Last week I had one of THOSE kinds of days - several times in a row. Hard. Frustrating and discouraging. I was carrying inside me a knot, tightly wound of several conflicts and situations of sadness which I could not seem to let go of. One evening I sat down to begin writing my "annual report" - something that feels administrative and dreadful at the beginning, so I inevitably put it off to the last minute. But once I began, I spent a couple of hours swimming in memory and thankfulness, marveling at God's faithfulness as I reflected back on the year in our life together at LNPC.
At the end of the night, when I stood and stretched and closed my laptop, I was astonished at how different I felt. The anxiety I had been gripping had been completely released, and in its place was gratitude. With joy and peace welling up inside me, I opened back up the computer and posted on Facebook, "Gratitude is a mood-altering substance."
I am so grateful for this little church community of fearless love and compassionate hope. And I'm grateful for the chance to keep living together in the unfolding story of God's grace.
I am so grateful for this little church community of fearless love and compassionate hope. And I'm grateful for the chance to keep living together in the unfolding story of God's grace.
The following is my "2012 annual report" for LNPC - (names have cut for privacy).
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| LNPC Prayer Candles |
I pray…that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we
are being rooted and grounded in love. (from
Ephesians 3:17)
Once upon a time there was
this kind and courageous little group of believers, this expression of the
Church of Jesus Christ in one time and place, in whom Christ dwelled, and who
were joyfully being rooted and grounded in love. And as they moved through their world in ordinary ways,
their lives were part of the Story of God. When I reflect on 2012 the theme that comes immediately to
mind is that of Story – God’s Story in our stories.
Our lives are sacred story. Being Church is a gift.
Session gathered in January on
our annual retreat and began sharing with one another some stories of our
faith. For some faith was a
lifelong, unquestioned stability. For others it was ups and downs, doubts and
trusting, hope and despair beautifully woven. For some it was experienced in concrete caring for each
other, with not a lot of clarity about God, and for others it was personal, private
and holy. I was struck by the amazing
thing it is to be church – where all these expressions and explorations of
faith in Christ deepen and grow by complimenting one another and giving window
into how God moves in our lives. Jesus
Christ meets us as we meet one another, and we continue to encounter Christ
anew as we live our faith together.
We are part of God’s Story. The biblical story is our story.
2012 continued our journey through the Old Testament, exploring the Story of God in the lives of the Joseph, Moses and the children of Israel, and getting to know the prophets. We spent Pentecost reliving the whole OT narrative, walking through symbols of our journey from Genesis to John the Baptist, and concluding with a group portrait of this prophetic community whose lives both proclaim the promises of God and cry out the world’s need for salvation.
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| The prophetic community on Pentecost |
During Lent, we focused on
The Lord’s Prayer and five different voices within our congregation preached, leading
us through the prayer, and culminating with Easter’s celebration of
Resurrection and life. This summer
our Saturday services were “home church”, sharing conversational worship and
hymn sings in the Gathering Room. We
spent the Fall in the book of Acts, exploring what it is to be church together,
as the people of Christ who are part of God’s Story.
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| The Lord's Prayer in a dozen languages |
Our Story is woven in with others’ stories. We honor the story of God in others’
lives.
In January, I began meeting
for monthly 24-hour retreats, with a small group of clergy through a grant from
Austin Seminary. These retreats
have been restorative and faith-deepening, and in October we gathered in
Austin, Texas for a four-day conference on storytelling and faith. Our gatherings are shaped around the themes
of belonging and identity in faith, and we have begun doing that through the
element of storytelling, as it blossoms in our congregations as well.
In March I had the
opportunity to preach in Bergen, Norway, and a few weeks later we welcomed the
N. family from Norway into our own worship, as our stories entwine with the
Body of Christ near and far. This
summer we worshipped together with Westminster Presbyterian Church one evening on
Sabbath-keeping in their summer worship series, and we celebrated our annual
outdoor Worship at the Falls in Minnehaha Park with friends and neighbors. We hosted our third annual Movie Camp
with kids from St. Joseph's Home for Children and Dean and Kirsten Seal, which Westminster Presbyterian
helps us to fund, and we co-sponsored our the third annual Transforming Conflict conference at Luther Seminary, co-led by our Parish Associate Theresa
Latini.
We partnered this year with
Dogwood Coffee Company, who imports coffee directly from small farmers (and
shares their stories!) and roasts and distributes it here in Minneapolis. They generously loaned us coffee
grinding and brewing equipment...and we are thrilled to be serving their
delicious and fresh-roasted coffee regularly now!
