often we just cannot see the importance of what we do as servants of God. When we are called by God to share our gifts in the ministry of the gospel, we may ask ourselves "What is the value of doing that? What difference will it make?"  Our efforts seem so small and often inconsequential.

 The truth is that most of the things we may do to serve God by serving others are very much like my experience at the headwaters of the Mississippi. We can only see their humble beginning, and it is impossible to imagine what their final outcome will be. Someone standing in that shallow creek in Lake Itasca Park might never recognize the importance of that stream. But knowing what its final destination really is, we can be thankful and give God the best we have offer.

A SUMMER TO REMEMBER

One of my favorite jokes about Minnesota, the state where I lived through two winters with temps around 40 below, goes like this: "I was in Minnesota in June, the day it was summer that year." After this brief visit I think I will not tell that joke anymore.

But now I can tell about what it was like to live by myself in a seminary dorm for two nights at 80+ degrees, with no power, no hot water, and, of course, no air conditioning. The news reported that over a half million customers were without power. It was the worst thunderstorm on record in the history of the Twin Cities, and it will take five days before power is totally restored.

People here wonder what hurricanes are like back east . . .

Fortunately for me, I rented a car at the airport. That enabled me to get to a local mall outside the storm track where there was power. I joined dozens of people waiting for tables at "Bakers Square," a wonderful local pie restaurant that serves other meals as well. After 25 minutes I got a table which I shared with a young engineer from Iowa with whom I had been talking while on the waiting line. 

It was a good visit. I shared some of what I was doing on sabbatical, and I learned about him and his work. When he asked me what made me decide to become a pastor, I shared some of my experience. That opened a door for him to share about his faith journey as well, and it was an encouraging story.

After the meal I took a photo for my sabbatical album and we bid farewell. That meal made my day.

Later on I went to a movie and had dinner by myself and returned for my final night at the dorm.

Sunday morning was much better. It started out with a clap of thunder at 6 a.m., but by the time I was fully packed up and ready to check out, the rain subsided. I returned to Bakers Square for breakfast, and there was no waiting line this time.

I went on to the Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Minneapolis and arrived in time to find a parking spot. The early service was letting out as I neared the entrance, and I was greeted by Bishop Bruce Caldwell (former bishop of Wyoming) with whom I had made arrangements to meet after the 10:30 service. He recalled my contact and invited me to visit with him between the services in his office.

I learned a lot which I won't share here, and after that I went to the service where the two men I met with at Luther Seminary on Friday were ordained as deacons as part of the cathedral's new Shared Ministry Team. Two other team members were ordained as priests and one was commissioned as a Pastoral Care Minister, bringing the team to five members.

I went on from there to Alexandria where I stayed last night. The swimming pool was open, and the restaurant had no waiting line. I slept well in an air-conditioned room.

My only disappointment here is that I still haven't met any Egyptians. . . but there's still hope --  I haven't gone for breakfast yet.

ST. PAUL SUMMER

I lived here in the Twin Cities over 40 years ago while I was going to seminary and Linda was in Graduate School at the U of Minnesota. We were here during those winters when the temp was actually 40 below when heading out to class. But we never lived here during the summer.

Someone told me today that they had snow just a month ago in Minnesota, but if they did, it is long gone now. Going on 9 p.m. it is still almost 90 degrees out there, and even though the humidity is just 38%, it does feel like summer has come here.

I have the fan on and the windows are open, but just typing on my Ipad makes me sweat a bit.

Tomorrow I will visit with some folks at Olsen Center, a beautiful building built long after I was finished with my studies. I bet they have AC over there.

In the meantime I will try to get some rest. 9 p.m.here is 10 p.m. at home, and I'm often in bed by now at home. Perhaps my Netflix subscription will work. Maybe I will watch some detective shows from England . . .Enough for now.

THE TOP 137

I have been trying to rest and relax from time to time during this "in-between week" of my sabbatical. The rainy and cold "spring-like" weather hasn't really helped, so I have tried to get some work done that will help me remember what I experienced on my sabbatical so far.

