“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
 For there is still a vision for the appointed time.”

– Habakkuk 1:2, 2:2

Beloved of God,

For 21 months the re-Vision Task Force has been hard at work developing a Mission Vision and Strategic Plan that, if fully embraced, will help our congregation move forward with strength over the next five years. [You can read more specifics in the articles that follow below.]  As we move into the heart of the Fall schedule you’ll find throughout this October edition that we, as a congregation, have not been sitting on our hands waiting for the Task Force’s proposal to be completed!  On the contrary, we continue to pursue the mission to which God has been calling us over the past 80—soon to be 81—years.

We know very little about the personal story of the prophet Habakkuk, but we do know that he lived during a time in which threats from outside the nation (Babylon was at the height of its superpowers) and anxiety and injustice from within dominated the headlines.  Violence was ever present and pervasive. Shady dealings were par for the course.  The wealthiest took advantage of the poorest.  The nation was not living according to the core covenant pillars of loving God and neighbor.  Surely there are resonances to Habakkuk’s context in our own time.  In response to Habakkuk’s heartfelt plea the Lord directs Habakkuk to “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.”  The Lord assures the prophet: “There is still a vision for the appointed time.”  Friends, this is our appointed time.

The fresh articulation of our Mission Statement coming out of the Task Force’s work is this:

Called by grace through the Holy Spirit to be the Body of Christ,

we claim the power of God’s transforming love by cultivating faith,

walking hand-in-hand with neighbors,

and seeking just relationships with all people and all creation.

Note that it is GRACE mediated through the HOLY SPIRIT that grounds and animates this venture to which God has called us in baptism—to be the BODY OF CHRIST, a community of believers who CLAIM THE POWER of God’s transforming love not just for themselves but for the world God so loves, and who put that transforming power to work – CULTIVATING FAITH, WALKING HAND-IN-HAND WITH NEIGHBORS, and SEEKING JUST RELATIONSHIPS WITH ALL PEOPLE AND ALL CREATION.

Of course, ARTICULATING a mission vision is one thing; EMBODYING it is another.  Yet embodying is God’s whole venture in Jesus Christ—the WORD who became FLESH and pitched his tent among us.  God’s wide embrace in Jesus compels us to invite and welcome others to share in our life and mission, which is why we speak of the doors of our building swinging both ways—INWARD as we invite folks to join us on our mission in Christ, and OUTWARD as we go and serve the neighborhoods and community around us.

The specific language of our mission may change—as it must over time to attend to the challenges that each new decade brings.  But the core purpose remains.  Over the coming months each of us has the opportunity to discern what portion(s) of the mission plan we will help take on flesh and blood.  What elements of the renewed vision are calling to you?  How will you answer? 

With you on the Way, Pastor Erik

Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?

Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.

Richard Gillard, ELW 659

Beloved of God,

Holden Lake, a 5.5 mile hike from the Village

The two weeks I experienced at Holden Village in August were well spent.  From the get-go they were about learning, restoration, and relationships. I’m always struck by the fact that when I go there I can count crossing paths with folks whom I didn’t expect to see.  On my first evening, before I put head to pillow, I made this list of connections:  Kris—a friend who was part of the winter community with me in 1991; Jeff—a musician friend from Portland; Cindy—the spouse of a colleague I met when I started ministry in 1986; Joan—a now retired musician who our family had connected with on a previous Holden trip; Paul, a Seattle colleague who had visited Peace as a Pass the Hat speaker; Paul and Jana—a couple from Wisconsin who are friends with my brother Mark and his wife Miriam.  And that was just on day one!  When I returned later in the month with the whole family, there was a whole new set of people with significant connections waiting to be discovered.  What a gift!

With Paul and Jana Oman at Holden with one of Paul’s parable paintings.

One of the most significant connections was with Paul and Jana Oman.  Paul, an ELCA pastor and artist, left parish ministry in 2011 and has developed a unique ministry of painting scenes from the Bible live before congregations while at the same time he teaches about the subject.  It’s called Drawn to the Word.  As one of the presenters that week, Paul worked on large canvasses to paint several parables from Luke’s gospel while those of us who were present sat slack jawed as a new world of the text opened up before our eyes.  But it was Paul’s wife Jana with whom I first made a connection.  We were in the snack bar line waiting our turn for a Holden Scoop of ice cream when Jana heard my introduce myself to another person.  Afterward she asked me if I was related to Mark Kindem.  “Yes,” I told her, “Mark is one of my brothers.”  Jana went on to tell me how she and Paul had come to know Mark and his wife Miriam because of their connection to Mt Carmel, a family camp and retreat center in Western Minnesota.  Fun coincidence.  But it went deeper…

Some of you will recall that Mark, who is both a pastor and a pilot, was flying alone after midnight on April 29, 2024, only 10 minutes from his Bemidji home, when the engine suddenly stopped.  After trying standard procedures to get the plane started again, Mark realized he’d have to put it on the ground without power—a crash landing.  But before panic could take hold of him, he felt a presence surrounding him like a blanket, and a preternatural calm took over.  He looked left out the plane’s window and there, through a break in the clouds, were the lights of the town of Clearbrook.  He knew that town. It was there, he decided, he would go.  Mark doesn’t remember anything from that point on; doesn’t remember how he executed a perfect turn to line himself up to his new target; doesn’t remember how his landing gear caromed off the top of an industrial warehouse on the edge of town and then threaded its way below the adjacent powerlines and onto the highway; doesn’t remember crashing into the retaining wall or being life flighted to Fargo. 

Paul Oman painting of Mark Kindem’s plane, guided by Divine light.

Last summer at our family reunion Mark told the story of the crash.  And when he was done, he lifted up a painting that had been commissioned by his family unbeknownst to Mark.  The painting depicts that very moment when, miraculously, the plane skipped over the warehouse and under the powerlines, threading the needle and saving Mark’s life.  The artist of that painting, I now realized as I stood in the snack bar line, was Jana’s husband Paul.  My times at Holden served as a joyful and visceral reminder of how relationships are at the heart of our lives of faith!  The Spirit of Christ is ever drawing us closer to God and to one another. 

In this September Peace Notes you’ll find numerous opportunities for engaging with folks within and beyond our community, thus building up the body of Christ.  What gifts God brings to our lives!  What a joy to know and be known; to love and be loved!  With you on the Way, Pastor Erik