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Faith Ministry Stories

Living the Resurrection

Posted by Pastor John Klawiter on

Last month, I wrote an obituary for the Lutefisk dinner at Faith Lutheran church. It was a lighter way to spread the news that, after 70 years, our congregation would no longer be hosting this community event that around 500 people would attend on the 2nd Tuesday of December.

As you can imagine, there was sadness and mourning at this decision. Many people have fond memories of this event from over the years.

However, most people understood. It was a wise decision from the hosts and they realized how daunting the task of preparing this meal, even one more time, would be. Many other churches have made this decision in recent years. Faith Lutheran is hardly unique in that.

But I was definitely surprised when, on a Sunday afternoon in November, I got a phone call from an unknown number.

Election season is over, so I knew it wasn’t a solicitation from a political party. I took my chances and answered it.

On the other end of the line was Joe Mazan, a reporter from KSTP channel 5. Our family watches this station and I’m familiar with his work—he likes to cover local news, often telling the stories that might get lost in the shuffle of breaking news and front page headlines.

Joe asked if I was available that afternoon for him to record a segment for later that night about the obituary I’d written. I couldn’t believe that he’d read it! I agreed to talk in person.

What I found from Joe was a genuine interest in the “why” and the “what next”. A lot of coverage about the church in media lately is about the demise or the death of religion. I wanted to make it clear that our church did not make this decision out of scarcity or fear. Instead, we are living the resurrection—the new life that we proclaim when we worship together. New ministry is rising out of our church.

Joe, to his credit, picked up on a few things—namely the Turkey Bingo that we hosted last week. What didn’t make it onto the air was the energy of our congregation to be in the community and our partnership with the new Hugo Family Shelter—indeed, the same shelter that I’d seen Joe do a segment for this past summer.

It’s not a coincidence that the event that we’ve turned our attention to, Turkey Bingo, designated all their proceeds to the Hugo Family Shelter.

Joe asked me questions about the future of “the church” and whether our cell phones or oversaturated schedules were to blame for a perceived demise of the church. I told him that what I see in our congregation is a strong desire to make church feel relevant with the distractions around us. Those distractions are our reality, but we want to see that we make a difference in our community and that our faith matters.

Being on the news helped spread the word about ending one tradition. Hopefully, the story also gave a positive glimpse into the ways that “the church” can talk about death leading to new life. It’s literally the very foundation our faith is based on.