One of the activities I spent time on was simply sorting through the 145 pages of handwritten notes I have in my Livescribe Notebook and pulling out key items worthy of further reflection.

One exercise I engaged in was making a list of the specific activities that I heard are being done in congregations in the UK and the USA as a result of the efforts of shared ministry teams. In compiling this list I was careful to avoid duplicates, but sometimes similar names used in different places can create the impression that the activities are the same. At the end of this review of my hand-written notes and without listening to the 90 or so hours of recorded meetings and visits I had, I came up with a list of activities I would call the "Top 137."

The activities range from hosting community "tea-times" to offering members a "Foundations in Living God's Love" course to organizing toddler groups to providing trained bereavement visitors. Other activities that shared ministry team members take part in, such as reading lessons in services, preaching, etc. are not on the list.

I was tempted to cut-and-paste the list right here, but I want to save it for later. Besides, it is simply a list of what others are doing because they have developed collaborative ministry teams in their particular parishes, not a checklist of activities every congregation might want to organize.

My point here is simply this: sharing ministry is a way of "being church" that eventually brings about specific activities, not a "program" that churches can simply adopt and carry out.

My sabbatical journey is about 2/3 over now, and I am starting to think more about what comes next, after I return to my pastoral role in the congregation. I have a lot of exciting stories to share, but what excites me most is the idea that if we are willing to allow God's Spirit to move among us and lead us in the months ahead, we will see some incredible results. Some of these might look like they come from the "Top 137" list, but if we allow God to work through us, we will come up with a list all our own.

WORSHIP VISITS

One of the peculiar challenges of being at home during my sabbatical is figuring out where to worship on Sunday. I suppose that since I don't have to lead worship, I could just stay home on the Sundays when I am not away from home. After all, many church members choose that option quite regularly, even when they are not "on sabbatical."

But I saw the weekend as an opportunity to visit other churches, so I went to Trinity, Rocky Point for their Saturday night service, and then on Sunday I visited St. Cuthbert's Episcopal Church in Selden before finally visiting the 11:15 service at Hope.

I enjoyed every service, especially because they were all different from each other. Trinity's service was a low-key contemporary service led by Pastor Kolbo. He preached about Confirmation because they were having confirmation on Sunday at Trinity.

St. Cuthbert has not had its own priest for ten years, so their mass was led by Father John Madden, the former Archdeacon for the Diocese of Long Island. He is one of three retired priests who come to preside at the church week after week. Since someone welcomed me, I told her who I was, and I was formally welcomed during the mass by the congregation. Later on I spoke with their Senior Warden about Shared Ministry, and she was very excited because their Vestry was going to be discussing their discernment exercise this week and one of their goals for this year is to develop relationships with other churches. I invited them to send their children to our summer camps and our VBS and Drama Camp as well.

My visit to Hope was also very good. I got there just before the service began because I was coming from St. Cuthbert's. Pastor James Smith from Wagner College was presiding and preaching, and I was eager to welcome him to Hope since he grew up in Selden and graduated from Newfield High School with several of our younger church members.

On June 20 I will fly to Minneapolis-St. Paul where I will stay at Luther Seminary, meet with some people there and attend a celebration at St. Mark's (Episcopal) Cathedral on the 23rd before heading north to accompany Sandi Holmberg from the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota who will bring me to some Total Ministry parishes before I go to the Ministry Summit in Little Falls, MN. My final Sunday visit will be in Hastings, MN before flying home on June 30th.

I hope that everyone will make good use of these weekend worship visits to our church and benefit from the preachers who come to Hope, and I hope many will be around when I'm back on July 14th, the 40th anniversary of my first worship service as a pastor.

RECOVERY FROM SABBATICAL TRAVEL

On Sunday afternoon I arrived at the Sacramento airport to begin my journey home on Jet Blue via Long Beach, CA. These were the last two of seven flights that were needed to carry out Phase Two of my sabbatical travel.

I arrived at JFK around 5 a.m. and my son Tim picked me up at the Merrick train station and brought me home.