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| Lisa and Amy in conversation on retreat |
Our partnerships have broadened; we’ve connected with
other churches - sharing Ash Wednesday with Edgcumbe (EPC), and hanging out
with Humble Walk Lutheran Church for their monthly Theology Pub, and their Beer
and Hymns, (and Pastor Kara preached there once this year as well). In
November, thirteen women from LNPC joined six women from Humble Walk and six
women from Edgcumbe for a retreat on Story, at beautiful island Bay LakeCamp. We shared our own life
stories and received the stories of others, and celebrated the gift of living
with laughter and tears, good food and friends new and old.
Our partnership with Westminster
is a gift, and we are looking at more ways to live that out, including giving
some shape to the “Hospitality House” dream that took root in our imagination
last year. We are in conversation with a few churches, including Westminster,
about collaborating to make that a reality.
This year we danced our
second Christmas Razzle with a trombone quartet and the famous C. Mulled
Wine, and we collected diapers and toys for Tapestry Center for Families in our
neighborhood.
With the tangible prayer support
of session and the congregation, I began serving on an Administrative
Commission appointed by presbytery to a congregation seeking dismissal from our
denomination. Our focus on
hospitality as truly seeing and hearing one another is a blessing in this role,
and I feel I am doing this difficult work as an extension of the ministry of
love and care in Christ that our congregation lives out faithfully. Truly, I almost tangibly feel your
presence with me as a representative of love and acceptance of these brothers
and sisters in this difficult process.
And we have discovered that sharing stories of our faith each time we
meet is a way to begin our conversations at our common humanity and in the
grace of God which holds us all.
Our lives are part of God’s story unfolding in the
world. Praying draws us into
redemption and hope where God’s Spirit is hovering in invitation.
As praying people, we share with each other our
losses and joys each week in worship and by email and mail prayers, and uphold
one another with cards and rides and love, the commitment to stand with and for
each other through joy and struggle.
This extended beyond our community in powerful ways this year. Shared prayers resulted in Barb D. traveling to Kansas to move right into my sister’s house to help her with four
foster kids and her son while my sister was on bedrest, and again when the
household welcomed their sixth child and my nephew was born.
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| Duluth work crew! |
Because of shared prayers a group of
folks (including Alan and Aleta I., Sue G., Ani G.,
Lindsay H., Maggie, Andrew and Andy C., Ben V.and his friend
visiting from Florida, Jose), headed up to Duluth and did several days of
maintenance and repair work on Ani G.’s parents’ house, which they
could not rent out our sell because of flood damage, though they’d moved on to
new jobs in Nebraska.
When we pray, we feel the
Spirit prompting us also to join in what God is doing, and this year we joined
in. We welcomed the L.
family into the congregation just before they welcomed their newest member,
Sigrid. So we organized meals for
them, and also helped to bring meals to friends of the congregation, the
B.s, who welcomed twins, and the D.'s – with whom we rejoiced at the
birth of baby Wally. We celebrated with the J. family at the birth of Ben
and Rachelle’s daughter, Norah, and in late Spring we took turns bringing food
to the W/D's, when little Caroline kicked off the boom of new
babies in our corner of the world.
(She expressed her gurgling gratitude by playing our Lord Jesus Christ
refusing to lie down in the manger on Christmas Eve).
We also honored the lives of
those we’ve loved. A group
gathered with Lois B., sharing prayers and communion with her in the weeks
before she passed away, and we celebrated her life together at her memorial
service. In late November several
of us gathered at the bedside of Agnes W., for a ceremony of blessing and
prayer, declaring her baptism complete, and sharing songs and joy even in the
sorrow, with Lee and Agnes’s sister Treslyn, the family, and the lovely
community that cared for Agnes for seven years. We celebrated Agnes’ sacred life and grieved her passing at
her memorial service the following week.
We also grieved the sudden loss of Dave E. and continue to hold
Pat in prayer.
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| Confirmation bread bakers! |
Our Story is still being written. God is always moving in our lives.
In July the confirmation students went up to ARC Retreat Center for a retreat with Jeanne R., Andy R. and me, exploring
their own faith stories, playing games and baking bread together. They designed a worship service, which
they led for us the following week.
In August we Confirmed Maggie C. in a joyful ceremony remembering
her baptism and witnessing her faith, and we sent her off to college with our
blessings.
This summer we held a book club on Barbara Brown
Taylor’s An Altar in the World, and
over homemade peach pie we discussed spiritual disciplines in our everyday lives. Connections has continued to meet-
women from LNPC past and present and future, and friends of friends from time
to time as well, gathering monthly at Fireroast Mountain Cafe for coffee and
conversation. PW also met monthly with good conversation and great cake, to
chat to study the book of Revelation.
