An ode to the Nordic and Celtic Services at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota

This post was put on a blog about worship at Pilgrim. Quite an extraordinary post.

Ode to the Nordic and Celtic Services at Pilgrim Lutheran Church

Why I love Pilgrim Lutheran

Why I love Pilgrim Lutheran. It had been a few weeks since I’d taken my 7-month-old daughter Ella to Sunday service. (She’s a very good, happy baby but she’s a bit chatty and likes to sing along wtih the sermons!) I did take her this week. As we left last week’s service, Pastor Wayne greeted Ella. He touched her hand, gave her a little kiss on her head and said to her,” We’ve missed you.” It was so sweet and so sincere it just made my heart sing. I love this church and all the people who make it so inviting, so warm and so loving. Thank you Pastor Wayne for making our day!

Evangelism II

 

Shortly after I joined Pilgrim, Pastor Carol called me.  She invited me to become a member of the evangelism committee.  “You’d be perfect for it,” she said.  Evangelism, she said, was about welcoming people into Pilgrim.  I mulled this over, relieved.  Evangelism did not require me to sweet talk people into converting to my form of Christianity.  I decided to try out evangelism. 

 

One of our activities was organizing dinners for new members.  We had several my first year on the evangelism committee.  One was held at my house.  We had a great turnout, thirty people on a Monday evening.  Before we began to eat, Pastor Wayne led us in a prayer.  I had been away from church for so long, I had forgotten about this ritual.  Maybe this was good; maybe it allowed me to experience community prayer with a new heart.  That evening, I was amazed that a group of people, many of whom I did not know, were doing that most intimate act – prayer – together in my home.  Surely, some of the goodness of this community would linger in this room after they left. 

 

We had a great meal.  I met new members, and got to know old members; after all, I was still new myself. 

 

But not so new that I didn’t already have an uncomfortable history with one of the guests. 

 

At the end of the evening, after most people had left, I walked into my living room and saw a member with whom I’d had a spat.  It had been a small incident weeks earlier that had ended a meeting and remained unresolved.  I looked at this fellow pilgrim sitting on my couch, petting my cat and realized my heart was open, calm, loving.  I was surprised; I was relieved; I was amazed.  This was so much better than being my usual self.  Something had happened that evening in that community of pilgrims that had lifted me out of my fears and defensiveness. 

 

First lesson for someone newly returned to the chuch:  prayer in community works. 

Reva Rasmussen, Deacon of Evangelism

 

 

 

 

Pilgrim Church Subject of Article in The Lutheran

Here’s a link to an article which appeared in The Lutheran about Pilgrim Church

“Sweet Silence”

Evangelism I

From 1998 to 2001, I taught English in China where the Christians drove me crazy. Not because of what they said to me, but because of what they said about me. They told my friend, a convert from Islam, that I was not a Christian. “How do they know?” I demanded. “They’re never asked me; we’ve never discussed religion.”

“They say because you don’t go to church,” she explained. “They know everyone who goes to church and you don’t go.”

It was China, a place of few churches; they would know.

My friend, the convert, explained, “They told me don’t be your friend, you’re not a Christian. They say I need Christian friends now I am a Christian. I told them you go to church as a little girl and you pray, but they say you’re not a Christian if you don’t go to church.”

Their assertion angered me. Who were they to decide? I was raised Lutheran and confirmed Lutheran. Even if I was a prodigal daughter, Jesus taught I belonged. I was appalled at their arrogance.

I admit that I, myself, was not sure if I was a Christian. However, this was an identity between me and God and I was secure in that relationship. Certainly, I was a cultural Christian, but I couldn’t say beyond that what Christianity meant to me. I was sure that God was too big for containment in one religion.

Not only was I upset that the missionaries presumed to know something about me and my relationship with God that I did not know. Also, I was furious with the missionaries for spreading a narrow-minded exclusionary interpretation of Christianity among the Chinese people who had already been harmed by a narrow-minded totalitarian government.

I came back from China to a new presidency that combined government and religion and defined Christianity in the narrowest form. I came back from immersion in another culture in search of my own people. I came back needing to understand my roots.

I found Pilgrim Lutheran of St. Paul when I attended a Scandinavian evening service on a Sunday. There is nothing like listening to Ruth MacKenzie improvise herding calls to feel called back to home. The following Sunday, I attended a morning service at Pilgrim Lutheran. I liked the service, so I stayed for a new member meeting.

Whereas God cannot be contained, I can be contained, but I don’t like it. When I was asked to introduce myself, I announced I was a member of a Buddhist meditation center and I planned to continue that membership. The pastor nodded. She had heard me; she was not going to limit me. I had found my church home.

Reva Rasmussen

Evangelism Committee

This is a discussion area, where the Evangelism Committee can post messages for others to see and where they can stay in touch with each other.