It has taken me three days to recover from the jet lags I've experienced, but I am hoping that I will be adequately rested so I can head out on my final journey, a 10-day trip to Minnesota, on June 20th. While I am there I will stay a few days at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, then go to Detroit Lakes (MN) for a few nights at the home of Sandi Holmberg and her husband, then to the Ministry Summit in Little Falls and finally ending in Hastings before flying home. I believe that it will be summer there in Minnesota while I am around.

I visited with the Peconic Conference pastors on Tuesday who were having their annual June Barbeque. Our newest pastor, Kevin O'Hara (Our Savior's, Patchogue) was there. The announcement of the retirement plans for our Dean, Pr. Bob Modr came out just that morning also, so I wanted to see him as well. On Wednesday I paid a visit to the Hope when picking up my grandson Collin from nursery school and I was glad that people not only recognized me but also knew that I had been away.

I am catching up on unpaid bills, and I plan to do some reading. I've already completed two books and am working on three others. My colleagues have urged me to write a book about what I am learning, so I will also probably start paging through the 141 pages of handwritten notes in my Livescribe notebook. I may even listen to some of the many hours of recordings I made at the places I visited.

I have many new ideas to share with our members at Hope as well. I am looking forward to working on them when I am back in the saddle again. Stay in touch.

A FIRST LOOK AT TOTAL MINISTRY

On Friday I spent the day at the headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California with Kay Rohde who is their Congregational Development officer.

Kay told me all about the history of Total Ministry in this diocese, and I learned that the term is used widely out here in the western states to describe the way congregations adapt their ministries to a new form which is centered around Christ's mission rather than around an ordained clergy person.

This is the first time I have actually heard the term "Total Ministry" used. In England and Iowa they speak about "Local Ministry," "Collaborative Ministry," "Shared Ministry," "Mutual Ministry," Ministry of the Baptised," and  even "Local Ministry Development." In Pittsburgh they speak of "Cooperative Ministry." Here they use the term developed originally by the bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, Stewart Zabriskie.

Total Ministry can be developed in congregations where there is an ordained priest serving the congregation or it can be implemented in congregations which have no ordained clergy leadership at all. In either case the emphasis is on developing an awareness of the fact that all of the members of the body are "ministers" by virtue of their baptism.

This is a radical understanding of ministry that makes many church members feel very uncomfortable. All of us are used to the model of church which places the ordained leader at the center of everything. In some cases the priest or pastor is actually expected to be "in charge" of the congregation they are supposed to "serve." The corollary to this understanding is the assumption that the "proper" role of the laity is to be passive "church attenders" who support the  ministry of the ordained with their offerings and with their "time and talents," but they still think of the clergy as the congregation's "minister."

How would a congregation be different if each member of the body really believed that they were also ministers and acted accordingly? How would that affect their attendance at worship or their participation in serious biblical and theological reflection? How would it affect the way each member lived their everyday lives at home, at work, and in the community?

I'll have a lot more to say about Total Ministry later. If you want to know more right now, check out my website at www.totalministry.net.

CONFIRMATION CALIFORNIA STYLE

After a bumpy ride along tornado alley from Des Moines to Sacramento via Dallas, Texas, I arrived as originally scheduled, picked up a black chevy Impala and found my way to the Holiday Inn Express. An hour or so later I was back in the car heading for a Confirmation Service at St Matthew's Episcopal Church.

The service brought together people from four churches to celebrate a baptism and about a dozen confirmations. It was a lot different from what we are used to at Hope. There were no robes, no carnations, and no procession of confirmands, and the confirmands included adults as well as a few young people.

Bishop Barry Beisner presided, as is the custom among Episcopalians. Lessons and liturgy included both English and Spanish texts, and the sermon focused on Saint Joan of Arc whose day it was who was burned at the stake (by the English, ironically) after inspiring soldiers to fight valiantly for France.

We sang several songs in English and Spanish, and there was a generally festive atmosphere in this multi-cultural, multi-church setting.