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| Telling the Story on Christmas Eve |
Our children’s Sunday school class has continued to
grow and deepen, and the kids explore each week the scriptures we share
together in worship. They share
with us what they are learning, as well as leading a prayer in worship that
they have prepared during Sunday school.
They continue to be our teachers and co-learners, and on Christmas Eve
we all told the story of God-with-us, the birth of Christ, through story and
song.
We were so blessed this year to celebrate the
milestones and callings of Lisa J. and Cyndi W. this year. Lisa and Peter shared life with us for
a time and moved with our blessing into the next chapter of their lives as Lisa
was called to pastor Zumbrota/Oranoco churches and they prepare to welcome
twins into their lives. Cyndi
W. became a Candidate for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament under our
care, and we sent her off to...Oregon with a meal of Cyndi favorites, a
framed portrait of glimpses of LNPC worship she had had helped to shape, and a
gift card to help her get settled in her new home, with our prayers, blessings
and love.
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We held a workshop on writing
our life stories during Advent led by one of our ArtSpace artists this year,
Marie Theilen, the highlight of which was hearing from others snippets of their
lives and seeing connections and places congruence with our own lives. God’s faithfulness takes infinite
forms!
In the Fall, each week
before the offering in worship, a different person shared why they are part of
LNPC and why they give money, and our stories were all different and all
meaningful. We’ve seen pledging
double since last year, as we take up the joy of being church with one another
and see ourselves in this communal story of faith.
Our story has inspired other
congregations and organizations this year. I led a day-long Sabbath retreat for
Twin Cities Volunteer Coordinators this Fall after they stumbled across our
congregation’s story online, and two different researchers (one in Canada!) studied
us for their dissertations/thesis on church and change. This year we were part of the Biblical
Preaching Project out of Luther Seminary, where we shared our experiences of
worship and preaching, and learned from the stories of other worshiping
communities in ways that strengthened our understanding of the biblical Story
and helped us live it out in our daily life.
I wrote an article for the
Association of Presbyterian Church Educators’ magazine, the Advocate, telling how we share life and
faith as a whole community, including the gifts and voices of all in our
community. I also wrote for Austin Seminary’s Communitas on
Storytelling as Sacrament, which, among other things, shared about our annual
“stories of Resurrection” service after Easter, in which three members of our
community share stories of resurrection and hope from their own lives, and told
of how our session uses storytelling with new members and one another as an entrance into this community of shared faith and doubt.
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| a walk in the woods at Clearwater Forest |
We are Stewards of the Story that began long before
us and continues long after we’re gone. The time we’ve been given is an
invitation to join in.
In 2012 the Presbyterian Women held their
80somethingth Bazaar to raise money for ministries in our local community, and
this Fall we elected two brand new first time elders and two brand new first
time deacons to begin serving in 2013.
The past continues as the future opens up before us.
The worship ministry team
took our annual retreat to plan for the year, spending time in prayer and
creative brainstorming, and a small group from the congregation spent a beautiful
weekend in October up at Clearwater Forest, learning and practicing Sabbath rest
together.
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| planting the garden |
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| Gardening |
We gardened this summer –
the children planted vegetables that were watered each day by our neighbor lady
Alice (and her little dog), and the veggies were eaten at a few of our Saturday
meals, and at various of our dinner tables as well. We’ve sought little ways and chances to live intentionally in
the story we’re in, to treasure the life to which we’ve been called.
We shared our 77th
Annual Ham and Cherry Pie Dinner, welcoming people from far and wide whose
stories are woven into the life and story of LNPC to eat what we eat every year
and initiate new people into this timeless church basement tradition.
Sabbath means we’ve been
intentionally practicing saying no, simplifying things and putting people
before programs this year, which has resulted in healthier volunteers and fewer
commitments. We canceled our summer VBS when we realized it was more than we
could do well, and are glad for opportunities to learn and practice balance
together, to live well the life and ministry to which we are called.
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| a group of picnickers at the 90th Anniversary |
In Worship we explore our
stories inside God’s own Story of wholeness and life.
In Hospitality we participate
in God’s radical welcome and honor each person’s story. And in the quiet of Sabbath rest
we live into the Story by slowing down to reconnect with what matters. We have done these things well in
2012.
Once upon a time there was this kind and courageous
little group of believers, this expression of the Church of Jesus Christ in one
time and place, in whom Christ dwelled, and who were joyfully being rooted and
grounded in love. And as we move
through our world in ordinary ways, our lives are part of the Story of
God.
What a story we are blessed to be
living!
Amen, and amen!
Rev. Kara K Root
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